Sirens
Page 31
‘A cocktail, in the end. Anything they’d sell me,’ she said blankly. Then there was a flicker of life in her eyes. ‘I regretted it as soon as I saw Grip. And Zain never even touched the stuff. I didn’t know he’d kept it. Then Isabelle stole that brick and used from it. Sold it on. All those kids,’ she said. ‘All those kids at Sycamore Way …’
‘You couldn’t have known. You left the black and white paint at Fairview?’
‘I wanted them to fucking remember her.’
‘How did you find out where Joanna was?’
‘Grip told me. Matter-of-factly one day, after he came out of the coma. Zain tracked her down, after she’d agreed to give evidence against him.’
‘And you left the city after that night at Rubik’s?’
She nodded, lowered her eyes. I thought about what Zain had told me. She saved your life.
‘I looked for you,’ I said.
‘You shouldn’t have.’ She raised her eyes. ‘I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t have. I asked you. I told you not to get to know me. I suppose you didn’t, really. Are the police outside, Aidan?’
‘Of course not. But you should leave, now, go as far as you can. If I can find you then so can he.’
‘I …’ She looked at me. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘You need to leave. Now. Don’t tell me where you’re going, either. You can close this deal remotely if the flat’s yours.’
She tilted her head, didn’t move for a moment. Then she took a step closer, searching my eyes for the cruelty. The lie.
‘Why can’t I tell you?’
‘You never know who might ask.’ A dull pain went through my leg. ‘Or how they might put the question.’
She raised a hand, put it on my skin, the way a blind person might memorize a face. It felt like my whole life might change. She took another step and kissed me lightly on the cheek. I moved so we were eye to eye, but we just stood there, neither one daring to go any further. It was just a moment and then she broke away. Walked past me to the door. I heard it close behind her. For a minute I could still smell her scent. I went to the window and waited. It was dusk, somewhere between day and night.
True to Carver’s prediction, Laskey didn’t live to see trial. Detective Alan Kernick was convicted of statutory rape, among other things. He went to prison for the rest of his life, which didn’t turn out to be very long, either. An autopsy showed that Grip – Danny Gripe – had drowned on black and white paint before the agonizing effects of the spiked Eight could take hold. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. When they cremated him, I was the only person there. Sheldon White was convicted of his murder, and Zain Carver walked the streets again, good as new.
Sarah Jane went back to whoring.
I didn’t find out until a year after I’d put her on the train, when Sutty showed me the story. They found her, asphyxiated, crushed inside a suitcase in the dismal industrial town she was born in. That pretty girl I’d known.
I watched Catherine from the window, my hand pressing hard into the glass. There should be a word for it. That phantom limb, reaching out from your chest, towards things you’ll never have. She crossed the road with wide, lovely strides, and I always wonder what she went on to. The last shred of sunlight caught her hair when she turned the corner, like the start of one thing and the end of another. The dusk itself. I never saw her again.
About the Author
Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He runs, writes and reads compulsively. Sirens is his first novel.
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First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Doubleday
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Joseph Knox 2017
Cover design by Richard Ogle
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This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781473541962
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