THE SHOCK OF BILL BEARD’S revelation about Estelle’s murder had taken a few minutes to fully sink in. The worst horror was that Estelle, who had been so full of life and hopes for the future should now be lying in the morgue, her delightful monkey face and sinuous body badly hacked about by some sadist. A sadist, moreover, as the increasingly self-pitying Rafferty told himself, who might as well have personally selected him as the fall-guy; with his false identity he fitted the frame as if it had been tailor-made
Reluctant to admit to paranoia along with his other troubles, Rafferty saw – through the grief he felt for Estelle and the anxiety he felt for himself – that he had to get a grip. It was essential he cover his tracks, not only for his own sake, but for his cousin’s sake also; aft
