No Questions Asked by David Menon Read Free Book Online

I’d got and now he’s gone’.
    She became hysterical and started lashing out at Jeff with her fists.
    ‘I know, Lucy, I know’ said Jeff who thought back to the immediate grief he felt after Lillie Mae died and held her hands firmly until she started to calm down. ‘I know how this feels for you. It feels like your whole world has come to an end and nothing will ever heal. But it will. You’ll never get over this but in time you’ll learn how to cope with the devastation you’re feeling. I promise you that’.
    ‘I don’t want to cope’.
    ‘And I know that feeling too’.
    ‘I want Bradley back, Jeff’ said Lucy. ‘I never got anything off my mother except a birth canal to come out of. I wanted it to be different with Bradley. I wanted to be there for him and I wanted us to be mates’.
    ‘You were there for him, Lucy’ Jeff reassured. ‘You were a terrific mother and nobody can take that away from you’.
    ‘Why my son, Jeff? Why has life left me with absolutely nothing again?’
    ‘I don’t know, love but we need to find who did this’ said Jeff, softly. ‘And for us to do that you’ll need to be honest with me about absolutely everything. Do you understand?’
    ‘I’m not on trial’.
    ‘I know and I’m not trying to put you on trial’ said Jeff who had never thought for one second that Lucy could’ve murdered her son. She’d given her statement and that was it as far as Jeff was concerned. ‘I’m not like that bunch out there. I want to help you and I want to get justice for Bradley but to do that I’ll need the answers to some questions. Do you feel up to doing that?’
    Lucy nodded.
    ‘Are you sure, Lucy?’
    Lucy nodded again. ‘I want them caught’.
    ‘Lucy, is Gary Mitchell Bradley’s father?’
    ‘Yes’ Lucy confirmed. ‘Gary is Bradley’s father. But I never told my son that the Dad he’d always wanted was living right across the road’.    
    ‘And did you work for Bernie Connelly?’
    ‘You know I did’ Lucy answered. ‘He owns the Paradise club’.
    Jeff paused and then said ‘I meant before that, Lucy’.
    ‘Alright yes I was on the game for him’ she blurted out. ‘I needed the money and he helped me’.
    ‘By putting you on the game?’
    ‘By doing more than any of my so-called friends did at the time’ Lucy spat back. ‘Sorry if that doesn’t fit into the usual image of the traumatised mother whose son has just been murdered’.
    ‘And do you really think that bothers me, Lucy? I want to find Bradley’s killer that’s all’.   
     
    FOUR
          Adrian Bradshaw came downstairs to the sound of a kettle boiling and the smell of freshly made toast. But this time it wasn’t his mother who was doing the usual domestic duties for him and his family. He straightened up his tie and walked into the kitchen.
         ‘Well, hello’ he said.
         Kate turned round and smiled at him. ‘Hello yourself’.
         Adrian pulled her close in an embrace and they kissed.
         ‘I thought I’d make us some breakfast’ said Kate. ‘I hope you don’t mind me rooting round your cupboards?’
         ‘After last night you can root around all you like and anywhere you like, sweetheart’.
         Kate smiled. ‘We did kind of go for gold, didn’t we’.
         ‘We sure did’.
         ‘Not that I’m complaining’.
         ‘Me neither’.
         ‘Sex is wasted on the young’.
         ‘Well we’re not over the hill yet’.
         ‘And last night proved that’ said Kate .who was feeling on top of the world. They’d been out on a couple of dates but last night was the first time they’d slept together. And Adrian was fit in every sense of the word. He had stamina. 
         ‘But we’d best get on and eat though now because I’ve got to leave for work in twenty minutes’ said Adrian. He was nervous about the day ahead. His old team with DCI Sara Hoyland had been broken up following her