Lifeless - 5 by Mark Billingham Read Free Book Online Page A

journey up and how difficult their work must be, and how her friend had a son who was a sergeant in
    Leicester, and how she knew al about the pressures of the job.
    Thorne thought: it doesn't get any more difficult than this.
    The old man leaned forward suddenly and fixed Thorne with a
    hard look. 'What are you going to ask him?' Serious, unblinking...
    Thorne turned to McEvoy, sensing that this would be better coming
    from her. This, indeed, was why he'd wanted her along. She picked up her cue. 'We don't necessarily need to ask him anything. We just want to get an idea of what he remembers real y.
    Has he talked about what
    happened at al ?'
    'No.' Quickly.
    'Nothing at al ? I mean he might have said something that just sounded like a joke, you know, or a--'

    'I said no.' Louder now, unashamedly aggressive.
    McEvoy's eyes flicked to Mary, asking for help if she knew how to
    give it. She picked up her husband's hand and placed it on her knee. She took her hand away and held it up for Thorne and McEvoy's inspection. 'Bob worked in the Jewel ery Quarter for forty years. He made this wedding ring in 1965. Made Carol's as wel , four years ago. Sort of came out
    of retirement for it, didn't you?' She laughed and patted her husband's hand but he said nothing. 'See, we didn't have Carol until late.'
    Thorne looked at McEvoy. He knew what she was thinking and he knew that she was wrong. These were not ramblings. These were fragments of a shattered picture that Mary Enright was holding up to the light in desperation, in the hope that Thorne and McEvoy might understand the whole. Might grasp the enormity of it. Now, she just shook her head and said it simply. 'Bob's taken everything very badly you see. Worse than me, real y, or differently at any rate. It's often the way, I think, when something happens and there's two of you. One just muddles along, you know, gets on with things, while the other...'
    Thorne could see them then. The old woman sitting in the corner of an overheated lounge, making jigsaws with her grandson or writing shopping lists, while her husband stands stooped in a back bedroom, shouting, his body racked with sobs.
    He stared at Robert Enright until the old man met his eye, then he spoke. 'I want to find the man who did this thing to you. To your daughter and to you. Charlie saw him. We're here to let him tel us anything he feels like tel ing us. That's al .'
    They al stiffened then, at the footfal s on the stairs. Thorne thought he saw Carol Garner's father nod, a second before the door flew open and her son ran into the room.
    The boy froze on seeing the strangers, and lowered his eyes. He began to inch across to the sofa from where Mary reached out a hand and pul ed him to her. He was perhaps a little smal for his age, with longish mousy hair and brown eyes. He was wearing denim dungarees over a red long-sleeved top and his hands were covered in what looked like blue felt-tip pen.
    'Some friends of ours have come to see you,' Marry said, her voice not much above a whisper. 'This is... ?' She looked across at McEvoy and Thorne, the question in her eyes.
    'Sarah,' McEvoy volunteered, leaning forward with a smile. She glanced at Thorne. 'And Tom.'
    Charlie looked up, appraising them. He rubbed his grandmother's hand across his cheek for a second or two, before dropping it and racing across to where his toys lay on the floor. He picked up a yel ow plastic toolbox and emptied the contents on to the carpet.
    McEvoy was flying by the seat of her pants. This was not the same as counsel ing a rape victim or trying to calm a battered wife. She'd noticed the hushed, almost reverential tone that Mary Enright had used when speaking to the boy and felt instinctively that this was wrong. At least, it was wrong if they wanted to get any information out of him. She knew that she had to gain his trust.
    'Are you looking forward to Christmas, Charlie?' The boy picked up a thick, red plastic bolt and began pushing it through a hole