The Echo Man

Richard Montanari

 

Published by William Heinemann 2011

2468 10 97531

Copyright © Richard Montanari 2011

Richard Montanari has asserted hisright under the Copyright, Designs

and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author ofthis work.

This book is a work of fiction. Namesand characters are the product of the

author's imagination and any resemblance to actualpersons, living or dead, is

entirelycoincidental.

This book is sold subject to thecondition that it shall not, by way of trade or

otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwisecirculated without the

publisher's priorconsent in any form of binding or cover other than that in

which it is publishedand without a similar condition, including this condition,

being imposed on thesubsequent purchaser.

First published in Great Britain in2011 by

William Heinemann

Random House, 20Vauxhall Bridge Road,

London SW1V 2SA

www.rbooks.co.uk

Addresses for companies within TheRandom House Group Limited can be

found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

The Random House Group Limited Reg. No.954009

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

HB ISBN 9780434018918

TPB ISBN 9780434018925

MAN

All seems evil until I

Sleepless would lie down and die.

ECHO

Lie down and die.

- William Butler Yeats

Man and the Echo

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

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

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

Chapter 94

Chapter 95

Chapter 96

Chapter 97

Chapter 98

Chapter 99

Chapter 100

Chapter 101

Chapter 102

Chapter 103

Chapter 104

Chapter 105

Chapter 106

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

PROLOGUE

    Forevery light there is shadow. For every sound, silence.

    Fromthe moment he got the call Detective Kevin Francis Byrne had a premonition thisnight would forever change his life, that he was headed to a place marked by aprofound evil, leaving only darkness in its wake.

    'Youready?'

    Byrneglanced at Jimmy. Detective Jimmy Purify, sitting in the passenger seat of thebashed and battered department-issue Ford, was just a few years older thanByrne, but something in the man's eyes held deep wisdom, a hard-won experiencethat transcended time spent on the job and spoke instead of time earned. They'dknown each other a long time, but this was their first full tour as partners.

    'I'mready,' Byrne said.

    Hewasn't.

    They gotout of the car and walked to the front entrance of the sprawling, well-tendedChestnut Hill mansion. Here, in this exclusive section of the northwest part ofthe city, there was history at every turn, a neighborhood designed at a timewhen Philadelphia was second only to London as the largest English-speakingcity in the world.

    Thefirst officer on the scene, a rookie named Timothy Meehan, stood inside thefoyer, cloistered by coats and hats and scarves perfumed with age, just beyondthe reach of the cold autumn wind cutting across the grounds.

    Byrnehad been in Officer Meehan's shoes a handful of years earlier and rememberedwell how he'd felt when detectives arrived, the tangle of envy and relief andadmiration. Chances were slight that Meehan would one day do the job Byrne wasabout to do. It took a certain breed to stay in the trenches, especially in acity like Philly, and most uniformed cops, at least the smart ones, moved on.

    Byrnesigned the crime-scene log and stepped into the warmth of the atrium, taking inthe sights, the sounds, the smells. He would never again enter this scene forthe first time, never again breathe an air so red with violence. Looking intothe kitchen, he saw a blood-splattered killing room, scarlet murals on pebbledwhite tile, the torn flesh of the victim jigsawed on the floor.

    WhileJimmy called for the medical examiner and crime-scene unit, Byrne walked to theend of the entrance hall. The officer standing there was a veteran patrolman, aman of fifty, a man content to live without ambition. At that moment Byrneenvied him. The cop nodded toward the room on the other side of the corridor.

    Andthat was when Kevin Byrne heard the music.

    Shesat in a chair on the opposite side of the room. The walls were covered with aforest-green silk; the floor with an exquisite burgundy Persian. The furniturewas sturdy, in the Queen Anne style. The air smelled of jasmine and leather.

    Byrneknew the room had been cleared, but he scanned every inch of it anyway. In onecorner stood an antique curio case with beveled glass doors, its shelvesarrayed with small porcelain figurines. In another corner leaned a beautifulcello. Candlelight shimmered on its golden surface.

    Thewoman was slender and elegant, in her late twenties. She had burnished russethair down to her shoulders, eyes the color of soft copper. She wore a longblack gown, sling-back heels, pearls. Her makeup was a bit garish - theatrical,some might say - but it flattered her delicate features, her lucent skin.

    WhenByrne stepped fully into the room the woman looked his way, as if she had beenexpecting him, as if he might be a guest for Thanksgiving dinner, somediscomfited cousin just in from Allentown or Ashtabula. But he was neither. Hewas there to arrest her.


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