Thorn In My Side (18 page)

'Amazing,' he
muttered.

A breeze sprang
up, bringing the smell of the sea with it. Mike breathed deeply. He
could taste the salt on his lips as he pictured them running
around. Some days they played at pirates, or space ships, but they
always went back to cops and robbers. Three boys, one whose parents
had died in a car crash, one whose teenage mother hadn’t wanted
him, and the other used and abused and failed by the system. All
three had washed up on Aunt May’s shores. She’d taken them in, left
her job in Social Services and become a safe harbour for all
three.

It must be
nearly a year since I’ve seen Dave, and I’m overdue a
letter
from him.
Frowning, he made a mental note to visit the
monastery when this case was over, before he went back to Durham.
Time… It just runs away with you.

'I thought that
was you,' a voice said behind him. Pulled abruptly out of his
thoughts, Mike swung round to find Jill Patterson standing next to
him.

'Well, hello,'
he smiled.

She gave a
quick twitch of her lips that Mike figured was an attempt at a
smile.

'I saw you from
back there. Er… I owe you an apology. And him. I thought I’d best
get it over with sooner rather than later.' Tiny wagged his tail as
he sniffed around her feet. She gave him a soft smile and patted
his head, adding, 'Actually, it may not have seemed like it
earlier, but I really do like dogs.'

'Accepted,'
Mike said at once, his smile stretching to a grin. 'On behalf of
Tiny as well.'

She gave a
faint smile, 'Sorry I was angry, I never should have snapped at
you.'

'Kids, eh.'

'Hmm. It was a
shock to see what she’d done to her hair. It was the last thing I’d
expected.'

Mike remembered
the face studs.
If Jill thinks her daughter’s hair
was a
shock, wait till the kid turns up tomorrow with face studs.
She’ll
probably have a heart attack.

'She was
supposed to wait at my cousin’s. Of course, with Billy being in a
wheelchair, he couldn’t really stop her from leaving. The little
bitch hadn’t even been to school. She’d been at a friend’s.
Apparently both of them spent the day dyeing their hair. Then she
turned up at Billy’s when she was supposed to, as if he wouldn’t
guess what she’d been up to. He played war with her, she stormed
out in a strop and headed for home.'

Mike couldn’t
mention the face studs without dropping Smiler in it. Instead, he
said, 'Perhaps you should check her friends out? They may not
be...' He shrugged. 'Desirable?'

Jill sat down
on a rock next to Mike. She was quiet for a moment, staring out to
sea. Then, sighing, she shook her head. 'Jayne never brings them to
the house, and she won’t tell me who they are. I’ve thought of
following her.' She looked under her lids at Mike, then swung her
head back to face the sea. 'It may come to that yet. Short of
chaining her up… She’s sixteen. What the hell can I do?'

Mike was at a
loss. There wasn’t a lot he knew about sixteen-year- old girls.
Except that they could cause some mighty big trouble if they took
it into their heads to do so.

'I’m sure you
put the right groundwork in…'

'Well, I
thought I had. She’s never been any bother at all until lately. Of
course, the divorce…' She hesitated. 'Jayne adores her father…'

Suddenly she
jumped up, her face bright red. 'Sorry, I really shouldn’t be
bothering you with all this. It’s not your problem.' Her tone had
suddenly turned frosty.

'Really, it’s
no bother.' Mike patted the rock she’d been sitting on. 'I was
gonna ask you a few things about the case. Why don’t you sit back
down?'

'You know my
working hours, and where my office is. Good night.' Turning
quickly, she walked away, leaving Mike watching her and wondering
just what the hell her husband had done to make her the way she
was. 'Jesus,' he muttered,
for a few minutes there she’d
nearly been human.

With a sigh,
his reminiscing mood shattered, Mike stood up and headed back to
Aunt May’s.

Mike found
Smiler sitting hugging himself, rocking back and forth in the
chair. His eyes were tightly closed, and he was muttering to
himself in double-quick time.

'Smiler,' Mike
said gently, touching Smiler’s shoulder.

Smiler’s eyes
shot open and he stared right through him. Mike, who was not easily
frightened by regular everyday things, nevertheless felt a chill
that went right into his bones.

