The Cellar by Minette Walters Read Free Book Online Page A

to teach Princess to steal from them? As time wore on, he persuaded Yetunde to think about suing the police.
    The investigation into Abiola’s disappearance remained open but no progress was being made. Mr Broadstone suggested this was Inspector Jordan’s fault for ignoring other leads to focus her team’s attention on Mr Songoli. At the minimum, she should have ordered her people to interview all known paedophiles in the area and check CCTV footage to track their cars as assiduously as they’d tracked Ebuka’s.
    For the most part, Muna learned of these things from the conversations Yetunde had with Olubayo in the evenings. The boy was as poor a learner as his brother had been, and Yetunde had to explain the details several times. She took pleasure in blaming Ebuka for their problems – they wouldn’t have to count their pennies if he hadn’t been careless enough to fall down the cellar steps – and Olubayo soon developed a bitter contempt for his crippled father.
    He was taking pills for his epilepsy and they gave him headaches and made him irritable. He claimed his life was over when Yetunde removed him from his private school because the fees were too expensive. He brooded on his grievances in his bedroom during the summer holidays, but expressed them physically when he began his new school in the autumn. Every afternoon, he came home and raged in anger because his father had made him a laughing stock.
    He complained to Yetunde that he had no friends and was bullied mercilessly by the other pupils. They called him a ‘fucktard’ because of his epilepsy, said his father was a ‘spaz’ for being in a wheelchair and his abducted brother ‘paedo-bait’. Even the teachers were unkind, taking him to task for being aggressive instead of expelling any boy or girl who teased him.
    The stress and emotion played havoc with his seizures. When he wasn’t writhing on the floor, he was in hospital having his medication adjusted. Yetunde had no patience with him, claiming her life was worse than his. Her dreams of happiness had never included a cripple for a husband or an epileptic for a son.
    Muna remained a mute witness to everything. Stillness and silence had served her well over the years. To draw attention to herself was to invite pain. Nevertheless she saw how frustrated and angry both Princess and Olubayo were becoming, and she prepared herself for when their rage turned on her.
    Olubayo was the first to threaten her. He appeared in the kitchen doorway one afternoon with the rod in his hand. My father will never be able to wield this again, he told her, smacking it against his palm. That makes me the man of the house. You must do as I say or be punished.
    Muna was rinsing a heavy saucepan under the tap. He’ll be angry when he returns and discovers you’ve tried to take his place, she said.
    I’m not afraid of him. He’s lost his strength. His mind is as weak as his body. All he does is weep in shame each time the nurses remove the bags that collect his urine and faeces.
    Muna held the saucepan in front of her as she dried it with a towel. There are more ways to discipline a son than by the rod. If the Master chooses, he can order Princess to lock you in the cellar and let the demons tear at you the way they tore at him.
    You lie.
    I heard them laugh as he fell. The sound was so loud it carried upstairs. It’s a place of evil. Your father was foolish to enter.
    Then I’ll push you in there and let them tear at you.
    They won’t harm me. I heard them whispering in the walls when I lived in darkness, and they said it was your family they want to destroy, not me. Do you think Abiola would be lost or your father crippled if the demons bore them no ill will?
    Olubayo looked nervous. Whites say there are no such things as demons.
    Princess believes in them and so does the Master, Muna answered. When I found the courage to creep back down to see what had happened, his eyes – so big and round with terror – told me