Harrigan and Grace - 01 - Blood Redemption by Alex Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

walks out of her abortuary carrying the same scars that torment you now. But she doesn’t care. It was your blood that she spilt, Lucy, your blood and the blood of your child. But she doesn’t care.’
    The vehemence with which he spoke surprised her.
    ‘It was my dad too. And my garbage mother. It wasn’t just her.’
    ‘But your mother is a weak and foolish woman. And your father has been accounted for now, hasn’t he? He will answer for what he has done to you very soon. But not this woman. She is still out there, still free and practising her trade. On young girls like you.’
    Lucy said nothing. Her cigarette hung from her fingers, burning, ash falling on the table.
    ‘She could have been worse,’ she said after a while. ‘Tried not to hurt me, I guess.’
    ‘That isn’t the point, is it?’
    No, it wasn’t. Lucy looked at the rough surface of the picnic table.
    Cruelty. This was her word, she sought it out and repeated it to herself, it carried the weight of her memory. The doctor asking her all those so-what questions. Is this what you want? How do I fucking know?
    She had said only the quietest word in reply. Yes. She just wanted it over with.
    She did not say any of this. She sat there shaking these thoughts out of her head while he watched her. She dropped her cigarette to the ground and did not crush it out. She could not speak, she sat with her hands in front of her mouth. He looked at her with his clear and gentle eyes.
    ‘I hate her, you know, for what she did to me. I hate them all. Mum, Dad. You shouldn’t do that sort of thing to people.’
    ‘She does what she does, Lucy, because she’s a murderer, pure and simple. She killed your child and tried to kill your spirit. But in your strength, you survived to bear witness. She should fear you. Because you know her.’
    ‘You know what I hear sometimes?’ Lucy said after a few moments.
    ‘I don’t know why. Kids crying, little kids. I hear them in my head.
    They stay with me. Sometimes I think they are me.’
    He smiled at her and closed the file.
    ‘I know of others who have been tormented like that. They don’t let you rest, do they? We’ll find a way to make them go away. You see, Lucy, here you are with people who understand you. Sit there. Try and relax your spine.’
    He stood behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He began to massage her neck, working at the tight knot of muscles. She felt his closeness, the human warmth, the imprint of his reassuring hands.
    ‘Listen to me. Those voices in your head. They are the voices of your heart as you say. But they’re your children as well.’
    ‘No,’ she said, ‘they didn’t ever exist. I don’t want them to.’
    ‘But they did exist. They were living. They were your children and they are still living. You and they are indivisible, it’s their grief that you’re hearing.’
    ‘I just wish they weren’t there. I want them to leave me alone, that’s all.’
    ‘No, Lucy. Listen to them. They are asking you to give them rest. You can do for them what was never done for you: you can give them redress.
    Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. You have a right to vengeance, Lucy.’
    He continued the slow massaging for some moments, then stopped and rested his hands lightly on her shoulders.
    ‘We know who Agnes Liu is, Lucy. We’ve known about her for a long, long time. It’s not chance that’s brought you here. This is ordained.
    You came here to be made clean and you will be. You came here for peace of mind and you will find it. Now you wait here. You just wait.’
    When he came back, he placed a gun, compact and metal blue, on the table in front of her. She looked at it for some moments. She shook her head to say she did not understand.
    ‘Have you ever fired a gun before?’ he asked.
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘I know about them being out there and all that, and people getting hold of them. But I’ve never had to do that.’
    He picked up the gun and loaded it with two