Blood Lines

by Angela Marsons

  Twenty minutes in and I left just as soon as my entertainment waned.

  I was too excited to get home and begin. I had too much to do.

  When I opened the door she seemed almost pleased to see me. There was relief and then fear and then hope and then fear. I offered her no response. I no longer had any interest in her face. She was not a person to me. She was a thing. She was my thing.

  And I could do with her exactly as I wished.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

  Kim tapped on the door and waited. She could hear the collection of male voices that sounded from the room immediately to the left of the property. A single familiar voice reached her as he moved through the hallway towards the front door.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get it,’ he called.

  Kim knew the voice well and smiled as the door opened.

  ‘Kim,’ he said, looking puzzled.

  ‘David,’ she acknowledged in return. He stood still looking at her.

  She stared back. ‘Umm… now the introductions are complete, may I come in?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, stepping back, allowing her room to enter.

  Her presence at Hardwick House was not a totally alien occurrence. Since meeting during the earlier investigation into Alex she had visited a couple of times. At one time there may have been an ember of a spark between the two of them, but it had quickly died once they had spent hours talking about their shared love of motorcycles. Being friends had been the best thing for both of them. And as Bryant had pointed out – David Hardwick was far too nice for her.

  David was the housemother for a privately funded facility that housed males released from prison and attempted to reintegrate them into a world that had moved on in their absence. The average stay was around six months.

  Alexandra Thorne had offered her services as a psychiatrist free to the facility as an apparent act of benevolence. In truth it had been the perfect arena in which to sharpen her manipulating skills to get what she wanted. By her own admission she had used the occupants of Hardwick House as target practice.

  Some people had survived her manipulations and some had not been so lucky.

  Kim followed David through to the kitchen. He pointed to the coffee machine and looked at her.

  She nodded.

  They also shared a love of good coffee.

  His fair hair was even lighter than the last time she’d seen him. She realised it had been bleached by the sun and that it had been more than six months since her last visit.

  She opened her mouth to apologise and closed it again. No apology was needed between them.

  ‘So, what brings you—?’

  ‘David, where is Leo?’ Kim asked, unable to hold the words in any longer.

  David looked stunned. ‘Sorry… why would you ask… ?’

  Kim took out her phone and showed him the text message.

  It read simply, ‘How is Leo?’

  David stepped back against the counter. ‘Is that from Alex?’

  Kim nodded. He understood her power much more easily this time. The first time she had come to him, he had struggled to understand why a person like Alex did not have red horns and a pointy tale. The fact that she was beautiful and charming had always assisted Alex in her endeavours. Although she had never quite managed to get her claws into David.

  Initially, he had been disbelieving of her motivations and capabilities despite the fact he had sensed that something just wasn’t quite right with the psychiatrist who was so generous with her time to a bunch of ex-convicts.

  ‘He’s still in prison, as far as I know. You remember—’

  ‘Of course I remember,’ Kim said, as David turned back towards the coffee maker.

  Leo was perhaps the person most damaged by Alex. She had manipulated him into doing unspeakable things and had cruelly sent him straight back to prison once he had served his purpose.

  David had tried to visit him, attempted to find out what had happened for Alex to lodge an assault charge against the young man, but Leo had refused to see him and requested that David never visit him again.

  David had enough to do with the men that wanted his assistance than to continually chase after people who did not.

  ‘Have you seen her?’ he asked.

  Kim nodded and sighed.

  ‘Is that a good idea?’

  She laughed. ‘Of course not but you know how she works.’ She pointed to her phone. ‘She knows I would want to know what’s happened to Leo, another one of her damaged souls.’

  David didn’t turn when he spoke. ‘You weren’t responsible, Kim,’ he said. ‘She was experimenting here on Leo way before she crossed your radar. I was the one who missed it here, not you.’

  He said the same thing every time but she still felt responsible. If only she could have stopped the woman before she left the trail of carnage that she had.

  ‘Okay, enough of the guilt party,’ Kim said. ‘There’s only you and me here so it’s just plain sad.’

