The Second Sister: The exciting new psychological thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author Claire Kendal. Claire Kendal

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СКАЧАТЬ He is a model of good behaviour but you will still be the object of his fantasies. You wouldn’t want to imagine what they are.’

      ‘I can live with that.’

      ‘He has refused all visitor requests so far, but I am betting he will accept you.’

      ‘I hope you’re right.’

      ‘I hope I’m wrong. You will be entertainment. He will consider you a toy.’

      ‘I don’t care how he considers me.’

      ‘There’s no point in letting yourself be Thorne’s wet dream. There was a huge amount of evidence tying Thorne to those three women. There’s nothing physical to connect him to your sister.’

      ‘Really? Nothing? Those news stories last week saying there’d been phone calls between them are nothing? Those journalists were pretty specific. Phone calls are evidence.’

      ‘Since when do you believe that tabloid shit?’

      ‘There were reports that they were looking at Thorne for Miranda when he was first arrested. You know it. We asked the police back then but they wouldn’t admit anything. Now the idea is surfacing again, and with much more detail.’

      ‘It’s a slow news month.’

      ‘They’re saying—’

      ‘Journalists are saying, Ella. The police aren’t saying.’

      ‘Too right the police aren’t saying. The police never say anything. We learn more from tabloid newspapers than we do from them.’

      ‘There’s a big difference in those sources. You know that.’

      ‘The police have probably known all along that she talked to Thorne – we asked them eight years ago and they wouldn’t comment.’

      ‘You were a basket case eight years ago. Maybe they did confirm it and your dad didn’t tell you. Your parents were trying to protect you then. So was I.’

      ‘No way. My dad would never lie to me.’

      He considers this. ‘Probably true. Your mum would, not your dad.’

      ‘Anyway, Dad asked them again a few days ago and again he got silence from them. They won’t ever be straight with us.’

      ‘You’re not being fair.’

      ‘Do you think I want it to be true?’

      ‘Of course I don’t.’

      ‘The tabloids are saying she phoned Thorne from her landline a month before she vanished. That’s more precise than eight years ago. Eight years ago there were just general rumours. If she talked to Thorne, would the police know for sure?’ He doesn’t answer. ‘They have the phone records, don’t they?’ Again nothing. ‘Do you know if she spoke to him?’

      ‘How many times do I have to tell you? I have no information. I can tell you though that whatever those journalists are saying, the police aren’t behaving as if they think it’s a new breakthrough. They wouldn’t have returned your sister’s things if they thought the case was about to crack open. If there actually is evidence that she talked to Thorne, my guess is they’ve always known and decided it was irrelevant.’

      ‘Then why wouldn’t they admit it to us, if they knew? What would be the harm in telling us? Why is this new information coming out now?’ I tug his wrist in exasperation. ‘Ted! Can you please answer my questions?’

      ‘Not if I don’t know the answers.’

      ‘Do you think a journalist got hold of the phone records?’

      ‘Not possible.’

      ‘Well someone told a journalist something. Who else if not the police?’

      ‘Why now, Ella? Why this moment for this new story?’

      ‘Shouldn’t you and your buddies be figuring that out?’

      ‘Not me.’

      ‘So you keep saying. Whatever the reason, it made me remember something else. A little while before she disappeared she told me she was looking for a carpenter to build bookshelves for her living room. It makes sense that she called Thorne.’ My voice is calmer than my pulse.

      ‘Then why wasn’t her body in his basement with the others?’

      ‘Even if Thorne didn’t take her, he may know something. Somebody may have bragged to him. These kinds of people do that.’

      ‘In movies, maybe. He’s clever. He doesn’t reveal anything he doesn’t want to.’

      ‘Not that clever. They still found the women.’

      ‘Okay. Let’s say for argument’s sake that she did talk to Thorne. That doesn’t mean he’s responsible for taking her. You accept that, don’t you? Never assume. If you really want to think about what happened to her, you need to be open-minded.’

      ‘You’re right. I need to remember that more. I might sleep better if I do.’

      ‘Good.’ He pulls me into his arms. ‘Don’t go. Don’t visit Thorne.’

      ‘I still need to try to talk to him, Ted.’

      ‘I don’t want you near him.’ I can feel him gulp into the top of my head. ‘I want to protect you. Why won’t you let me?’

      My anger has blown away. I disentangle myself from Ted as gently as I can. I touch his cheek lightly. ‘I need to be able to protect myself. You know that.’ Despite my speaking with what I thought was tenderness, he looks as if I have struck him.

      ‘It’s all I have ever wanted to do, protect you. Since the first time I saw you.’

      His words take me back twenty-six years, to the day we met.

      We were four years old and it was our first day of school. I fell in love with Ted during playtime for punching a boy who’d been teasing me about the birthmark on the underside of my chin.

      I stood beneath the climbing frame beside my brand-new friend Sadie, but she was slowly moving away to watch the excitement from a safe distance. I was covering my face with my hand, blinking back tears as the boy jeered at me, laughing with some of the others. ‘Look at the baby crying. Bet she still wears nappies.’

      ‘Leave her alone,’ Ted said. That was the first time I ever heard his voice. Even then it was calm but forceful, the policeman’s tone already there.

      But the bully boy didn’t leave me alone. ‘She’s a witch,’ the boy said. ‘It’s a witch’s mark.’ Looking back now, it was rather poetic for a child’s taunt. I later learned his father was some sort of writer, so maybe they talked like that all the time at home. But I didn’t think it was very poetic then. ‘Let’s see it again.’ The boy made a lunge towards me and I jumped back. ‘Take your hand away, witch.’

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