Read Online Murder Ring (A DI Geraldine Steel Mystery) by Leigh Russell - Free Book Online

from his crazy brother.
    ‘You nearly give me a heart attack, coming in like that, crashing and banging,’ she complained. ‘Why’d you have to make such a racket?’
    Jack took a step away from Theo and turned to look at her. ‘What you mean? Why you crying, woman? What you scared of?’
    She realised her mistake straight away. ‘It’s nothing, nothing at all,’ she said quickly, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. ‘I ain’t scared of nothing. I just thought you was at work, that’s all.’
    He caught sight of the bread knife she was still clutching. ‘You going to shank me?’
    ‘I was thinking of making toast,’ she muttered.
    ‘Don’t stop! Don’t stop! Wait till my Jack gets home!’ Theo screeched suddenly.
    Jack frowned. ‘Who’s been upsetting you, ma?’
    ‘No one.’
    Jack turned to his brother. ‘What’s going on, kid?’
    ‘Wait till my Jack gets home,’ Theo repeated, over and over. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’
    ‘Oh yes,’ Jack said, ‘I nearly forgot, I got something for you.’
    Theo stopped talking. He giggled as Jack reached into his bag and pulled out a giant Toblerone.
    ‘Well? You want it? Huh?’
    He raised the chocolate bar as high as he could above his head but Theo grabbed it and scuttled to his room. They could hear him chortling and chattering to himself. Rosa laughed. Theo loved to squirrel things away.
    ‘It’s a wonder he ever finds anything in there,’ she said. ‘Have you looked in his room lately?’
    ‘Leave it out. He’s got little enough. I’m not surprised he wants to keep whatever he can get his hands on. You leave him alone.’
    ‘I don’t take nothing off him. And I never go in that room no more. He screams if I even touch his door.’
    Jack muttered about a person being entitled to some privacy.
    ‘I can’t even get in there to clean. It stinks in there.’
    Theo came back in the living room and stood in front of Jack. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’
    Jack nodded. ‘I hadn’t forgotten, bro. What happened? Who’s been upsetting ma?’
    Theo flapped his arms, laughing.
    Jack turned to Rosa. ‘You got to tell me, ma. Something happened. Was it that punk next door?’
    Shaking her head, Rosa insisted nothing was amiss. Theo was just talking shit. She could see Jack didn’t believe her for a minute.
    ‘It was that old git next door, wasn’t it?’
    Theo picked up his deflated football and began kicking it at the wall making a regular thumping sound. As though he had been waiting for a signal, the bloke next door banged on the wall, and began shouting at Theo to shut the fuck up. Theo giggled.
    ‘I bloody knew it.’
    Jack spun on his heel and strode out of the room with Rosa trotting to catch up with him. At the front door she reached out and seized his arm.
    ‘What you doing, Jack? Don’t make no trouble. It’s us got to live here.’
    ‘Shut it, ma. That old fucker ain’t nothing but trouble. I’m going to shut him up, once and for all. That’s all. Don’t fuss. I aint’ gonna hurt him, not unless I have to.’
    ‘Leave it, Jack. He ain’t worth the trouble.’
    ‘No, but you are. No one gets away with pissing you off, not if I can help it.
    ‘He ain’t pissed me off, he –’
    ‘Well, he’s pissed me off.’
    He shook himself free of her grasp and went out. He wasn’t gone for long. When he returned he seemed energised. There was a lightness in his stride and a brightness in his eyes.
    ‘Oh Jack, what you gone and done?’
    ‘It needed sorting and someone had to do it.’
    ‘What’s that on your hand?’
    Jack glanced at a wide streak of blood on the back of his hand. Theo stared at it too, his eyes wide with admiration.
    ‘That?’ Jack said with a dismissive shrug. ‘Ain’t nothing. It ain’t as if it’s mine.’
    He laughed loudly. Watching him, Theo clapped his hands together and giggled. ‘Wait till my Jack gets home!’ he crooned, over and over.
    ‘Oh shut up for fuck’s sake,’ Rosa