  He nodded his agreement but she knew that, just like her, he would question why it took so long for him to spot the type of person she really was and mourn for the people she had destroyed in the meantime.

  David took out his phone. ‘Let me call Stephen,’ he said, referring to the welfare coordinator who matched prisoners with Hardwick House.

  As he put the phone to his ear Kim sensed a presence in the doorway behind her. She didn’t need to turn to know who it was. A smile began to spread across her face.

  ‘Hello, Dougie,’ she said, gently.

  Dougie didn’t fit the Hardwick House criterion. He was in his early twenties, autistic. He had been thrown out of home aged twelve and had somehow survived out of skips and bins until David had caught him out back. As David always said, ‘Dougie’s room was for life’, and, as he and his brother shared the foundation responsible for Hardwick House, it was a claim that he could safely make.

  She heard his trainer-clad feet shuffle into the room behind her. She stood and reached up to place her palm against his cheek. His eyes didn’t move from their fixed point on the ceiling but a small smile rested on his lips. His palm found her cheek. Initially, it was the way she had shown him that she was no threat. It was the way she had shown him that she was trying to save his life at the canal side, and it had been their form of greeting ever since.

  ‘Kim… o… o… o… ok?’ he asked. He blinked on each ‘o’ that sounded.

  ‘I’m fine, Dougie, and you look very well too.’

  He nodded and continued nodding as he turned and left the room. Kim felt a rush of affection as he left. That young man would never understand just how instrumental he had been in helping her to get Alexandra Thorne behind bars.

  She looked back to David, who was listening intently to his contact. The frown on his face lit the anxiety in her stomach. The conversation was taking far too long for a simple confirmation.

  ‘Thanks, mate, appreciate it,’ he said, ending the call.

  David shrugged. ‘He’s going to do some checking and ring me back.’

  ‘Damn,’ Kim said, as a suspicion started growing in her mind.

  ‘Is it really so bad if he’s out of prison, Kim?’ David asked. ‘We both know that place is going to kill him.’

  ‘Depends on why he’s out, doesn’t it?’ she answered, before voicing what they were both thinking. ‘And if she’s managed to get to him again.’

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

  Kim had just kicked off her boots when the sound of the door startled her. Even Barney’s head shot up and then looked to her for guidance. Normally, the only person that knocked her door was Bryant, and she tended to have a sixth sense about when he would appear.

  She pulled the door open and was surprised to see Gemma standing there.

  It took Kim a few seconds to catch up, which was long enough for the girl to see the confusion.

  ‘You forgot,’ she stated moodily as she turned to walk away.

  ‘No, no, it’s just been
a long day,’ Kim said, finally recalling their conversation the previous night. In her mind it had taken place two weeks ago.

  ‘I was just about to throw in a pizza,’ she said, as the girl took another step away.

  Gemma paused.

  ‘It’s nothing fancy,’ Kim said, feeling terrible that she’d forgotten her offer of a meal.

  ‘Well, I don’t wanna be any fucking trouble,’ she said caustically.

  Kim couldn’t help the smile that played around her lips. Oh, she already knew this kid well.

  She also knew that she could do with a good meal. Unfortunately, for that the girl would need to go elsewhere but for one night Kim could make sure she wasn’t out doing anything dangerous in order to eat.

  Barney sat in the doorway to the kitchen. His tail was tensing as though it wanted to wag but there was doubt in his eyes.

  ‘It’s okay, boy,’ Kim said, as Gemma followed her through.

  Barney headed towards Gemma cautiously. Gemma held out her hand.

  ‘I remember you from the other night,’ she said, smiling at the dog.

  Barney accepted one stroke of the head and walked away.

  Other than herself Barney appeared to prefer men. When Bryant visited, the dog wouldn’t leave him alone.

  ‘I didn’t think you’d come, to be honest,’ Kim said, opening the freezer door.

  ‘I wasn’t fucking gonna, to be honest, but there was a gap in my social calendar.’