'What’s the
matter, Smiler?' Mike wanted to shake him, but knew that Smiler
wouldn’t like it. Gently, even though his heart skipped a beat,
Mike said his name again. 'Smiler. Talk to me.'

Smiler blinked,
then looked at Mike. This time Mike heaved a silent sigh of relief.
He knew Smiler was really seeing him.

'What the hell…
Are you all right, kid?'

He kept right
on staring at Mike, until Mike was about to speak again. Then
Smiler suddenly said, as rapidly as gunfire, 'They know they’ve
murdered the wrong girl. They know they’ve murdered the wrong girl.
They know they…'

'Smiler.
Smiler, it’s all right. Calm down. Chill, OK? You must have had a
nightmare.'

Smiler looked
vague for a moment, then started violently popping his knuckles,
muttering so fast it was impossible to understand what he was
saying.

Mike sighed,
wondering if the island was the right place for Smiler. He seemed
much worse then he’d ever been in London.
I think the noise in
the big city drowned everything out. Here,
though, once the
tourists have gone home, there’s nothing but peace and
quiet.

'I like your
Aunt May.'

Smiler’s normal
voice came so suddenly that for a moment Mike just stared at him,
even though, after all this time, he was used to Smiler’s dips in
and out of reality.

'Sorry,
what?'

'Your Aunt May…
I like her.'

Hiding his
relief, Mike said, as if nothing had happened, 'Yeah, she’s a funny
one all right, isn’t she? What the oldies used to call the salt of
the earth. She’s lived on the island all of her life. Born and bred
here. Guess she wouldn’t live anywhere else… I spent a lot of my
growing years here as well.'

'Sounds like
you had a good childhood.'

Mike hesitated
for a long moment before saying, 'Eventually… I’m going up to bed
now. See you in the morning, then.'

Smiler nodded,
watching Mike leave the room, wondering what he meant by
eventually.

Heart pounding,
Shelly grabbed everything and ran. As she was climbing over the
fence into the field, she heard a man shouting, 'Hey, you! Come
back here!'

'Like that’s
gonna happen,' she muttered, as she landed in the field. 'No
way!'

'Come back
here!' the voice bellowed behind her.

Ignoring him,
she ran to the corner of the field and scrambled through the hedge
onto the road. Brushing twigs, leaves and grass out of her hair,
she tidied herself up behind a large oak tree. Hearing no sounds of
pursuit behind her, she waited until the road was empty and headed
back the way she’d first come.

Searching her
memory, she was pretty sure she’d never seen that face before.
S
omeone as ugly as that you definitely don’t forget. Even
being
pressed up against the window couldn’t account for it.
He certainly
couldn’t be Katie
. But she knew that just
because she didn’t recognise him, it meant nothing. The brothers
had many foot-soldiers, and she didn’t know them all.

Again she
cursed herself for having become involved. She’d seen a story, a
story the whole world needed to know. She should have found
help
.

This is way
too big for me to handle.

But who
to
trust?

Who to
believe?

Already she
knew of a certain high court judge, a police officer and a vicar.
And these are supposed to be good people, for fuck's
sake,
she thought, quickening her pace as she pictured their
faces.

If you can’t
trust them, who the hell can you trust?
She knew their names,
where they lived and even had photographic evidence. Still hidden,
she hoped.

Evidence she
would destroy as soon as she got the chance. She wanted none of
this.
God knows what they’ll do when they found out just how
much I really know.

But they
obviously already have
. The thought struck her as she carried
on against the wind. For a moment it stopped her in her tracks.

Of course they
already have. I wouldn’t be here in the state I’m in if they
hadn’t.

'Fool.' she
muttered. Cursing herself, she battled on against the strong wind
that seemed to have sprung from nowhere in the last few
minutes.

About a mile
down the lane was a crossroads, which would take her to the place
she wanted. If Danny had the sense to work out what she meant from
the message she’d left, he would be there as soon as he understood
it.

Which
doesn’t necessarily mean the same day,
she thought ruefully, as
she headed on up the road.

