Read Online Blood and Stone by Chris Collett - Free Book Online Page B

he’d had his ‘accident’. The police officers involved were subsequently cleared by an internal enquiry, but McGinley knew enough about the police by now to understand how far they would go to protect their own and he was far from convinced. He hated the filth with a vengeance. Ma chose to blame the drink instead, and when they made their fresh start in Kirkby, that was when she had found God – and not any old God, but one who was a firm believer in abstinence. Since then she’d managed to keep the alcohol away from their family but not the hatred, not the prejudice and not death.
    Along with the milk McGinley wolfed down one of the buns he’d bought and felt a little better. There was an ancient FM radio in the caravan and after some minutes of frustration attempting to tune it, he finally managed to get a local station. He then had to wait some time until the hourly news bulletin, but when it came it was strangely gratifying. Both sets of bodies had been discovered the previous day, the first by a carer and the second by the domestic help. Already the police had identified McGinley as a chief suspect for the first, though they weren’t committing themselves yet to the second, despite the similarities. They were looking for the vehicle in which he was thought to have escaped.
    â€˜Oh, well done, lads.’ McGinley smiled quietly to himself, picturing some poor bugger hunched over hours and hours of CCTV footage.
    Â 
    Overnight, Tony Knox’s cold had well and truly taken root. Having run out of tissues he was resorting to wiping his nose on toilet paper now. In other circumstances he might have taken the day off, but with Mariner away they were already short, and it was Friday, so all he had to do was get through the next few hours, though it didn’t help that it was raining again when he left the house. He was in his car, blowing his nose yet again, when he heard a door slam and in the rear-view mirror he saw Michael emerge from his front door across the road. Wearing only a blazer, the boy’s head was bowed against the weather and Knox watched him pause at the end of his drive to light up a furtive cigarette, before hoisting his school bag over his shoulder and slouching off down the road, shoulders hunched in an effort to minimize his presence. Knox gave him time to reach the corner, then he moved off and caught up with Michael as he was about to cross the main road. Knox signalled and drew up alongside him. ‘Want a lift to the Cartland?’ he asked, identifying a landmark close to the school. Checking first that there was no-one around to observe, Michael shrugged in that nothing-to-lose way that teenagers have, and mumbled, ‘Yeah, all right.’
    â€˜You’ll have to put that out.’ Knox indicated the roll-up gripped between his fingers. For a moment the lad weighed the pleasure of his fag against the discomfort of the rain, before tossing the former down into the gutter and climbing into the car. Amid the smell of tobacco, Knox was instantly aware of the more subtle herbal undertone that he’d noticed before. ‘I wanted to talk to you about Nelson,’ he said casually, pulling away from the kerb. ‘You haven’t been in for him much lately.’
    From the corner of his eye Knox saw the indifferent lift of the shoulders. ‘Been busy.’
    â€˜No problem,’ Knox said, easily. ‘I can’t pay you though.’ The shrug was becoming a tic. ‘Let me know if you’re up for it again,’ Knox said. ‘Is everything else all right?’
    Shrug.
    â€˜Got your birthday to look forward to,’ Knox pointed out. ‘I hear you’re having a party tonight.’
    A huge sigh and a screwed-up face this time. ‘What did she have to tell you for? God, she’s blurting it to everyone.’
    â€˜Hey, stop giving your mum such a hard time and show her some respect,’ Knox said, starting to