Page 7 of Cleanskin


  It’s been almost a year since the night Katie Farrell died. Her father’s due to stand trial in a few weeks. Funny how many rats came out of the woodwork to lay stuff at his door once they knew we had him bang to rights on something major.

  It’s been a long journey for all of us. Karen Wilson’s still adrift in grief and her kids look like lost souls. We kept Ben’s name clean and I think that’ll survive the trial. But I feel like I’ve paid a high price for that. After Ben, I can’t find it in me to trust anyone. Something I couldn’t hide from Stella. She left for Knoxville, Tennessee and the Body Farm a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can see, the only winners have been a bunch of charities that help homeless kids, drug addicts and women sold into sexual slavery.

  Like I said, when a child dies, everybody hurts. And some hurts can’t ever be healed.

  About the Author

  Cleanskin

  Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. She is now a full-time writer and divides her time between Cheshire and Northumberland.

  Her novels have won international acclaim and a number of awards. A Place of Execution won both the Anthony Award for best novel and the Los Angeles Times 2001 Book of the Year Award Mystery/Thriller, while The Mermaids Singing took the 1995 Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year.

  By the same author

  The Grave Tattoo

  The Distant Echo

  Killing the Shadows

  A Place of Execution

  Tony Hill novels

  Beneath the Bleeding

  The Torment of Others

  The Last Temptation

  The Wire in the Blood

  The Mermaids Singing

  Kate Brannigan novels

  Star Struck

  Blue Genes

  Clean Break

  Crack Down

  Kick Back

  Dead Beat

  Lindsay Gordon novels

  Booked for Murder

  Union Jack

  Final Edition

  Common Murder

  Report for Murder

  Non-fiction

  A Suitable Job for a Woman

  Copyright

  While some of the characters and incidents portrayed herein

  are based on historical events, this novel is entirely the work

  of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual

  persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely

  coincidental.

  HarperCollinsPublishers

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  Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  Copyright © Val McDermid 2006

  Val McDermid asserts the moral right to

  be identified as the author of this work

  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.

  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 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 eBooks.

  EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2008 ISBN:9780007290086

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  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

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  Val McDermid, Cleanskin

 


 

 
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