Blood and Ashes by Matt Hilton Read Free Book Online Page A

anyone who might travel up the service road. But it wasn’t exactly the middle of nowhere.
    ‘They’ll be found sooner or later,’ he said.
    ‘Let’s hope that it’s later then.’ I closed the door and sealed the men in their tomb. It would stop the wildlife from getting at them but wouldn’t deter the insects for long. ‘You OK with that, Don?’
    ‘Not really. I was a cop and I have to admit that this really goes against the grain.’
    ‘I hear you. But now you’re just a father looking out for his family.’
    ‘Exactly.’ Don rubbed his hands over his face, the bristles of his beard rasping against his palms. ‘That’s why I’ll keep this secret. If they were here to hurt my family, well, I’m glad that you killed the bastards.’
    But what if they weren’t?
    I mentally shook myself. Enough worrying about the identity of the two I’d killed; they were punk criminals and given the opportunity they would have killed me. They got what was coming to them. That was all I had to keep telling myself.
    We’d left my Audi a short stroll away on the main service trail and we walked back to it in silence. It gave us the opportunity to clear the fetid breath of decomposition from our lungs. I started the engine and threw the car into reverse. Driving back down the trail until I found an area flat enough to turn on, I then directed the Audi down towards the road.
    We had to wait until a yellow school bus had passed before nosing out on to the road and following in its wake, allowing enough space between the two vehicles that no one would recall anything about the car seen leaving the scene of the body dump. Sooner or later the corpses would be discovered and I didn’t want a group of school kids carrying tales to the cops. Kids noticed much more than they were given credit for.
    ‘I guess I’d best warn you,’ Don said.
    Concentrating on the road ahead, I merely flicked Don a glance.
    ‘Adrian isn’t happy that I’ve called you in.’
    I’m not happy either, I thought. ‘Why not?’
    ‘He has just lost his wife. He has come to terms with the police findings and won’t accept that her death was anything but a tragic accident. He might be a little . . . difficult.’
    ‘Yeah.’ Better and better. ‘When all comes to all, he’s the children’s father. If he doesn’t want me there I don’t see what I can do about that.’
    ‘ No . Whatever he says, he’s wrong. I won’t have my grandchildren put at risk.’
    ‘He’s their father, Don. He decides what’s best for them.’
    Don shook his head adamantly. ‘He doesn’t realise the enormity of the threat.’
    Maybe he does and has realised that you’re just a paranoid old man. But I had to bite down on that thought. If Don was misguided, then what did that make me?
    Don was chewing on the end of his moustache. His eyes were fixed on a spot only a couple of inches from the end of his nose. Suddenly he turned towards me, quivering in anger. ‘Apart from when I was a policeman, Adrian knows little about my past, what I did or what I was involved in. He doesn’t understand what kind of enemies I’ve made. And anyway, he does not have a final say on what happens to the children.’
    ‘I think you’ll find that he does.’
    ‘No, he doesn’t. I’ve asked you to look after my family and even he won’t be able to do anything about that.’
    ‘He’s their father, Don. He has every right in the world to tell me to sling my hook.’
    Don snorted. ‘Adrian has no say where Beth or Ryan is concerned. He was married to my daughter, yes, but he isn’t the kids’ biological father. They’re my blood , not his.’
    I was surprised by this announcement but didn’t let it show. If the truth were known, I’d already suspected that the children weren’t Adrian’s. Brook and Adrian were dark-haired, with green and brown eyes respectively. In the photographs dotting the living room of Don’s house, both kids were blond with the palest blue eyes I’d