Should Have Killed The Kid by R. Frederick Hamilton Read Free Book Online

days.'
    'That's fine, that's fine. Let's just agree to move on now, yes? I think it would be best for everyone.'
    Dean nodded emphatically at George's words, John gave a slight incline of his head and even Jess found his chin bobbing. He'd had his first glimpse of a bonded person in action and he found himself wishing for nothing more than to never see its like again.
    'So... instead let's talk details, yeah? So far we've got out of the way and off the radar but what else are you after?'
    'Well, I haven't really thought about it too much. Something not dissimilar to the last one would be good. But whatever, really. I mean I have always enjoyed a bit of renovating.'
    Jess blinked slowly from where he sat, his heart still beating fast and heavy. The abrupt turn of the conversation was difficult to fathom. Veering from rage to polite discussion in the space of a minute. He rubbed at his temples. He could feel a headache coming on.
    'Well there's a few doing the rounds at the moment.' Dean paused in mid spiel and unleashed a high-pitched whistle that did nothing to help Jess' brewing headache. 'Make yourself useful, boy. Cupboard on the right there.' Jess hopped off the bench and opened the indicated cupboard beneath. An interior coated in an inch of dust was revealed. 'Top three folders, if you please. Snappy too, if it's not too much to ask.'
    * * *

4.
    Even through the sleeting rain that nearly obliterated his windshield, Dave saw that the Gallo's Hotel had made a few more promises on it's website than it actually delivered. As he pulled into the bog of the gravel car park, he even tried to convince himself that it was for the best that Naomi had chosen not to accompany him.
    There would be fireworks, he thought as he imagined the fuss she would have kicked up upon this scene being revealed. It only made him feel mildly better though and by the time he'd slithered the Tiida into rough alignment with the three utes already in place, the brief grin that had twitched at the corners of his lips quickly reverted back to the bemused sneer he'd worn for the majority of the seven hour car trip he'd just undertaken.
    Her words that had pretty much run on a constant loop throughout the trip didn't really help at all. You’re a fucking cunt. A fucking poisonous person.
    And just like that, five years down the gurgler, Dave thought and slammed the gear stick into park a little too hard then leant forward over the steering wheel, peering around through the rain smeared window. It was a masterpiece of double storey decrepitude that reared up before him. Dave shook his head at the boarded up windows and half-collapsed verandah that ringed the second floor; the cracked render of the walls – splotchy brown with large chunks missing, revealing the crumbling brick underneath. He snorted at the nearly fossilised outdoor furniture that was haphazardly scattered beneath what still stood of the verandah. Craning his neck up, he saw that the tin on the roof was not actually painted brown like his first glimpse had suggested. Instead the patches not coated in rust appeared as though they had once been a green colour.
    No external shots on the website, Dave thought, should have been a tip-off.
    The exterior certainly didn't reflect the sumptuous interiors that had been displayed there. But Dave had sort of been expecting that since he crossed over the Murray a good fifteen minutes ago and discovered that the hyperbolic promise of being right on the water's edge was horse shit. The blind turn off the highway into scrub, down the meandering little dirt road that had only been signed by a sheet of plywood tacked to a tree had done little to bolster his confidence. Nor had the one house he'd passed in a clearing midway through the dense stretch of forest; a ramshackle monstrosity of rotted boards and caved-in tin that he had been certain must be abandoned.
    But as he'd passed through the stretch of forest he'd emerged on the other side to clearer land