Jane Casey - The Cutting Place

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020

Copyright © Jane Casey 2020

Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020

Cover photographs © Mark Owen / Trevillion Images(woman in tunnel), Shutterstock.com(all other images)

Excerpt from The Killing Kind © Jane Casey 2021

Jane Casey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008149086

Ebook Edition © April 2020 ISBN: 9780008149109

Version: 2021-03-24

For Claire Graham

‘Ask yourself “Am I satisfied that I have done all I can?”’

from the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Violence (DASH 2009)

Risk Identification and Assessment Checklist for Police Staff Laura Richards, BSc, Msc, FRSA

Contents

Cover

Title Page THE CUTTING PLACE Jane Casey

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Two years earlier

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Two years earlier

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Two years earlier

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Two years earlier

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Two years earlier

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Two years earlier

Chapter 17

Two years earlier

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Now

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Now

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Keep Reading …

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Jane Casey

About the Publisher

For a few moments, it was the quietest place in London. The area under the footbridge was as hushed as a chapel while the black mortuary van was pulling away. A little group of us had gathered there to show our respects, photograph-still: uniformed officers, forensic investigators, a team from the Marine Police unit in their wetsuits, a pair of detectives and a small grey-haired woman in waterproofs and rubber boots standing to one side, her arms folded. Then the van disappeared from view and the picture dissolved into movement. Back to work. Life goes on.

The woman in waterproofs turned to me.

‘Is that it, then? Can I go?’

‘Not yet, if you don’t mind. I need to hear your account of what happened.’

Kim Weldon gave a deep, testy sigh. ‘I’ve been here for hours. I’ve told you everything I know already.’

She hadn’t told me, because I’d only been there for a few minutes, but I decided not to point that out. I was used to arriving at a crime scene last of all, the detective sergeant coming in with a notebook and a pen and an endless list of questions when everyone just wanted to go home. ‘I know it’s frustrating, Mrs Weldon, but we’ll try not to keep you for much longer. Do you need to let someone know you’re running late?’