Read Online Ready or Not by Rachel Thomas - Free Book Online Page B

If it does I’ll have to take you off the case, you know that, don’t you?’
                  Kate nodded, hating herself for feeling like a reprimanded schoolgirl receiving a warning from the head teacher.
                  ‘Dawn Reed and her partner are victims,’ Clayton said. ‘Their child is missing. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?’
                  She wondered why that rule seemed to apply to everyone else but never her.
                  He nodded towards the door and Kate took her cue to leave. She guessed that it was as much for his sake as for hers. She knew that he’d caught the shakiness in her voice and was encouraging her to leave before she got upset and made a fool of herself, or he was forced to deal with an emotional woman. It had never been one of Clayton’s strengths, although he’d always tried his best to be a sympathetic shoulder.
    She was grateful for the invitation to leave .
    In the corridor outside Clayton’s office Kate leaned back against the wall and caught her breath. Her head throbbed and she tried not to let Clayton’s words affect her. ‘Sees things that aren’t there.’ It hadn’t happened for a while now, but she knew it would again, sooner or later , and when it did she would be faced with ridicule by anyone who got to hear about it. She would be in the supermarket and she would see his face – the face she thought might belong to him now – and she would steady herself on her trolley, wait for him to pass; realise as she watched the stranger staring back at her defensively that it wasn’t him. It was never him. Kate closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
    *
    In her memory she placed her feet carefully so that the fallen leaves beneath her would not make a sound. She squeezed her eyes shut tight as though, if Daniel should see her, the fact that she could not see him would mean she had still not yet been found. She placed the palms of her hands against the rough bark behind her, running them over the tree, tracing the grooves and ridges in its trunk.
                  She didn’t know how long she had waited. She had little concept of time at the age of seven: it had felt like a lifetime, but was probably no more than a couple of minutes. Long enough to realise that she had not heard her brother approaching and that he was looking in completely the wrong area for her. She loved to hide, but she didn’t love to be kept waiting too long.
                  ‘Daniel!’ she called.
                  She stayed behind the tree. She looked up at the sky between the branches; saw the ethereal trace of a plane’s journey etched white in the grey above her. She noticed that everything seemed unusually quiet; unnaturally still.
                  ‘Daniel!’ she called again.
                  When he didn’t respond this time, she stepped from behind the tree.
                  She sighed despondently and set about the task of finding her brother. She was supposed to be the one hiding. Kate hated doing the seeking.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Nine
     
    Kate stepped out into the car park, grateful for the fresh air and the change of scenery. The police station towered behind her, grey and looming; a suitably miserable setting for the way she was feeling. She felt as though she had been trapped in that building for days on end; the sadness, the frustration and the lack of joy trapped within those four walls seeping into her skin and draining her emotions. Not days – years. Each one taking another part of her that she would never be able to replace.
                  She was unable to shake off Clayton’s words and felt an uncharacteristic surge of resentment that she knew would be more fairly directed if aimed at herself. It was no good trying to blame him for her failings, any more so than it was worth blaming her mother, her father, Dawn