Good as Dead by Mark Billingham Read Free Book Online

convince him that she did understand, and more, that she sympathised. She needed him to believe that she was on his side and that they would sort everything out together.
    That when this was all over, they would walk out of the shop as friends.
    ‘What happened to him?’
    Akhtar grunted. ‘Well, there is what happened and what they say happened and they are two very different things.’
    ‘What do they say happened?’
    ‘He was attacked, again . He was attacked and later on he took his own life, but I know my son, believe me. It is not true.’
    ‘Had he been all right, up to then? When you visited him?’
    ‘He was not happy, of course he wasn’t. We talked about the appeal and all that and we tried to stay in good spirits, but it was clear enough in his face. He would not have been able to stand it in that place for so long.’ He raised a hand, eager to make a point. ‘But that did not mean he would ever do harm to himself, not at all.’
    ‘Did he have friends in there?’
    ‘There was one boy he spoke about, but I think he tried to keep to himself as much as possible. He was always quiet, you understand? Always studying, studying, studying.’
    ‘Sounds like a bright lad,’ Helen said.
    ‘Yes, yes, very bright, but in my opinion that only makes it worse. It is more frustrating for someone like my son in one of those places. He did not belong there.’
    ‘When did you see him last?’
    Akhtar blinked slowly, remembering. ‘One week before he died. He was cheerful and we talked about his sister’s birthday and what I could buy for her. To give her as a gift from him, you know? He missed her and his elder brother very much … very much, and this is another reason I know that he was not responsible for his own death.’ He shook his head, waved the flat of his hand in front of him, the certainty bringing a half-smile to his face. ‘He could never have chosen not to see them again.’
    ‘Why do you think they say that he did?’ Helen was careful to sound as incredulous as possible. She shook her head, as though the very notion were preposterous.
    ‘You ask them.’ Akhtar spat the words out. ‘Because they are liars like the police officers and the lawyers from the bloody CPS. Maybe because it is easier and will cause less trouble. Nobody wants to admit that anyone could be killed in a place like that. That such things are allowed to happen.’ He leaned towards her, the anger building again. ‘But they are allowed to happen. They were allowed and now Amin will never see his sister get married, will never have the life he was working so hard for.’
    He shook his head and bit back whatever was coming next. He reached across to the desktop and moved the gun a few inches closer to him. He leaned back in his chair. ‘Now it is up to your friend Tom Thorne to find out the truth.’
    Helen barely knew Thorne, though she had formed a good opinion about him based on how he had behaved during the investigation into Paul’s death the year before. Now, she realised, she was counting on him every bit as much as Akhtar was. Tom Thorne had suddenly become the best friend she had.
    ‘I know he’ll do his best,’ she said.
    *
    ‘My son is dead,’ Nadira Akhtar said. She spoke quietly and without colour. ‘That’s all, it’s finished.’ She turned her head away and stared out at the concrete blur of the A40 moving past the window.
    Thorne accelerated to overtake a white van, gave the driver a good hard look. ‘Javed doesn’t think it’s finished.’
    She turned to look at him. ‘My husband is … ’ She waved the thought away and went back to her view.
    ‘Stupid? Stubborn?’
    ‘He is not stupid. Never that.’
    ‘What he’s doing is stupid,’ Thorne said. ‘It’s beyond stupid.’ He waited for a response, but none was forthcoming. ‘You know what’s going on in the shop?’
    She nodded. ‘They told me.’
    ‘Did you have any idea he was going to do something like this?’
    ‘Of course