Guilty Conscious, Oliver Davies [small books to read TXT] 📗

to life, one bulb popping in the corner, but it was enough for me to see the state of the place. Not as bad. There weren’t any more holes in the walls or floors, the electrics and plumbing were safe again, and the stairs didn’t look like they would come crumbling down the moment you stepped foot on them. The bar was covered in boxes, crates were stacked along one wall, construction equipment in the other corner. I’d gotten the materials to sort out the cupboards on the wall behind the bar, so I shucked my coat and jumper off, rolled my sleeves to my elbows and turned on some music on my phone, dragging the boxes down to give myself space to work.

It was always soothing, being back here. But knowing that Elsie’s house lay dark and quiet across the path was an unpleasant feeling. She usually dropped in whilst I worked, scaring me most of the time, or at least offered me something to eat and drink before I drove back to the city.

This time, I was on my own, which wasn’t so bad. I needed some headspace to think everything through.

I thought back to the Halloween party, imagining Billie and Stella there, the look on Billie’s face when she realised Stella was gone. The crowded house of drunk, high students all dressed up in costumes and makeup, hard to tell who was actually who as she searched through the hallways and rooms. The look on her face next when she found Stella, sitting on the floor of a guest room, bruised and silent, clothes rumpled, probably torn. Billie had had to pick her up and get her to the car, take her to the hospital and the police station, sit there, holding her hand through it all without their mother, without their father, with all of her friends doubting and siding with the person she had, at one point, probably trusted.

It was easy to see how that might turn foul inside her, how that hatred for Edward Vinson grew every time Stella had a panic attack, every time she heard a certain song. She’d given up her studies, started working full time, more a mother than a sister. And then she’d had her taken away. After all of that, Stella was gone. Billie wouldn’t blame Stella, wouldn’t have it in her. But she would blame Edward, and she would be angry. I thought about Sally, what I might do to someone if they’d ever hurt her in such a way and was impressed, honestly, that Billie had only punched him the once.

I got caught up in my thoughts, the methodical work, the music on the radio and my own laboured breaths that I didn’t hear the door open, didn’t hear the footsteps traipsing across the room until a hand reached out and tapped my shoulder.

I swung round, hammer in hand, expecting the worst, and Sally danced back out of reach, swatting my arm.

“Christ, Max, you’re gonna take my bloody head off!”

“Christ me?” I spluttered. “You’re the one who scared the living daylights out of me!” I dropped the hammer, trying to calm down my racing heart as Sally looked me over with a smirk.

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people,” I told her pointedly. “It’s rude.”

“Not my fault you couldn’t hear me over the sound of your own breathing. Like a sodding bulldog,” she chirped, hopping up onto one of the bar stools.

I rolled my eyes and relaxed, leaning against the wall. “What are you doing here?”

“Tom had a meeting with the board,” she told me, and I kicked myself. He worked on the campus on the other side of the city, but he still worked for the university.

“All well?”

Sally waved a hand. “Not much to do with him, but I know he’ll have questions for you. I came out to see mum and dad,” she explained. “Saw your car outside. You’ve been to see Elsie?”

I nodded. “She was asleep.”

“Probably needs it. Mum saw her earlier when she was awake. Asked after you, apparently.”

“I am her favourite,” I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes. “Only because you lived right next door. If I lived on this lane, I would be favourite, and we both know it.”

I just smiled and sat down on a box. Sally looked down at me, her smile faltering.

“What’s up?”

“This case,” I sighed. “It’s dragging me down a bit.”

“Not an easy one?” she asked.

“Every time I think I find something, it just yanks out even more confusion. I found a way into the building and no clue who knew it was there. I find a suspect, and I don’t think she’s a killer. Sharp thinks I might have a slight conflict of interest,” I added.

“You?” Sally frowned, crossing one leg over the other. “Why?”

I looked up at her with a sigh, and she held out both hands.

“I will take any secret you tell me to the grave, you know that. No names,” she said.

“No names,” I replied. “There’s a girl, a kid basically, she’s only twenty. Mother’s dead, father’s an alcoholic long out of the picture, her sister died a few weeks ago. Suicide, and she’s a suspect.”

Sally’s face tightened with grief. “Bless her. So, she’s all on her own?”

I nodded. “And they were close, her and her sister. She practically raised her.”

Sally swore. “I can see why that might be a bother for you.” When I raised an eyebrow, Sally sighed. “Anytime you meet anyone like that, someone with strained parental relationships, someone on their own, this happens.” She gestured around the coaching house. “You try to fix the same problem they have because you don’t think you managed to fix yours.”

“I didn’t fix it,” I replied.

Sally scoffed and slid down from the stool, coming to sit beside me, knocking her elbow into mine. “You did. At least, she thought you did.”

“She was sick.”

“Come on, Max. She could have been stark raving mad on cocaine, and she’d still have been the smartest woman, smartest person,