Two Evils: A DI Charlotte Savage Novel. Mark Sennen

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       Chapter Nine

       Friday again. I haven’t had much time this week as I was given extra homework on account of getting into a fight at school. Thank goodness it’s the weekend. When I mentioned this to Jason earlier, he shrugged. Something is bothering him. I know Father gave him the cane on Wednesday for some misdemeanour, but I don’t think that’s it. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s to do with Bentley.

       Bentley is Mother’s fancy man. The guy from the Home Office. Of course, Bentley isn’t his real name – it’s the make of car he drives, or rather his chauffeur drives the car while he sits in the back and does his paperwork. Bentley, you see, is a minister. Not a religious minister though, Bentley is a Minister of the Crown.

       The first time I saw him he jumped from his car and swept up the front steps with a number of aides in tow. The visit was routine, some kind of inspection, nothing much to worry Father though. Father keeps a tight ship and there’s rarely anything amiss.

       Lately though, Bentley’s been coming alone or with just his bodyguard and chauffeur, slipping down the lanes to the home under the cover of darkness. Sometimes I’m in bed and I hear the big car crunching across the gravel car park, the headlights sweeping the coastline as the car turns in. Upstairs footsteps pound on the floorboards as boys scamper from room to room, while downstairs there’s a banging of doors as staff jump to please him.

       Tonight I met him face-to-face for the first time. He arrived a little earlier than usual and when I came into the living room in our private apartment he was sitting in Father’s armchair, head down in a newspaper. As I entered, he looked up and asked me my name, almost as if knowing what to call me would give him some sort of hold over me. I shook my head and kept silent. As I stood there, Bentley smiled a lipless grin and nodded, as if accepting my right to challenge him. Then he returned to his newspaper.

       I’m back upstairs now, snuggled down under the covers with a torch to help me to write. A few minutes ago I heard the familiar sound of boys on the move. I wonder about Bentley. What’s he up to? Why does he come here?

       While Mother is in thrall to Bentley, with Father it’s different. Bentley has some kind of hold over him. It’s the only way I can explain their relationship. You see, my father isn’t a weak man, but Bentley walks all over him. He arrives whenever he likes, drinks my father’s whisky and does things with my mother I’d rather not think about. Father just takes it. I guess Bentley, being in the government, could close the home with a snap of his fingers. Perhaps he could even get Father in trouble, considering the kind of punishments used here at the Heights. One word from Bentley and Father would be facing unemployment or even prison.

       I’ve just looked at the clock and it’s late, nearly twelve. Bentley is still here. I peeked out from the curtains and the car is still out front. The chauffeur is sitting in the driver’s seat with the window open, smoking a cigarette. Bentley is somewhere downstairs and just what he’s up to I have no idea.

      The Shepherd jerks awake in the darkness. He holds himself still for a few moments until he has fully come to his senses. A dream, he thinks, it was only another dream.

      Lately there have been many dreams. The Shepherd has seen them as some sort of test. God wants to know he can stay strong. Only those with the resolve to serve Him through the darkest hours and the harshest pain can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

      ‘I have sinned,’ he says aloud into the grey air. ‘But if I repent I will be forgiven. If I carry out the tasks God has set me then Good will prevail. If I stay faithful until the Very End then He will reward me with Eternal Life.’

      He knows he won’t sleep now so he pulls himself from his bed and heads downstairs. He prepares breakfast which he eats in the kitchen while listening to the radio. The news is full of the missing kid from Plymouth and a body found in a railway tunnel. The tunnel is just a couple of miles from the barn, the location too close for comfort. The Shepherd wonders if this is another test or if God is trying to tell him something.

      He dismisses the idea and his mind turns from the boy in the tunnel to the other boy, the one who СКАЧАТЬ