Blood of the Innocents by Chris Collett Read Free Book Online Page A

equation his mother’s eccentric mode of dress and outspoken views and any attempts of his to blend in hadn’t stood a chance. He and Anna had recently watched the video About a Boy and in the central character Mariner had seen shades of himself, from the bizarre dress code to the gross social ineptitude. He too had been a victim of hand-knitted pullovers and oversized home-made PE shorts. Even his lunches had been outside the norm, with sandwiches made from home-baked wholemeal bread at a time when white sliced Mother’s Pride was all the rage. It was during those years, at the age when conforming meant everything, that his relationship with his mother had begun to deteriorate.
    Mariner wondered how Yasmin fitted in here. Looking at the most recent school photo, displayed on the wall ahead of them, there weren’t many other brown faces. Did it mean that Yasmin had a point to prove, or was she made to feel like an outsider? The staff line-up was interesting too: the proportion of men to women more evenly balanced than he might have expected and Mariner wondered not for the first time what would make any man want to work in a school full of young girls, exposing himself to unattainable temptation.
    Unlike the displays at the Islamic school, here around the main photograph were displayed sketched portraits, drawn, the label announced, by members of the Year 12 A level art group: pencil sketches of body parts. The most striking one was of a male torso, from the waist to just below the chin, displaying a series of intricate tattoos on the biceps and shoulders. It was expertly drawn, the proportions just right.
    ‘Robbie Williams,’ said Millie, knowledgeably, at the same moment as the deputy head appeared. Small and trim, her powder-blue suit and bright turquoise and yellow blouse, offset by shoulder-length blond hair, Mrs Darrow stood out like an exotic bird amid the drab navy blues of the school uniforms. She apologised for keeping them waiting before setting off at a brisk, high-heeled pace along endless corridors, leading them through what seemed to be an impossible number of left turns. Occasionally, confident young women clomped by in heavy shoes and perilously short skirts, surreptitiously eyeing them up, perhaps thinking that they were parents, although Millie was way too young. Mariner took the opportunity of the lengthy trek to draw out Mrs Darrow’s opinion of Yasmin.
    ‘She’s a popular girl,’ was the somewhat trite reply. ‘She came to us from her parents’ Islamic school, which is a big leap, especially socially, but she seemed to take it absolutely in her stride.’
    ‘Her parents implied that she’s had a sheltered upbringing. ’
    ‘Relatively perhaps, but she’s had the opportunity to spread her wings here. In many ways Yasmin’s background is very different to some of the other girls, but because she’s friendly and outgoing, she gets along with people. She’s also not afraid to express her own opinions. Don’t be misled into thinking of Yasmin as some “poor little black girl”, Inspector.’
    ‘Would anyone particularly resent that, an Asian girl being clever and popular?’
    Mrs Darrow stopped and turned to face him. ‘We don’t tolerate racism or bullying in this school, if that’s what you’re implying.’
    ‘That’s not to say that it doesn’t go on.’ Mariner held her gaze. ‘I can’t imagine that there’s any school that doesn’t have a problem with bullying; some establishments are just more aware of it than others.’
    Mrs Darrow’s colour deepened before she walked on. ‘You’re right of course, Inspector, realistically it happens, but I’ve never known it to be an issue with Yasmin.’
    ‘You have a high reputation in the area,’ commented Millie.
    Had she been a bird, Mrs Darrow would at that point have preened her feathers. ‘Mm. We had an eighty-four per cent pass rate at A-C and a ninety-three per cent pass rate at A level last year. It put us into the