Danny had spent
most of the evening with Shelly’s brothers, visiting her friends.
None had seen or heard from her for a couple of days at least. Now
they were trying the last one that he knew of for the second time,
hoping that she was now at home.

Gary leaned on
the doorbell, still unconvinced that Danny knew nothing about why
his sister was missing. He glared at him. 'She better be in, mate,
for your sake.'

'Well, if she’s
not in,' Liam gestured with his hand towards Danny, 'we can’t
really blame him, can we? It’s not his fault. I mean, he can’t
really be blamed if she’s not in.'

Ignoring Liam’s
attempt at peacemaking, and fed up with people thinking he was a
murderer, girlfriend-beater, kidnapper or whatever else, Danny
snapped back, as usual without thinking it through, 'Look, I’m as
sick of the whole flaming business as you are, OK? Got that?' He
glared at Gary.

'Yeah…' Fist
clenched, Gary moved forward, his face two inches from Danny’s.
Whatever he was going to say next was cut short by the door
opening.

A pretty
blue-eyed girl looked enquiringly at them. She had long black hair,
nose studs, eyebrow studs and at least three in her top lip. 'What
do you want?' she snarled. They could all smell the alcohol on her
breath.

For God’s
sake, nobody light a fag up, please, or we’ll all end
up in
Kingdom come,
Danny thought, but said, 'It’s me, Maria, love.
Danny... er, Shelly’s boyfriend.' He stepped in front of Gary. 'We,
er, these are Shelly’s brothers, Gary and Liam. You might have
heard her mention them.'

'Get on with
it,' Gary growled at his side.

'I am! I am!'
Danny snapped back, gritting his teeth.

Talk about
attitude!

'We… we’re
looking for Shelly. Could you please tell us when was the last time
you spoke to her, or saw her? Has she phoned you? Or maybes she
might even be here with you now?' He raised his eyebrows
hopefully.

In his pocket,
Danny tightly crossed his fingers. Ever since he and Evan had left
the police station, he’d been skirting around the fact that Shelly
might be lying dead somewhere, murdered by the same crazy bastard
who had done for Alicia. Or, if she’d been there when it happened,
had she managed to escape, and was now lying in a doorway
somewhere, looking like a hopeless drunk and ignored by everyone
who hurried past her? He knew she always carried emergency sweets
in her pocket, he’d seen her through a couple of hypos. He knew
they weren’t pleasant, and what the outcome could be.

His hopes of
her being with Maria were dashed a moment later, when Maria shook
her head and tried to close the door in their faces. But Gary had
been ready for this, and already had his foot firmly planted.

'Have yer seen
her?' he practically shouted into Maria’s startled face, as he
towered above her.

'No! Now go
away, before I call the police.' She pushed as hard as she could on
the door, but she was no match for Gary.

'We just want
to know if you’ve seen her in the last few days, that’s all.' He
punched the side of the door and growled his frustration. 'We need
to know, for God’s sake. Do you understand?'

'No.' Fear in
her eyes, her whole body starting to tremble, she kept on
struggling with the door.

Liam put his
hand on Gary’s shoulder. Understanding why, Gary restrained
himself, knowing he wouldn’t get anything out of her if he
frightened her too much. With a supreme effort, he said calmly,
'Look, we don’t mean yer any harm here, pet. We’re just worried
about our sister, that’s all. We need to know where she is. If
you’re her friend, you’ll know why we need to make sure she’s safe.
Time is important, she could be anywhere and be needing help.'

Maria sighed,
and stopped trying to close the door. Her efforts had been
fruitless, anyhow. 'The last time I saw her, she was in the
nightclub. I went to the bar, and when I came back with the drinks,
she’d gone. I asked around, and no one had seen her go. I’ve phoned
her mobile a few times, but either there’s no reception or it’s
dead. And that’s everything I know.'

The three men
stared at her. 'Look, honestly, that’s all I know,' she repeated,
staring back at them. 'Now, if you don’t mind…' She made to close
the door again. This time it was the palm of Gary’s hand that
stopped her.

'If you do hear
from her, tell her to get in touch. Right?'

'Yes. Now,
please just go.' He took his palm off the door and it slammed
shut.