Val McDermid: A Darker Domain

This book is dedicated to the memory of Meg and Tom McCall, my maternal grandparents. They showed me love, they taught me about community, and they never forgot the shame of standing in line at a soup kitchen to feed their bairns. Thanks to them, I grew up loving the sea, the woods and the work of Agatha Christie. No small debt.

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Wednesday 23rd January 1985; Newton of Wemyss Wednesday 23rd January 1985; Newton of Wemyss The voice is soft, like the darkness that encloses them. ‘You ready?’ ‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’ ‘You’ve told her what to do?’ Words tumbling now, tripping over each other, a single stumble of sounds. ‘Don’t worry. She knows what’s what. She’s under no illusions about who’s going to carry the can if this goes wrong.’ Sharp words, sharp tone. ‘She’s not the one I’m worrying about.’ ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ ‘Nothing. It means nothing, all right? We’ve no choices. Not here. Not now. We just do what has to be done.’ The words have the hollow ring of bravado. It’s anybody’s guess what they’re hiding. ‘Come on, let’s get it done with.’ This is how it begins.

Wednesday 27th June 2007; Glenrothes

Tuesday 19th June 2007; Edinburgh

Wednesday 27th June 2007; Glenrothes

Thursday 21st June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Wednesday 27th June 2007; Glenrothes

Monday 25th June 2007; Edinburgh

Wednesday 27th June 2007; Glenrothes

Thursday 28th June 2007; Edinburgh

Monday 18th June 2007; Campora, Tuscany, Italy.

Thursday 28th June 2007; Edinburgh

Thursday 28th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Friday 14th December 1984; Newton of Wemyss

Thursday 28th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Friday 14th December 1984; Newton of Wemyss

Thursday 28th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Saturday 15th December 1984; Newton of Wemyss

Thursday 28th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Glenrothes

Rotheswell Castle

Wednesday 13th December 1978; Rotheswell Castle

Thursday 28th June 2007; Rotheswell Castle

Glenrothes

Kirkcaldy

Sunday 2nd December 1984; Wemyss Woods

Thursday 28th June 2007; Kirkcaldy

Friday 29th June 2007; Nottingham

Friday 14th December 1984

Friday 29th June 2007

Rotheswell Castle

Saturday 19th January 1985

Dysart, Fife

Friday 29th June 2007; Rotheswell Castle

Nottingham

Thursday 30th November 1984; Dysart

Friday 29th June 2007; Glenrothes

Saturday 30th June 2007; East Wemyss

Newton of Wemyss

Kirkcaldy

Rotheswell Castle

Monday 21st January 1985; Rotheswell Castle

Saturday 30th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Friday 23rd January 1987; Eilean Dearg

Saturday 30th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Wednesday 23rd January 1985; Rotheswell Castle

Saturday 30th June 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Sunday 1st July 2007; East Wemyss

Monday 2nd July 2007; Glenrothes

Campora, Tuscany

Peterhead, Scotland

Monday 21st January 1985; Kirkcaldy

Monday 2nd July 2007; Peterhead

Wednesday 23rd January 1985; Newton of Wemyss

Monday 2nd July 2007; Peterhead

Campora, Tuscany

East Wemyss, Fife

Campora, Tuscany

Kirkcaldy

Boscolata

East Wemyss

Tuesday 3rd July 2007; Glenrothes

San Gimignano

Coaltown of Wemyss

San Gimignano

Edinburgh

Campora

Wednesday 4th July 2007; East Wemyss

Rotheswell Castle

Glenrothes

Hoxton, London

Dundee

Siena

Glenrothes

Edinburgh Airport to Rotheswell Castle

Thursday 5th July 2007; Kirkcaldy

Sunday 14th August 1983; Newton of Wemyss

Thursday, 5th July 2007

Glenrothes

Rotheswell Castle

Kirkcaldy

Celadoria, near Greve in Chianti

Thursday 26th April 2007; Villa Totti, Tuscany

Thursday 5th July 2007; Celadoria, near Greve in Chianti

Kirkcaldy

Boscolata, Tuscany

Friday 6th July 2007; Kirkcaldy

A1, Firenze-Milano

Rotheswell Castle

Friday 13th July 2007; Glenrothes

Wednesday 18th July 2007

Thursday 19th July 2007; Newton of Wemyss

Keep Reading

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

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.

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperCollins Publishers 2008

Copyright © Val McDermid 2008

Val McDermid asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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 ebook 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 ebooks

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007243297

Ebook edition © SEPTEMBER 2008 ISBN: 9780007287451

Version: 2019-10-10

Wednesday 23rd January 1985; Newton of Wemyss

The voice is soft, like the darkness that encloses them. ‘You ready?’

‘As ready as I’ll ever be.’

‘You’ve told her what to do?’ Words tumbling now, tripping over each other, a single stumble of sounds.

‘Don’t worry. She knows what’s what. She’s under no illusions about who’s going to carry the can if this goes wrong.’ Sharp words, sharp tone. ‘She’s not the one I’m worrying about.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Nothing. It means nothing, all right? We’ve no choices. Not here. Not now. We just do what has to be done.’ The words have the hollow ring of bravado. It’s anybody’s guess what they’re hiding. ‘Come on, let’s get it done with.’

This is how it begins.

Wednesday 27th June 2007; Glenrothes

The young woman strode across the foyer, low heels striking a rhythmic tattoo on vinyl flooring dulled by the passage of thousands of feet. She looked like someone on a mission, the civilian clerk thought as she approached his desk. But then, most of them did. The crime prevention and public information posters that lined the walls were invariably wasted on them as they approached, lost in the slipstream of their determination.

She bore down on him, her mouth set in a firm line. Not bad looking, he thought. But like a lot of the women who pitched up here, she wasn’t exactly looking her best. She could have done with a bit more make-up, to make the most of those sparky blue eyes. And something more flattering than jeans and a hoodie. Dave Cruickshank assumed his fixed professional smile. ‘How can I help you?’ he said.