Dead Pretty: The 5th DS McAvoy Novel (DS Aector McAvoy) by David Mark Read Free Book Online

known to you?’
    Reuben laughs a little. ‘They were known to everybody. They were a nuisance. I’d stuck up for them a couple of times when people told me what they were like. We’ve all been young, haven’t we? But they were trouble. One older lad and two seventeen-year-olds. Thought they were something special and loved to show off how tough they were. Somebody had obviously told them about Delphine’s brother and they thought it was okay to hurt her with that. I don’t understand that. Her brother’s death affected Delphine and me in a way I can’t even explain. They thought it was funny to taunt her over it. And when she did what I’d always taught her to do and stuck up for herself, they attacked her.’
    The interviewer nods and the screen fills with grainy CCTV footage, shot from the front of the pub. It shows Reuben Hollow walking calmly to where his daughter is cowering and taking her in his arms. Then the oldest lad throws a stone. It hits Delphine in the small of the back.
    And Reuben goes to work.
    ‘Mr Hollow, I am not a parent myself but I can understand the anger that must have gone through you in that moment. That being said, can you condone such violence?’
    Hollow has to bite back the laugh that threatens to escape his lips. ‘Violence? They attacked my daughter. They mocked the memory of my son. That wasn’t violence. That was a little lesson in manners.’
    The interviewer’s eyes seem to light up. He can see the headline writers having a ball with that one.
    ‘Mr Hollow,’ he continues, ‘we can clearly see in the video that you struck the eldest man, Barry Mathers, full in the face and then kicked him in the ribs when he was on the ground. You also threw seventeen-year-old Dean Day over a garden wall and hit Stewart O’Neill in the ribs so hard that both his feet left the ground.’
    Hollow looks at him, all innocence and charm.
    ‘Yes,’ he says. ‘I did. And I would do it again, as any parent would. What has happened to us? Seriously? We let these people bully us. Scare us. I taught my children to stick up for themselves. How do we do that? Well most of the time we turn the other cheek and let it slide. But these boys attacked my daughter.’
    The interviewer seems pleased. He can clearly see the highlights of this chat playing on the national news.
    ‘Now as far as you were concerned, that was the end of it, yes? You and your daughter went home.’
    Hollow nods, and for a moment his blue eyes seem about to fill with tears. Then he regains his composure. Scratches at his stubble.
    ‘I have a gypsy caravan at home,’ he says. ‘Delphine and I sometimes spend our evenings in there. She reads. I carve. Occasionally we sing songs. It’s our little retreat. The first thing we knew about Mathers Senior was when he marched up the steps and tried to take my head off with an axe.’
    On the sofa, Pharaoh shakes her head. The bastard sounds so damn plausible.
    ‘This is Wayne Mathers, the father of the man you assaulted in Skirlaugh?’
    Hollow nods.
    ‘His son told him I’d attacked him for no reason. He came to sort me out. It was dumb luck that I kicked out and he fell backwards down the steps. I didn’t even think he’d hurt himself. He went down with a thud but he got up again. I talked him around and he got in his car and drove off. That was that. It was another fortnight before I was arrested. Another few days until I was charged. My solicitor had no idea that it would be a murder charge. Even then I felt sure a jury would believe me.’
    The interviewer takes a breath.
    Here it comes , thinks Trish. Here it bloody comes  . . .
    ‘And it was the statement of Humberside Police Sergeant Alan Cotteril that was the vital evidence during that trial, yes?’
    Pharaoh can’t take any more. She stamps over and switches the telly off at the wall. She wants to smash the damn thing. She knows the story by heart anyway. Mathers suffered a head injury as he fell down the steps. It