Who Wants to Live Forever? by Steve Wilson Read Free Book Online Page A

time, I saw a chink in the armour that she had erected around herself; behind it was a small, lonely girl, and I began to sympathise with her. Emma saw me looking at her and she scowled. Almost as soon as it had appeared her vulnerable appearance had left her, and I wondered if I’d been mistaken. But I didn’t think I had been; those few seconds had been enough to show me that Emma was human after all.
    Louise stroked her chin as if deep in thought. After a bare moment’s hesitation, she asked the question that I’m sure was on everybody’s mind. “And what about Mike? Is he likely to turn up as well?”
    “I wouldn’t think so, no.” She hesitated for a second, then continued. “I haven’t seen him since he made that call, and I don’t care if I never see him again.”
    Louise still appeared to be considering matters, and an icy silence covered the room. Finally, she broke it by saying, “All right, then, Emma. Let’s make this a fresh start. Welcome back. I’m sure the group feels the same.”
    “Yes,” we all replied, babbling and talking over each other in our relief that the moment of tension had passed. I’d almost forgotten that just a few moments earlier I had been feeling happy at the prospect of not seeing either of them again.
    Louise opened her briefcase and pulled out some more sets of A4 handouts. As she gave one to each of us, I took a look, expecting to read more about the Enid Rodgers case, but this set of papers was headed
Len Phillips, 1922
.
    “Aren’t we continuing with last week’s case?” I asked. “We still don’t really know what happened.” Gail and Trish said similar things while Debbie read the sheets she’d been given. Emma glanced at them briefly before looking up to catch Louise’s response.
    “No,” she answered, “that one is finished with now. I want to move on to talk about something that is, on the surface, completely different.”
    “But what about the first case?” asked Trish. “Do you know who really did it?”
    “No, all I have is what you saw last week. As I said, I want to discuss a different case this week.”
    “And does this one have a solution or will we be left in the lurch again?” asked Gail.
    “You’ll have to wait and see. I assure you, it will all make perfect sense by the end of the course — or, at least, it should do. And, just maybe, you might be able to help me fill in a few gaps along the way. Like I said before, although it might not appear so now, I hope that by the end of the course we’ll be in a position to make a life-saving decision. Now, are we ready to start? Debbie? You haven’t said much tonight.”
    “No, I haven’t. I’ve been thinking. But now you’ve asked, I do have one question. Are we always going to be talking about murders?” I thought I detected a note of fear in her voice. Did she find the topic too gruesome to even talk about?
    “Why yes, each week I plan to discuss a different murder that occurred in the county. Didn’t I make that clear?”
    “No,” I said, noting the discomfort on Debbie’s face. “You’ve not been that specific until now.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry. It must have been with all the problems dealing with those two…er, with Mike. It slipped my mind. There isn’t a problem, is there?”
    “Not with me,” said Trish. “I found last week fascinating. I’m just a little disappointed that we’re not continuing with that theme to a conclusion.”
    I nodded my assent, but Debbie didn’t look certain. “I don’t want to sound like Mike,” she said, “but I thought local history would be about more than just murders. I wanted to find out as much as I could about the county during the last hundred years.”
    “But you will, Debbie,” replied Louise. “Each case we cover will be from a different period of time and a different location, which — I hope — will help build up a more comprehensive picture of Lancashire through to the new millennium.”
    Debbie didn’t look