The Bad Things: A gripping crime thriller full of twists and turns. Mary-Jane Riley

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ time.

      He was in the sitting room on his Playstation, swatting zombies. Malone was due round in a couple of hours.

      ‘Gus?’

      ‘Mmm?’

      ‘I’m just off out.’

      ‘Mmm.’

      ‘Malone’ll be here soon.’

      ‘What to— gotcha!’ She saw a splat of red on the television screen.

      ‘Not to babysit you, no. He’s come to see me, but I’m just off to interview someone for the magazine.’

      ‘Anyone good? Yesss.’ His fist punched the air. ‘More points.’

      She hesitated a little too long.

      Gus took his eyes off the undead. ‘Mum? You’re looking shifty. C’mon, who is it then?’

      Should she lie? Tell a half-truth? What? She sat on the arm of the chair. Tried to ruffle his hair. He jerked his head away. ‘Listen, Gus, it’s Jackie Wood.’

      He turned away, his eyes now glued to the screen. More splats of red, more zombies’ heads exploded.

      ‘Why?’ His voice was flat, his knuckles white where he gripped the games console.

      ‘I think it could be useful, helpful even.’

      ‘What are you going to ask her?’

      She shrugged. ‘You know, the obvious really.’

      He stared at the screen. Even the undead were motionless.

      At last he turned and looked at her, blinking slowly, coming out of zombie-land again. ‘You’ve got your coat on.’

      ‘Yes. Walking, saving petrol.’ Bloody hell, she could have bitten her tongue.

      He nodded. ‘So she’s nearby. Come back to the scene of the crime, as it were. How can she do that? How can she come and live here, of all places? Surely there should be some sort of law against it or something? I dunno. Anything?’

      ‘Gus—’

      ‘I know, I know, you can’t tell me. Confidentiality and all that. But I don’t reckon you’d make much of a detective.’

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘Didn’t take me long to suss out she’s come crawling back to town.’

      Alex attempted a laugh, but it sounded hollow. ‘Please don’t say anything, Gus. Part of my contract is that no one knows where she is.’ And she’d made a right fuck-up of that already.

      ‘What are you going to ask her?’

      She was on firmer ground now. ‘I’ll begin by asking about her time inside, you know, just to get her confidence. Nod sympathetically and all that. Ask about her childhood. How she met Martin Jessop. Draw her out, that’s the plan.’

      ‘Do you get to ask about, you know?’ He swallowed, his eyes darting around the room. Not for the first time she cursed the fact that her boy had grown up defined by the murder of his cousins. But she believed in telling the truth. What was the point in shielding him when he would find out another way? And probably in a badly thought-out muddled way from his mates.

      She gave a small smile. ‘I hope so.’

      Gus shuddered. ‘I can’t think of anything worse,’ he said, turning back to his game. ‘She doesn’t deserve to be out, free, does she?’

      Boom. Thud. Splat. Zombies started hitting the deck again.

      ‘She won her freedom, sweetheart.’

      ‘It was what? – quashed – isn’t that what they say? Doesn’t mean she’s innocent.’

      ‘That’s the way it works.’

      He sighed and turned to look at her. ‘Is this gonna make you even worse?’

      ‘Even worse? What do you mean?’

      ‘Come on, Mum. You know what I mean. You don’t let me have a life now. And if there’s some murderer roaming the streets—’

      ‘It’s only because I care and want to keep you safe. Anyway, the courts say she’s not a murderer.’

      ‘Mum. I’ve said this before. Harry was killed fifteen years ago. Fifteen, you know? And Millie? Who knows what happened to her, but it happened. A long time ago. It wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t yours.’

      Alex closed her eyes and let the guilt invade her body.

      ‘Mum? Mum? Are you listening to me?’

      She opened her eyes. ‘Yes, of course I am.’

      ‘No, you’re not.’ He turned back to the screen, disgust evident on his face. ‘You never do.’

      Alex looked at him. Did she have any idea what her own son was thinking or feeling? She saw more than the beginnings of fluff on his chin and wondered who was going to teach him to shave. Maybe he had already done it, guided by his friends. She ached for him inside and, for the first time, wondered at her wisdom in going it alone after she’d got pregnant. Not that she’d any choice, as the one-night-stand father hadn’t wanted to know. But still.

      His hands were busy with the controller. ‘Besides. Me and my mates think they should bring the death penalty back. For murderers of kids. They don’t deserve to live. Do they, Mum?’ Another zombie bit the dust.

      What should she say? Teenagers saw things in black and white – there was no grey or in-between in their world. But then, how could she disagree with him when she didn’t? For most of her life she had been vehemently against the death penalty, arguing that it was plain murder by the state, and that the sign of a civilized society was the way it treated criminals. But that was then. Fifteen years ago she changed and believed nothing short of hanging would have been good enough for Martin Jessop and the same for Jackie Wood, even though she was only found guilty of being an accessory. But the pair of them made the family go through a long and tortuous court case, which completely destabilized Sasha. There had been no rest for any of them; every day they had to live with what had happened.

      Now she hated her, Jackie Wood, more than him. That woman could have stopped Jessop. She could have not given him an alibi and saved them weeks of misery, of the police hunting for the bodies.

      But although Jessop was dead, the guilt was still alive in her. Her house. Her garden. Her fault.

      If Jackie Wood had any self-respect, any at all, she would reveal where Millie was buried.

      ‘Do you ever wonder what happened to Millie?’ Gus’s voice broke into her thoughts.

      She took his hand and squeezed it. ‘All the time.’

      ‘Ask her, Mum, won’t you?’

      She СКАЧАТЬ