Next to Die by Neil White Read Free Book Online

who’ll get a black mark on his report card. Don’t be that person, Sam. Think of your own career.’
    He stared at her, disbelieving, but she met his stare. At that, Sam got to his feet. He tried to control the anger in his voice. ‘Am I excused, ma’am?’
    ‘As long as we understand each other.’
    He nodded. ‘We do.’
    As he headed out of the room, he glanced along the corridor to the Incident Room. No one looked his way. He wasn’t part of their world.
    He turned away, his cheeks flushed and red, his footsteps quicker than before, his hand banging against the doors as he headed out to his car.

Ten
     
    Ronnie Bagley looked at his hands, one thumb rubbing at his palm. When he looked up again, he said, ‘No one knows if they’re dead. How can I have murdered them if they might be alive somewhere? I mean, just because they’ve accused me of murder doesn’t mean that I’ve got to be found guilty.’
    Joe pursed his lips. The lack of bodies didn’t stop a murder case, but it made it a whole lot harder to prove.
    ‘Juries like mysteries, especially murders,’ Joe said. ‘It means they can play detective and solve the case. But this isn’t a burglary or a pub fight. The prosecution thinks two people have died. If the jury thinks the same, they’ll want to catch the killer. If I can’t prove that you aren’t the killer, you will be convicted.’
    ‘I thought I was innocent until proven guilty.’
    ‘This isn’t legal theory; it’s about how juries work. They’re just people, like you and me, and they don’t like to see a killer walk free. It will take a lot for you to get a not guilty verdict. So talk to me. Go back to the last day you saw Carrie alive.’
    Ronnie took a deep breath and swallowed. He looked nervous, but Joe wasn’t sure if it was due to his memories of the day, or because this was his chance, his rehearsal for the trial, to see if he could convince someone of his innocence.
    Joe glanced at Monica, who was sitting forward, and he could sense her excitement at her first involvement with a big case.
    ‘Carrie was shouting at me,’ Ronnie said, wiping his eye. ‘Carrie did that a lot. We live in a flat, on the ground floor of some dump of a place. I had a job, but it was hard to make the money stretch. And Carrie drank a lot. Too much really, even though we had a baby.’
    ‘Had?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Past tense, Ronnie. You mean have .’
    ‘You know what I mean,’ he said, his cheeks becoming red.
    ‘And so will the jury, because the prosecution will ram that at you all day. It will be the word they use in the closing speeches, and the jury won’t forget it. They’ll see it as you knowing that Carrie and Grace are dead, just a small detail and slip-up that gets you locked up for life.’
    Ronnie nodded that he understood and said, ‘Our life is like one long argument. We were together because of Grace. Carrie didn’t love me, I knew that.’
    ‘ Doesn’t , Ronnie, not didn’t.’
    Ronnie scowled.
    ‘And do you love her?’ Joe said.
    ‘More than I can say,’ and then his voice broke. He used the heel of his palm to wipe his eyes. ‘I wouldn’t hurt her. She’s everything to me. Pretty and fun and, well, you know…’
    ‘How old is she?’
    ‘Thirty.’
    ‘So tell me about the shouting.’
    ‘It was just money stuff, you know how it is. Carrie was…’ He stopped, to correct himself. ‘Carrie is crazy with money. She applies for any credit card she can and then just buys rubbish, like clothes and shoes and anything that makes people look at her, and so we had these credit card bills and food to buy, rent to pay. So that last morning, we had no money left on the electric card and she was telling me that I wasn’t good enough, how it was all my fault that we don’t have anything. But she was the one drinking all the time. It had got so that it was the first thing she did when she woke up, pour herself a drink. She had nice clothes but she looked a