I Know Who Did It (A Jack Nightingale Short Story)

By Stephen Leather

Jack Nightingale was always happier dealing with criminal cases or even divorce than he was with matters of the supernatural. So when a client came with a simple request to uncover the meaning behind her father’s last words, he was happy enough to take the case. Little did he know that the investigation would lead him to one of the vilest demons to ever walk through the gates of Hell.

I Know Who Did It is about 14,000 words, perfect if you have an hour to spare.

Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an ebook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country’s most successful ebook authors. He has sold more than a million eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Leather
• Release date: Aug 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310070426

Stephen Leather

Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan "Spider' Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country's most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. He has sold more than a million eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com

Book preview

I KNOW WHO DID IT

By Stephen Leather

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Published by:

Stephen Leather at Smashwords

Copyright © 2015 by Stephen Leather

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Jack Nightingale was always happier dealing with criminal cases or even divorce than he was with matters of the supernatural. So when a client came with a simple request to uncover the meaning behind her father’s last words, he was happy enough to take the case. Little did he know that the investigation would lead him to one of the vilest demons to ever walk through the gates of Hell. Jack Nightingale appears in the full-length novels Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade, Lastnight and San Francisco Night. He also appears in several short stories including Blood Bath, Cursed, Still Bleeding, Tracks and My Name Is Lydia. The Jack Nightingale time line is complex, this story is probably set between Nightshade and Lastnight.

The old man’s eyes were closed and his chest wasn’t moving. Mary Campbell wiped her eyes and looked over at the nurse. ‘Has he gone yet?’ she asked. She dabbed her eyes again.

‘Not yet,’ said the nurse. ‘You’ll know when it happens.’

‘Is he in any pain?’

The nurse shook her head. ‘None at all. The doctor has made sure of that.’

The man who was lying in the king-sized bed weighed barely more than thirty kilos, a quarter of what he’d weighed before the cancer had gripped him. It had moved quickly, as if making up for lost time, and in just three months it had reduced him to a shell. He had insisted on dying at home, and as J. Ramsay Campbell was a very wealthy man his wishes were respected. He had paid for round-the-clock nursing care and his doctor was always by his side within an hour of being called. But there had been no calls for the past few days because now it was just a matter of time. His morphine was supplied intravenously . For a while he had been able to adjust the amount of morphine himself but now the nurse did it for him. She had helped people die many times before and she knew exactly how much to increase the dosage by. She had learnt from experience that death was best not rushed.

Mary was J Ramsay Campbell’s daughter. Her mother – J Ramsay Campbell’s wife – spent most of the day sitting next to his bed but she was almost as old as he was and she needed her sleep. Mary caught what sleep she needed during the day and maintained her vigil throughout the night. Part of her knew that most people died at night and she wanted to be there when he passed away.

Mary barely thought of the dried husk as her father. The cancer had taken most of him away, all that was left was a shell. It was his face, just about, but his body had shrunk and she thought that she could, if she had to,