Requiem for a Dealer by Jo Bannister Read Free Book Online Page A

tried to sort her out and failed and had to give up long before you came along.
    â€˜But you always think you can do better, don’t you? That other people didn’t try hard enough, or tried too hard, or didn’t go about it the right way. Your way. You always have to get involved. Hasn’t it struck you by now that you’re not a very good judge of character?’
    Usually when Brodie subjected him to one of her tirades it meant she was worried about him. He tried not to take it personally. Plus, he couldn’t actually argue with anything she’d
said. ‘I’m not planning to adopt her. I just want to make sure she’s OK.’
    â€˜But she isn’t OK. We know that. We knew it before you talked to Mary Walbrook. She’s – let’s be kind here and call it unstable. Now, maybe she’s unstable because of things that have happened to her, and maybe things have happened to her because she’s unstable, but either way it isn’t the services of a maths teacher that she needs right now! If she wouldn’t let her friends help her, what makes you think she’ll let you?’
    Daniel considered for a moment. ‘A man gets thrown into prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He writes to everyone he knows, asking for help. His doctor writes back enclosing a prescription for Valium. His priest sends him a prayer. His MP says he’ll vote for the next Criminal Justice Bill.
    â€˜Someone else he wrote to turns up at the prison and yells at the guards until they throw him in the same cell as his friend. Who is, as you can imagine, pretty disgusted. “A lot of help you are,” he shouts. “Now there’s two of us in here!” His friend gives him a wink. “But I’ve been in here before,” he says. “I know the way out.”’
    Brodie went on looking at him, still waiting for a punchline she could understand.
    Daniel sighed. He knew he shouldn’t tell anecdotes: he was no better at them than at slang. He explained in words of few syllables. ‘I know Alison Barker isn’t making much sense right now. I know she’s exhausted every friendship she ever had. I know she thinks the whole world’s against her and every random misfortune is part of a global conspiracy. I know she took enough Scram to kill a donkey, and that probably wasn’t a mistake.
    â€˜But Brodie, that place where she is – I’ve been there. Someone helped me out, and I want to help Alison. Not because I owe it to her but because I can. Please help me.’
    Most people don’t know how to say please. Either they whine or they make a demand of it. When Daniel asked a favour he did so with a kind of quiet dignity that made you feel like a rat for refusing. So mostly he got what he asked for. Not only from her, Brodie had noticed, but from other people as well. Even
Deacon, though he might spit and storm first, tended to end up doing as Daniel asked. It was no wonder, she reflected, that the big man resented him so.
    She gave a gusty, ungracious sigh. ‘What do you want me to do?’
    He hadn’t expected her to acquiesce so quickly, didn’t have an answer ready. ‘I suppose the most important thing is to rule out the possibility that she’s right – that her father was murdered and she’s in danger too. Mary said the police dismissed her claims. But did they look into them thoroughly or just decide she was hysterical?’
    â€˜You mean, is she completely off her head or just mildly paranoid,’ Brodie paraphrased.
    If she was going to help him, Daniel could forgive her the odd unkindness. ‘I suppose. Until I know that, how can I help her?’
    â€˜How indeed?’ She sniffed. ‘Leave it with me, I’ll see what I can find out.’
    Â 
    There’s no point sleeping with a detective superintendent if you can’t get access to the Police National Computer when you need it.