Read Online Did Not Finish by Simon Wood - Free Book Online

again, except sad. I wished I could put a smile on her face instead of pain.
    ‘So that’s why you’re doing this.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘It has nothing to do with Derek Deacon saying he’d kill Alex? I saw you and Mr Beecham arguing at the church.’
    It was stupid on my part to assume she hadn’t heard about the death threat. There was no way Alex could shield her from it. ‘OK, it does.’
    ‘So you think Derek killed Alex?’
    ‘I don’t know for sure.’
    ‘Don’t give me that.’
    I was trying to be kind. It wasn’t working. Alison had probably had enough kindness in recent days. She needed someone to be honest with her.
    ‘Yes, I think he killed Alex. I can’t prove it, but I’m trying to. Derek shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.’
    We were silent with each other. Only the drone of the engine filled the void.
    ‘I didn’t think you knew,’ I said.
    ‘I didn’t have much choice. Everyone was eager to let me in on the news. Like I wanted to hear my fiancé had been marked for death.’
    ‘Did you say anything to Alex?’
    ‘Yes. He told me not to worry about it.’ She shook her head. ‘He said none of it mattered and the best man would win.’
    Alex couldn’t have been more wrong.
    ‘What about his parents?’
    ‘Eric knows. He hasn’t told Laura. She’s not taking this well.’
    ‘What does Mr Fanning think?’
    ‘He thinks it was an accident. He believes all racecar drivers are honourable and do right by each other.’
    ‘Is that how you feel?’
    ‘No.’ Alison shoved the car door open and walked over to the railway station.

Lap Eight
    I spent the rest of my Sunday at home with the photos I’d taken at Stowe Park. I printed out all the images I’d shot and spread the sheets out on the dinner table. I arranged them in storyboard fashion, showing the sequence of the crash from beginning to end.
    ‘So that’s how it happened,’ Steve said over my shoulder.
    I’d been too absorbed to hear my grandfather come in. He’d been on a make-up date with Maggie.
    ‘Yeah,’ I said.
    He nudged me aside to get a better look at the photographs. ‘How’d you get on with the Fannings?’
    ‘They gave me the car. I’ll pick it up next weekend. I should be able to see where Derek’s wheels made contact with Alex.’
    Steve nodded. He picked up the picture of the wall showing the imprint of Alex’s impact. He examined it for a long moment. He’d witnessed a lot of fatal crashes working the pits. The sixties were a dark time. Safety measures were primitive to say the least, and track deaths were commonplace compared with today. He’d been there when Bruce MacLean died at Goodwood. It had been hard to get him to work the pits with me. The deaths of Mum and Dad were still too raw for him, but he relented. He needed to be there to watch over me like he had with Dad. He returned the picture to where he’d found it.
    ‘So you’ve got a public death threat, the car and these skid marks,’ he said tapping a picture. ‘It’s a start. What else have you got?’
    The pictures looked damning, but only because of what Derek had said. To an outsider, the police, a jury, these were merely skid marks. They didn’t show malice. These pictures told a story, but without a narrator, the story was meaningless. ‘Nothing.’
    He pulled out a seat alongside me and sat. ‘We can’t do this alone, Aidy. I understand this is important to you, but we don’t have all the answers and we have little influence over the outcome.’
    I wanted to argue, but I’d never be able to twist Derek’s arm into confessing and I didn’t have the power to secure the raw video from Redline. I wasn’t trying to bring Derek down by myself. I just wanted to produce some evidence that would turn the investigation in the right direction. Looking at the photos now, I saw I had little capability of swaying anyone, even myself. I reached over and picked up the pictures.
    Steve put a hand on my shoulder. ‘You’re doing