Read Online Dishonour by Helen Black - Free Book Online Page B

didn’t answer. A drop of blood trickled between his eyes.
    ‘You must not say anything else,’ she said.
    She led Raffy from his cell to the custody sergeant’s desk, where DI Bell was hovering.
    The sarge nodded at Raffy’s head. ‘Is that one of them bindi things?’
    ‘No,’ Lilly sighed. ‘It’s a cut.’
    ‘How did that happen?’ asked the sarge.
    ‘Don’t ask.’
    The sarge shrugged. If the boy’s solicitor wasn’t worried that was clearly good enough for him.
    ‘Raffique Khan,’ he said, ‘I am charging you with the murder of Yasmeen Khan.’
    He read out the caution and looked towards Lilly. ‘Does your client have any reply?’
    She shook her head and was about to sign the documentation when Raffy stuck out his chin.
    ‘I do not accept the jurisdiction of British law,’ he said.
    ‘Say what?’ the sarge laughed.
    Raffy’s nostrils flared. ‘You asked me if I had anything to say and I replied that I do not accept the jurisdiction of British law.’
    Lilly couldn’t believe it. She had advised Raffy to say nothing at all. Didn’t he realise that his answer to the caution was on the record?
    ‘I am a Muslim and I do not bow to your rules of evidence,’ Raffy continued.
    Lilly closed her eyes. This was an utter disaster.
    ‘Are you having me on?’ asked the sarge.
    ‘Just write it down,’ Bell instructed, rubbing his hands together.
    Smoke hung in the air. Lilly coughed and felt her way down the office stairs to the old cellar where the fuse box was located.
    After her hideous day she had decided to set up the espresso machine for a coffee. Jack had stopped drinking caffeine, said that she should try it, that her energy levels and concentration would increase tenfold. Maybe he was right, but Raffy’s performance at the nick had left her with no willpower. A tiny, brutishly strong espresso with at least two sugars was definitely in order. No doubt the pregnancy police would be up in arms but millions of Italian women survived, didn’t they?
    Instead there was a fizz, a bang, the fishy smell of wires burning, then the office had been plunged into darkness.
    Lilly patted her hand along the cold plaster of the cellar wall. It felt moist and crumbly to the touch. Rising damp. Fantastic. There wasn’t enough money in the kitty to decorate, let alone deal with mould.
    Her fingers searched for the control board, hoping against hope that she had simply overloaded the system and tripped it. When she finally found the row of switches she crossed her toes and flicked.
    The lights came on.
    ‘There is a God,’ she muttered and ambled back to the stairs, studiously ignoring the dark wet patches that scaled the cellar walls and the telltale lines of mice droppings that littered the carpet.
    Back in the reception she surveyed the complete disarray. What had she been thinking of, setting up her own firm? She had never been any good at organisation. The only reason Rupinder hadn’t sacked her was that she admired Lilly’s unwavering commitment to her clients. And in the end, even that had proved too much, leading to chaos and disaster for all concerned.
    When Rupinder retired due to ill health there was no question of the other partners allowing Lilly to continue and she had been left with the choice of getting another job or working for herself.
    Now her decision was beginning to look somewhat rash.
    She had promised both Jack and Sam that things were going to be different, that she would stay well awayfrom any children who happened to find themselves in the centre of terrible crimes. Hell, she had promised herself that she would no longer put herself on the line. The emotional fallout was simply too great let alone the danger that she seemed to attract.
    Yet here she was again with another fifteen-year-old charged with murder. But what was she supposed to do? The kid had no father, and his mother wasn’t exactly a rock. Could she really turn her back so easily?
    Lilly sank into a chair,