Killing Mum_Kindle by Allan Guthrie Read Free Book Online Page B

and Carlos's mother fell to the ground. Think I wouldn't carry a spare? He laughed. I knew you'd get me some piece of shit.
    Carlos switched off his torch, dropped, rolled towards his mother and scrabbled about for one of the guns. His hand touched grass and earth and fabric and skin and something wet and sticky. He retched, just bile, swallowed it down, the taste lingering on his tongue.
    He heard Jordan coming towards him.
    Carlos's fingers traced down his mother's arm, to her hand. Empty. But right next to it he touched something metal. He grabbed it. Rolled. Turned on the torch.
    Jordan was bearing down on him, gun pointed right between his eyes.
    Just before Carlos squeezed the trigger, the smell of petrol hit him, and he wondered if there was some on the gun. He wondered if it would light up, the petrol on it igniting. Flames would spread over his hand, a fiery glove. He could feel it blistering his flesh.
    But the gun fired its bullet and didn't burst into flames. Still, his hand felt like it was being held inches from a raging coal fire.
     
    ***
     
    Carlos scanned the ground, sweeping the light around in arcs. He spotted the petrol-soaked t-shirt and lobbed it in the van.
    He struck a match with his good hand, let it burn, then when the flame had taken hold, he tossed the match onto the t-shirt. The petrol ignited straight away. It was tempting to stay and watch it burn. He had to go, though.
    He picked up his mother, slung her over his shoulder.
    He ran halfway towards the road before he had to stop for breath. His thighs felt like someone was digging about in them with razor blades.
    He looked over his shoulder. Flames leapt into the air. Somebody would spot the fire eventually, get the fire brigade out. But Carlos and his mother would be long gone by then.
    They had to go home, get some sleep.
     
    ***
     
    He sat his mother up in the car. Fastened her seat belt. The key was in the ignition, or he'd have been fucked.
    "Didn't exactly go according to plan, Mum," he said. "Let's get you home. You comfortable?"
    I'm fine, he heard her say.
     
    ***
     
    He tried not to make too much noise as he entered the house. Didn't want to wake up whatsherface , the babysitter. But it was hard going. His mother was the wrong kind of shape.
    He was stinking like a monkey with all the sweat, and the skin on his burnt hand was stinging as the sweat popped through the tender pores. He needed to put something on it. And he would, just as soon as he'd got his mother to bed.
    He was dog-tired, his adrenaline spent. He'd shower in the morning.
    He laid his mother on the floor while he worked out where to put her.
    He opened the sitting room door, peeked inside. The babysitter was on the couch, snoring, a harsh rattle. Maggie had told her she could use the spare room. The girl must have fallen asleep where she was. He wouldn't disturb her now. It was handy, in fact. He could put his mother in the spare room.
    The door shut softly and he crept back along the hallway. Had to be careful. Wasn't just the babysitter he didn't want to wake up. Didn't want to wake Sofia either. He gently pushed open the door to her room. Stepped inside. His daughter was snoring too. Ever so lightly, though. Like wind in the trees.
    She sounds like you. Maggie's voice, right behind him, her hand on his arm. She squeezed.
    "She'll be awake in a couple of hours," he whispered.
    Let's take her to bed.
    "Don't wake her. Not now." He bent over the cot, smelled the baby sweetness of Sofia's warm head. Kissed her brow. Six months old and he still couldn't believe it. Here lay this little person who would one day call him Daddy.
    Come on, Maggie said. We need to get your mother tucked in.
     
    ***
     
    He ought to have slept soundly—he was tired enough—but sleep wouldn't come. He enjoyed lying there, though, Maggie curled up against him, his baby across the room on the other side of the bed. Pair of them snoring in harmony. Everybody in the house snoring apart from