  Kim wished she couldn’t almost quote what was going to come out of her mouth next. If not the exact words then the attitude and the tone.

  Kim was about to respond when her phone sounded from behind her. She saw immediately that it was David.

  ‘Gotta take this,’ Kim said, reaching for the phone.

  ‘Fuck this,’ Gemma said, standing up.

  Kim skidded the pizza box across the breakfast bar towards her. ‘How high and for how long?’ she said, switching on the ignition to the oven.

  ‘You fucking kidding me?’ Gemma asked.

  ‘About what?’

  ‘You don’t know how to cook a pizza?’

  Kim shrugged. ‘Pretty much like everything else: wallop it in on the middle shelf and take it out when it’s brown, or some other colour,’ she said, pressing the answer button on the phone.

  ‘Hey,’ she said as a greeting.

  ‘Leo’s out,’ David said, without preamble.

  Kim closed her eyes for a second. She’d suspected as much. ‘How?’ she asked.

  ‘Case review, prompted by new information.’

  ‘What new information?’ she asked, glancing at Gemma, who was trying not to listen to a conversation she couldn’t fail to overhear.

  ‘An admission from Alex that she may have overreacted to the incident at her office. His parole was revoked because of the incident with Alex. With her retracting her statement and a very expensive lawyer on the case—’

  ‘Don’t tell me, Alex’s lawyer?’ she asked.

  ‘Bingo. He was released three months ago.’

  ‘Shit, shit, shit,’ Kim said. The woman had got Leo thrown back in prison and released again just because it suited whatever sick game she was playing this time. Alex’s willingness to manipulate people’s lives to her will should not have surprised her anymore. And yet it still did.

  Kim turned towards the window. ‘You know she’s controlling him again, don’t you?’

  David sighed heavily before speaking, signalling his agreement.

  ‘I’m going to see if I can find out where he was released to,’ he said.

  Kim could hear the concern in his voice. Neither of them believed Leo deserved to be in prison but was being tied to Alex any better fate?

  ‘Thanks, David. Let me know,’ she said, ending the call.

  Her first instinct was to get on the bike and ride the streets looking for him. Although they’d never met she had seen his photograph in the newspapers when he’d been returned to prison on Alex’s instruction. If she hadn’t had a green-haired kid in her kitchen, staring at her dolefully, it’s what she probably would have done.

  She had no idea what she would do if she found him but the first part of the plan was good.

  ‘You’re not joking, are you?’ Gemma asked, frowning. ‘You really can’t cook?’

  ‘Look, I’m no Nigella but I can manage a bloody pizza,’ she said, defensively.

  ‘Well… ’ Gemma said, reading the back of the box.

  Kim opened the freezer again realising that one pizza was not going to go very far.

  ‘What about these?’ she asked, holding up a bag of frozen burgers.

  Gemma looked at her like she was mad. ‘Got any chips, fries?’

  Kim delved further. ‘Potato wedges?’

  ‘More like it,’ Gemma said, sliding the pizza box towards her. ‘Pizza needs thirty-five minutes from frozen on gas mark five.’

  ‘Okay,’ Kim said as she unwrapped it and threw it onto the top shelf.

  She emptied half the bag of wedges onto a baking tray and put them on the middle shelf.

  ‘You’re proper clueless, aren’t you?’ Gemma asked, shaking her head. ‘How the fuck did you get to be bacon?’

  Kim held up her hands. ‘What?’

  Gemma got off the stool and came around to the cooker. She took the oven glove and opened the oven door.

  ‘You’re cooking dough on the top shelf and potato on the bottom. Heat rises so the top shelf will be cooked way before the middle shelf.’ She shook her head with disgust. ‘Seriously?’

  Kim shrugged.

  Gemma swapped the baking trays over and closed the door.

  ‘Now they have a fighting chance of being cooked at the same time.’ She stepped back to the stool and eyed Kim suspiciously. ‘You sure you’re a copper?’

  Kim smiled. ‘Yes.’

  ‘You any good at it?’ Gemma asked, suspiciously.

