Killing Rachel by Anne Cassidy Read Free Book Online

Joshua’s clothes were laid across his hanging rail rather than on hangers. He went straight to a small chest of drawers by his bed and pulled open the bottom drawer. He sat back on the bed and pulled out a jumper. He held it up to Rose.
    ‘This was Dad’s. I packed it with me before we left the house. I’ve had it with me ever since. I don’t wear it. It’s miles too big but I have it near me, wherever I live. Years ago – and this is the bit you’ll laugh at – I slept with it.’
    He looked away and she felt her heart soften. She stepped across and sat on the bed beside him. She wanted to give him a hug. She raised her hands for a second but then let them drop. It pained her to see him upset but her mixed-up feelings for him made her tentative and unsure of how to act around him.
    Brendan’s jumper lay across Joshua’s lap. She took it from him. It was huge and Rose was reminded of Brendan’s size. A tall man, he seemed to stoop as he went into rooms. He had a rounded stomach and was always standing sideways in front of the mirror in the bedroom and patting it. She saw him standing on and off the scales in the bathroom several times just to check they were right. She remembered something he said regularly to her. Diet, Monday, Petal . He winked as he said it, which had embarrassed her at first but she’d got used to it over the three years that they’d lived together.
    The jumper was maroon and had a V-neck. It was old and looked as if it had been washed too often, though not perhaps in the last five years. The wool had formed little baubles and there was a pull near the bottom.
    ‘That’s nothing to be embarrassed about,’ she said.
    ‘There’s more, though.’
    ‘What?’
    Joshua didn’t speak for a minute. He seemed to be debating something inside his head.
    ‘If I tell you this you must never tell anyone. God! This is ridiculous. I’m supposed to be a man of science . I believe in mathematics, in logic. I think the world is made up of explainable things. I want to build bridges. Instead I’m . . .’
    ‘What?’
    ‘This jumper. Sometimes, when I held it close to my face, when I was lying in bed or just taking a nap . . .’
    Rose looked at the jumper with puzzlement. She had no idea what Joshua was getting at.
    ‘Well, I see this place. No, that’s wrong. I didn’t see it as such. I kind of smell it, hear it, taste it. Not every time. Just now and then. I become aware of this place and I am sure, I am positive it has something to do with Dad.’
    ‘I don’t understand . . .’
    ‘I haven’t done it for a long time but when I did I had these sensations. There was a smell, a taste. I heard things. I closed my eyes and I thought I could see Dad there.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘I don’t know. At the place.’
    Rose didn’t answer. She didn’t get it. Then she did.
    ‘You mean like a second sight?’ she said, incredulous.
    ‘I don’t know. I’ve never told anyone and I wouldn’t have mentioned it to you but when I picked up the key ring I had the same feeling. Just for a few seconds.’
    ‘I don’t believe in second sight .’
    ‘Neither do I! I’m the last person to believe in something like that. I haven’t touched this jumper for a long time because I’ve been trying to get it out of my head.’
    ‘It’s probably a memory that’s triggered by a smell or something.’
    ‘The key ring doesn’t have a smell.’
    ‘But you bought it for him? Right? So probably there’s some unconscious link between buying the key ring, the jumper and this place, wherever it is.’
    ‘I shouldn’t have told you. You think I’m ridiculous.’
    ‘I don’t. I just think there’s got to be a logical explanation.’
    They were both quiet. It was the second time today that she’d been faced with some sort of supernatural phenomenon. First the ghost of Juliet Baker in Rachel Bliss’s letter and now this. It was stupid. She just didn’t believe in it. She must have had a dismissive expression