Haunt Dead Wrong by Curtis Jobling Read Free Book Online Page A

died, tolerated your creeping around like my flaming shadow every
minute of the night and day. See, that’s what mates do, Will. They make sacrifices. It’s me that’s taken you wherever you want, whenever you want.’
    ‘Oh yeah?’
    ‘Yeah. Popping round to your folks for awkward conversations after I haven’t seen them for months. Trips to the hospital so you can spend time with your mate, the Major. I do all
this for you, and do I grumble? You won’t allow me a moment’s happiness with Lucy.’
    ‘This
isn’t
about Lucy,’ I said, regretting any previous moodiness. I’d turned a new leaf since my chat with the Major, but the epiphany had come too late. I was
already damned by my actions.
    ‘It’s always about Lucy!’
    ‘I’m trying to help you see the bigger picture, but you just won’t listen, you idiot.’
    ‘You patronising sod,’ said Dougie, and took a swing.
    Ordinarily, such a punch would have flown straight through me, sending him on to his bum. For whatever reason, probably the anger and raw emotion that had boiled up between us, the old rules
didn’t apply. His punch connected with
me
, his knuckles catching me flush on the chin. My head recoiled and I reeled back, through the air, through the bed, staggering through the wall
and on to the landing. Dougie followed, appearing in the doorway to his bedroom.
    ‘Stay away from me, Underwood.’
    He slammed the door as I nursed my jaw.
    ‘If only it were that easy.’

EIGHT
Dames and Names
    The next three days saw my relationship with Dougie plummet to never-before-seen depths. We went from best of friends to the finest of enemies. For the first two days we said
nothing to one another. I was the shadow we’d joked about, following him, impossible to shake. He spent time with Lucy – a
lot
of time. Perhaps he was trying to rub my nose in
it, I couldn’t say. He’d got me wrong in tremendous fashion, and I had no hope of persuading him otherwise. So I kept my back turned, tried to shut them out, ignored what was going on
behind me. In his crueller moments, Dougie would occasionally mention me to her, recounting embarrassing stories from my extensive back catalogue. But he couldn’t shake me. I was going
nowhere. I was haunting him, for real.
    Dougie was hurting, that much was clear. The words he’d thrown at me during our row still rang in my ears, much of which was true. He
had
gone out of his way to help me. How had I
repaid him? I’d been sulky over his relationship with Lucy. I felt bad about it, only realising my stupidity after my chat with the Major, but it all seemed so terribly late now. The cannon
had fired, the horse had bolted, and I was covered in manure.
    The third day saw Dougie catching up with Andy and Stu. Previously, whenever I’d anything to say to them, Dougie acted as a conduit. He was the mouthpiece, passing on my comments. Only
now, sat in the public library, he wasn’t being quite so helpful. As the three of them trawled through the local records, searching for the Major’s old flame, Dougie didn’t
acknowledge me once. He actively ignored me. If the others asked me a question, he’d tell them I was exploring the library. It was hopeless; he’d cut me out. I was farting into a
gale.
    ‘
Captain
Chip Flowers? So he wasn’t a major after all?’ asked Stu, rifling through the DVD library beside the computer terminal.
    ‘Try and keep up,’ said Dougie.
    My former best friend might have been ignoring me, but at least he’d returned to the topic at hand. The Major was a mate to both of us, and Dougie had never been one to shy away from a
challenge. There was investigating to be done. He leaned on the back of Andy’s chair, peering over his shoulder, our Dungeon Master working his magic on the keyboard. His fingers were a blur,
searching through the Births, Deaths and Marriages website.
    ‘Says here twelve men died when the base was bombed,’ said Andy with a shiver. ‘Maybe that’s how