Die With Me by Elena Forbes Read Free Book Online

bloody right for all the trouble he’s caused.’
    ‘Gemma was with some man. As I said, we need to find out who it is. That’s the main reason I’m here.’
    He stared at her for a moment, looking puzzled. ‘What do you mean “with some man”?’
    Donovan took a deep breath. ‘Gemma was seen kissing this man outside the church where she died. She must have known him pretty well.’
    ‘Kissing?’ The word shot out of his mouth like a bullet. ‘You’ve got it wrong. Gemma wasn’t interested in boys.’
    ‘This was a man, not a boy, Mr Kramer.’
    ‘Gemma didn’t know any men,’ he said emphatically. He bit his lip and looked away, his eyes fixing on one of the flower prints that hung over the TV. ‘Course, she was pretty. Takes after her mum. But she wasn’t a slag, like a lot of girls her age.’ For a moment, his thoughts seemed to drift elsewhere.
    ‘I’m only telling you what the witness saw. It’s very important that we find this man. He may be able to shed some light on how Gemma died.’
    He put his mug down and leaned forwards towards her, hands flat on his knees. ‘Gemma couldn’t have been with a man. She was a good girl, Sergeant. A really good girl.’ He jerked a stubby finger at the photo on the shelf. ‘See that? It was only taken last autumn. You wouldn’t know she was fourteen, would you? She looks so young.’
    Wondering why he was trying so hard to convince her, she wanted to say that youth had never stopped a young girl from pursuing her dreams or doing something stupid. And parents, however good and caring, were often the last to know. If he wanted to ignore reality, that was his business but she needed to confront him with the facts. It was easily possible that he knew the man in some capacity.
    ‘Mr Kramer, Gemma was seen by a witness kissing a man much older than herself. We’re talking proper kissing, not a peck on the cheek. They then went into the church together.’
    He was shaking his head. ‘Not Gemma. Like I said, you got it wrong.’
    ‘The pathologist found traces of the drug GHB in her system. We come across it sometimes in cases of date-rape.’
    He frowned. ‘She wasn’t…’ His voice trailed off.
    ‘No. She wasn’t sexually assaulted. But it’s pretty clear that she knew the man she was with. Maybe she got the drug from him. We’ve got to find him and I was hoping maybe you could help.’
    The words seemed to wash over him and he bent forward and put his face in his hands, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples. He seemed more shocked by the presence of the man than by the fact that Gemma had been drugged, still failing to understand or acknowledge Gemma’s death as suspicious. But if he didn’t want to join up the dots, it wasn’t for her to do it for him. ‘What about relatives or family friends?’
    He looked up and slammed his fist on the table, making the mugs rattle. ‘What are you saying? You think one of my friends has been messing around with Gemma behind my back?’
    ‘She must have met the man somewhere, Mr Kramer. I’m going to need a list of everyone you know who Gemma’s been in contact with recently.’
    He sighed and sank back in the sofa, staring hard up at the ceiling, shaking his head slowly. ‘I don’t believe what I’m hearing. You didn’t know Gemma. She wasn’t that way.’ His scalp was shiny with sweat, small beads starting to run down his cheeks. ‘She should’ve been at school,’ he said, closing his eyes again and pinching the bridge of his thick nose with his fingers, his face red.
    ‘I’ll need that list as soon as possible. In the meantime, who are her close friends? Maybe they would know who she was seeing.’
    He took a crumpled handkerchief out of the pocket of his combats, dabbed at his head and face and blew his nose. ‘She didn’t have any close friends. She’s only been at the convent since last Easter. Before that, she was at the local comprehensive.’
    ‘There must be someone she’s close