Acid Row by Minette Walters Read Free Book Online

wonder she's so bloody skinny. She only gets fed when the tart gets back."
    A detective sergeant had asked Barry why he hadn't mentioned any of this to Amy's mother. Kimberley would have given him a dead arm, he said, or, worse, kept him out of the kitchen. Did Kimberley give Amy dead arms? He shrugged. Only once. After that, Amy took herself off every day. Why did Kimberley do it? Guiltily, he wriggled his massive shoulders. “Because Amy cried when we called her mother a cunt,” he admitted. “It got on Kimberley's nerves.”
    Their father, a fifty-year-old bus driver with a beer gut and a bad complexion, did his poor best to mend fences. Every so often he called to Laura through the kitchen door to say the police had brought more sandwiches as if food were the language of love. He seemed incapable of demonstrating any real affection, and the counsellor wondered when he had last taken any of them in his arms and given them a hug. He asked few questions about Amy more out of fear of the answers, she thought, than because he wasn't interested and preferred to rant about police wasting their time on speeding drivers when they ought to be tracking down paedophiles. If he had his way the bastards would be 'castrated and strung up with their dicks in their mouths' - a medieval punishment for heresy 'because perverts ought to feel pain when they die'. She asked him to keep his voice down, fearing the impact such statements would have on Laura Biddulph, but like his daughter he needed to make a noise in order to feel brave.
    A search of Amy's room compounded the problem for the police, as nothing appeared to be missing apart from the blue T-shirt and black leggings she was thought to be wearing. She was a tidy child who had a place for everything, and it was doubtful she had run away because everything she valued -teddy bear, favourite bracelet, velvet hair ribbons had been left behind. Even her money box, containing five pounds, and the little store of books hidden under her mattress. Why did she keep them there? the police asked her mother. To stop Kimberley trashing them out of spite, said Laura.
    Gregory had been interviewed very thoroughly. How long had Laura been living there? “Two months.” Where had he met her? "She travelled on his bus a, few times? Who made the first move? "Not him. He didn't think she'd, give him a, second glance? Who suggested she move in? "He couldn't remember. It cropped up in conversation one day? Was he surprised when she said yes? "Not really. They'd got to know each other pretty well by that time?
    How would he describe his relationship with Amy? "OK? How would he describe his relationship with his own children? “The same.” Had Amy ever travelled on his bus? "Once or twice with her mother? Who did he meet first, Laura or Amy? “Laura? Did he know Amy's father? ”No."
    Had Laura told him how and where she and Amy were living before? "Only that she'd been in an abusive relationship? Was he aware that Kimberley was bullying Amy? "No? Had he ever tried to comfort Amy?
    "He might have put his arm round her a couple of times? Did she like it? "She didn't say she didn't? Would he describe her as an attractive child? "She was a good little dancer? Did she dance for him often? "She danced for everyone ... She liked showing off? Had he ever made excuses to be alone with her? What the hell sort of question was that?
    Laura's answers confirmed Gregory's except in regard to his relationship with his children. “He can't stand them,” she replied.
    "He's afraid of Kimberley and he despises Barry for being a coward .. .
    but he's a coward himself, so I suppose it makes sense. He's always been very sweet to Amy. I think he feels sorry for her."
    She was being interviewed in the kitchen by the same inspector, DCI Tyler, who had questioned her six hours previously to elicit information about Amy's father. Now, better informed, he sat beside the counsellor at the table and asked rather more testing