Read The Doll's House: DI Helen Grace 3 for Free Online Page A

was something cold pressing against her stomach. She flicked a glance down. It was the end of a tape measure. He was measuring her.
    She tried to stay stock still, but her body was quivering with fear. He measured her hips, her shoulders, her chest. As the cold tape pressed against her nipples, another tear escaped, a sense of rising horror overwhelming her.
    He slipped the tape round her neck, pulling it tight.
    Then, satisfied, he stepped away.
    ‘You can get dressed.’
    Ruby gathered her pyjamas, tugging them on quickly and clumsily.
    ‘I have to go out now, but I won’t be long,’ he said, watching her change. ‘And because you’ve been cooperative, I’ve brought you a present.’
    He pulled something from his pocket and placed it on the table.
    An inhaler.
    Ruby took a step forward, then checked herself.
    ‘It’s yours now. Don’t make me take it away from you.’
    It was said with a smile but chilled Ruby to the core. It was obvious to her in that moment, as it should have been from the start, that this stranger now wielded the power of life or death over her.

17
    He was taller than she expected. On the phone he had sounded hesitant and lacking in stature. But the reality was very different. Daniel Briers was tall and handsome, with a confident stride and an easy manner. Dark hair, flecked with grey at the temples, framed an open countenance.
    ‘DI Helen Grace. Thanks for coming down so quickly.’
    ‘I just want to get this thing sorted. There must have been a mix-up with the serial numbers. Pippa was tweeting again this morning, so it’s hardly likely that –’
    ‘May I have a look?’
    They were heading out of Southampton train station towards Helen’s pool car. Daniel Briers handed her his phone. Helen read the tweet – a brief and anodyne comment about Sunday morning hangovers.
    ‘Have you actually spoken to her in the last two to three years?’ Helen asked, as she handed back the phone.
    Daniel paused, frowned, then said:
    ‘No, I haven’t.’
    He suddenly seemed less assured, the fatigue of a sleepless night catching up with him, eroding his optimism. ‘I tried many times, left countless messages, but …I don’t think she was ready to talk, so we had to rely on the occasional tweet and text. She seemed to be doing well in Southampton and … I was happy for her.’
    As they drove to the mortuary, Daniel filled her in on the cause of their estrangement. Helen could have guessed before he said anything: a new wife.
    Pippa’s mother had died of breast cancer when Pippa was six, sending the family into a spin for several years. But when Daniel had married again all seemed set fair. However, Pippa and his second wife did not get on. Kristy brought two children to the party from a previous marriage and to her mind, where they were constructive and polite, Pippa was hostile and unhelpful, unwilling to accept Kristy as her new mother. The situation had only worsened during Pippa’s teenage years and as soon as she was old enough to leave school and home, she did.
    ‘I tried to reason with her,’ Daniel explained, ‘but she just wanted away. So she dossed down with an old school friend who was at college in Portsmouth and eventually she moved to Southampton. Got a job, a flat, she was making a go of things. It broke my heart when she left, I missed her every day, but I hoped over time we could repair the damage. That I could encourage her to come home.’
    They parked in the mortuary car park and headed inside to see Jim Grieves. As soon as they stepped into the building, Daniel’s manner changed. He had been chatting sixteen to the dozen previously, but now heseemed affected by the cold sterility of the place. He was silent, focused, his body rigid. Helen had seen this many times before – the anxiety that affects all civilians when they are about to come face to face with a dead body for the first time.
    The pleasantries were kept to a minimum – there was no point delaying the