Read Online Murder with the Lot by Sue Williams - Free Book Online

in the spare room. In case you hadn’t noticed, she’s pregnant.’ He slammed the door.
    Jesus, Brad. What did he think he was doing with all these poor girls? Should I warn Madison? And Claire? Should a person be expected to warn girls off her own son? I really needed to give Brad that parental pep-talk. I’d have to galvanise myself. I’d do it soon. I would. And then he’d be moving out, far away, in search of a proper job.
    I sighed, staring out the window, at my dried-up backyard, at the struggling pepper tree friendless and alone, its red-fading-to-pink berries carpeting the dust. Piero and I were proud of this place way back when we’d set up. He planted General MacArthur roses around the fence. Piero loved those roses. I scattered his ashes under them, he would have wanted that. But these days the place just looked parched and tired.
    I got up, had a quick, unsatisfying rootle through the briefcase, in case I’d missed something the first forty times I’d looked. No go. I put it back.
    A car pulled up on my gravel driveway. Brad must have forgotten something. I heard a car door open then close. Footsteps crunched over the gravel and a face appeared at the window. It wasn’t Brad. It was yet another visitor, in a week full of them: the tousled-looking fella. The assistant cop who’d pulled me up yesterday, who’d stood behind Sergeant Monaghan. He was on his own, no Monaghan in sight. He seemed a bit old to be the assistant.
    I opened the door.
    â€˜Afternoon.’ He smiled.
    He wore a leather jacket over a creased white shirt. His jeans were dusty. His front teeth overlapped a bit, an endearing kind of overlap.
    â€˜Sorry to bother you. I didn’t realise you’d be closed. I was hoping for a feed of fish and chips.’ He eyed me hungrily. ‘And maybe a couple of Chiko Rolls?’
    There was definitely something about that voice. Where had I heard it? I never like to turn away a customer, so I led him into the shop. He sat and I started up the burner. ‘It’ll take a tick for things to heat up.’
    He had wide blue eyes, like a baby’s. Wide eyes, but somehow disappointed, like the baby’s figured out way too early that life’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
    I scooped up some chips and put them in the basket. ‘I didn’t catch your name yesterday.’
    â€˜Terry.’ He stifled a yawn.
    Maybe he’d spent the night in the car, with Monaghan beside him, snoring, taking up all the space. Maybe Monaghan was a brutal boss. That weepy eye might make him ratty.
    â€˜Sergeant Terry, is it?’ I put his fish and Chiko Rolls into another basket and set it in the sizzling oil.
    â€˜Just call me Terry.’ He twisted a ring around his little finger. No wedding band, although that never tells you. ‘Nice place you’ve got here, Mrs Tuplin.’
    I smiled. Terry’s a name I’ve always liked. ‘Call me Cass.’
    â€˜Um…’ he said, ‘probably sounds stupid, but there’s something about your voice, it sounds familiar.’ He gave me the endearing overlap-tooth smile.
    Muddy Soak, Terry was from Muddy Soak.
    â€˜Blindfold speed dating!’ We both said it at the same time.
    â€˜Yeah, I was sorry I lost you after that fire alarm went off,’ he said. ‘I waited around outside for ages. Trouble was…’
    â€˜You didn’t know what I looked like. Yep, me too.’
    We had a silent little moment while his order hissed in the oil.
    â€˜Look.’ He leaned forward in his chair. ‘You weren’t, ah, holding back on anything yesterday, were you? You look like a smart sort of woman, Cass. A woman who notices things.’
    A smart sort of woman . I didn’t mind that. I slipped an extra Chiko Roll in his order, courtesy of the management.
    I’d bet Terry wouldn’t mind hearing about a briefcase. He wouldn’t go on about