Read Online The Nightmare Place by Steve Mosby - Free Book Online

Margaret knows how much that will have upset him. How out of place he always felt at school; how badly he was bullied, despite or perhaps because of his size. In truth, she feels it on his behalf. She knows how they make her feel. The contempt is even there in the form of the family, isn’t it? Two successful adults, with a girl and a boy. They’re a perfect vein of gleaming silver in the messy rock of society. A stark contrast to the old lady living across from them, with her misfit great-nephew, the pair of them making their ungainly, piecemeal way through life.
    Margaret rubs Kieran’s arm gently.
    ‘It won’t have been about you,’ she says gently. ‘It will have been the argument they were having. He’ll just have been taking it out on whoever was nearest.’
    ‘You didn’t see him.’ Kieran shakes his head again. ‘I can’t believe it.’
    The garden has actually been on her mind. The grass hasn’t been cut since early last year, before Harold died, and is now so thick that it has coiled up and collapsed on to itself.
    ‘Well, it is very overgrown.’
    ‘It’s none of his business,’ Kieran says. ‘It doesn’t affect him at all . Doesn’t make any difference. It’s up to you how you keep your garden.’
    She gives his arm one last rub. When she removes her hand, he heads back towards the door. This time, he starts to open it, alarming her again.
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘For a cigarette. I was so … annoyed , I just put that last one out and came in.’
    Margaret glances out of the window. The properties are separated by a footpath and a fence, the front doors facing each other. The door opposite is open now. She can see the woman moving around in her kitchen.
    ‘Maybe you should wait.’
    ‘No, to hell with that. This is your house, Maggie. I’m not scared of having it out with him if he wants to.’
    She doesn’t attempt to stop him. But she stays in the kitchen, watching his huge silhouette on the doorstep through the glass door. I don’t need this. I don’t want it. She just hopes the man doesn’t come out again and say something else. Please, no more complications. Not that Kieran would do anything if it came to it, of course. She knows that. It’s just grandstanding. It’s how men can be with each other.
    He’s a good boy really.

Seven

    We were on our way back from the hospital – a third, reluctant interview with Julie Kennedy – when the call came through. Dispatch had figured we might be in the area, and they were right. A little before or after, and it would have been someone else who attended the scene, and that was something that would keep coming back to me later.
    As we approached the property that had been reported over the radio, I saw an elderly man waiting by the side of the road, looking anxious.
    ‘That’ll be him,’ I said. ‘What was his name again?’
    ‘Connelly.’
    Chris indicated and pulled in beside him. I leaned out of the window.
    ‘Mr Connelly?’
    ‘Yes. Thank you so much for coming.’
    ‘That’s okay.’ I got out of the car. ‘What’s the problem?’
    The old man filled in the details, some of which we’d already had from Dispatch. He was concerned about his neighbour, a woman named Sally Vickers. Her daytime routine was like clockwork, he informed us several times, but she hadn’t left the house for work this morning. Apparently they always had a chat, which I imagined was more at his instigation than hers. Her car was still in the drive. He’d tried knocking, and then rung her house number, but there was no reply. Having been following the news, he’d called the police.
    It was the kind of report that under different circumstances would likely have been brushed off by Dispatch. But in the current climate, we were encouraging everyone to be careful and check on their neighbours, and we had to take calls like this seriously. Especially because Sally Vickers was in her mid-twenties and lived alone.
    ‘I’m sure she’s fine, Mr