  ‘My boss seems to think so,’ Kim answered. Well, maybe not her temporary boss, but Woody certainly had no complaints. Okay, not many.

  ‘Hmm… fucking shocker.’

  ‘My ability to solve crimes does not depend on my ability to cook a pizza,’ Kim explained.

  ‘Good fucking job.’

  Kim tipped her head. ‘Do you have to use that word in every sentence?’

  She thought for a moment then nodded. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Did you get all your stuff sorted?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Stuff?’

  ‘From having your bag taken.’

  Gemma rolled her eyes. ‘What’s to fucking sort? Luckily my f… stocks and share certificates were in the Hermes bag I left at home.’

  Kim laughed out loud. Sarcasm was a humour she had always enjoyed. She appreciated the fact the girl pronounced it ‘her mez’.

  ‘Drink?’ Kim offered.

  Gemma’s eyes lit up.

  ‘I don’t keep alcohol. I was thinking coffee or I have tea… somewhere.’

  ‘Tap water,’ Gemma said.

  Kim took a glass and filled it.

  Gemma nodded towards the oven. ‘You gonna check on them?’

  Kim followed her gaze. ‘Why, are they going to do a trick?’

  Gemma sighed and again came around the other side.

  ‘Thanks for offering to cook me a meal,’ Gemma mumbled as she opened the oven door.

  She took out the tray of wedges. ‘Do you have a spatula?’

  Kim shrugged. ‘Unless it came attached to a 1600 cc engine, I don’t have the first clue.’

  ‘Do you even have knives and forks?’ Gemma asked incredulously.

  ‘Somewhere.’

  Gemma checked a couple of drawers.

  ‘This is what I’m after.’

  She held up a tall utensil with a wide flattened end. Kim suspected it had come free with something. She certainly couldn’t remember walking into a shop and thinking that she needed one.

  Gemma turned the potato wedges and shook the tray around.

  She reac
hed for the salt and offered a light sprinkling of the condiment before putting the wedges back in the oven.

  ‘So, what are you doing to earn money to eat?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Whatever I need to,’ Gemma answered honestly.

  Kim had now lost count of the sentences that had not contained the ‘F’ word.

  ‘Your mum… ?’

  ‘Is a bit busy right now.’

  ‘You get on?’

  Gemma thought and then nodded. ‘She loves me and I love her and once I learned to lower my expectations we got along just fine.’

  ‘Sometimes—’

  ‘Boring subject. Can we talk about something else, like why you made a motorbike reference?’

  ‘You interested?’

  Gemma shook her head and smirked. ‘Not really. Just changing the subject.’

  Kim appreciated her honesty. She nodded towards the garage door. ‘Take a look, anyway.’

  She had asked the girl over for the purpose of giving her a meal not a reforming session. It was her life to live.

  ‘Why, what’s in there?’ Gemma asked, trying to look beyond Kim.

  ‘Go and see.’

  Gemma hopped off the stool and stepped over Barney to stand in the doorway.

  ‘Shut the fucking door… oops, sorry,’ she said, stepping over the scattered bike parts on the floor and stopping at the Kawasaki Ninja.

  Kim smiled as Gemma gingerly touched the polished metallic paint on the petrol tank.

  ‘It’s even better in the light and your cool points just jumped up a level,’ Gemma said, now stroking the black leather seat.

  ‘Oh good, ’cos that was really beginning to worry me.’

  Gemma frowned. ‘Be careful, someone might be planning on having this away.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘There was a guy… over the road, earlier, when I came. Just standing and watching—’

  ‘Was he watching my house?’ Kim asked, urgently.

  Gemma shrugged.

  ‘What did he look like?’

  ‘Tall, thin, mousy hair,’ Gemma answered.

  ‘Where exactly?’ Kim asked.

  ‘Behind the lamp post.’

  ‘Wait here,’ she said, as she sprinted through the house and out the front door. Her eyes locked on the lamp post. A grey-haired lady was walking two white Westies but there was no other soul in sight.