Read Online Dead and Buried by Anne Cassidy - Free Book Online

witnesses apart from some CCTV footage of a young man in a hoodie walking away from the alley. What the police got was DNA evidence. In the struggle Skeggsie had scratched his attacker and had hair and skin under his fingernails.
    Rose knew, in her heart, that the person who organised that murder, James Munroe, would never be caught.
    Out of the blue she noticed Joshua’s hand on hers. He stroked her skin for a few moments then pulled his hand back to the steering wheel. She glanced at him but he seemed engrossed in the driving. Her hand was very still and she was sure she could feel the sensation of his touch from seconds before. It gave her a powerful memory, a physical flashback to the way things were between them after Skeggsie died. They had reached out for each other. They had held on to each other and she had kissed him until her lips were swollen. Then they had become more than friends but not quite lovers. Had talking about Skeggsie brought some of those feelings back for Joshua as well?
    There were things she wanted to say but now was not the time to say them. It didn’t seem right to talk about their relationship while this search for their parents was going on. She laced her fingers through each other and sat quietly. One day she would hold him still, make him look at her and tell him that she loved him.
    They drove on.
    ‘Why don’t you come in for a while,’ she said, when they eventually pulled up outside the house in Belsize Park. ‘Anna wants me to bring friends home. She’s redecorating a whole room so that I have somewhere to take them.’
    ‘OK,’ Joshua said.
    He looked tired. He left his jacket in the back of the car. She took his hand, lightly, as she would if he were a small child, and pulled him up the path. The front door opened before she had a chance to put her key in. Her grandmother stood there.
    ‘Rose, that policeman’s here to see you again. Oh, hello, Joshua.’
    Anna looked a little pained. She was still in her ‘Clearing Out the Blue Room’ clothes .
    ‘What does he want?’
    ‘I don’t know. He said he tried to ring you.’
    Rose tutted. Her phone had been on silent.
    ‘He’s in the kitchen. I gave him a drink. I’ll be upstairs. I’ll leave you to talk to him.’
    Rose walked towards the kitchen. Joshua was behind her.
    ‘Shall I go off home? This might be personal.’
    ‘It’s probably to do with the house in Brewster Road. Come on. It’ll include you as well.’
    Henry was in off-duty clothes: a checked jacket and brown trousers. He looked as though he’d dressed up to go to church. Rose wondered if he had, if he believed in God. He stood up as they came in.
    ‘You’re both together. That’s good. I just called at your flat, Joshua. When you weren’t there I took a chance and came here. I’ve got some information for you. Why don’t you sit down.’
    He was acting as though it was his house, not the place where Rose lived.
    Joshua pulled out a chair and sat on it, slouched. Henry’s face was drawn and Rose felt a pang of fear. She sat down on the edge of the chair. The thought came into her head that he had come because something had really happened to her mum or Brendan. They’d seen a Skype recording of them after Christmas and had a text message from them days later. They had been alive then. Could it be that something had happened to them since?
    ‘The detectives in East London have asked me to liaise with both of you regarding the situation at Brewster Road. I hope that’s agreeable. It saves them coming across to see you and as I know you, Rose, I thought you wouldn’t mind.’
    Rose felt a shiver of relief. It was to do with Daisy Lincoln, unconnected to their parents. She sat back, an image in her head of Daisy running across to the road to the car in which the love of her life was sitting. This picture of a girl she hardly knew seemed to have taken root in her thoughts.
    ‘The cause of Daisy Lincoln’s death is not clear. It’s hard after