The Midnight Killing by Sharon Dempsey

Author:Sharon Dempsey [Dempsey, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-06-07T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 38

Danny could remember the summer after he left school. The heady feeling of freedom. The expectation that his life was about to start in Liverpool, far away from home and the suffocation of everyone knowing his business. He longed to wake up in a strange bed and know that the day was his to do what he wanted with. No more six o’clock starts helping his da on the farm. No more routine of home and the drudgery of school.

Liverpool was going to be a blast. He knew it before he’d even arrived. He’d decided on the boat on the way over that he was going to enjoy every minute of his student life. He was going to go to every party, kiss every girl, and live his best life.

Then he met Rose. She was like a challenge, an experiment in how to live without giving a damn. She dared to be her own person without accommodating anyone’s expectations. Danny was a people pleaser, always trying to fit in and make friends, whereas Rose floated around, self-contained and fearless. She needed no one. Danny felt himself drawn to her immediately and with her everything changed.

What seemed like fun the week before – getting hammered on shots and chatting up random girls, with the direct intention of shagging them – no longer appealed. With Rose, everything felt heightened and sensual. Extraordinary.

Rose studied and so he did too. The library was his new go-to place, knowing that was where he’d most likely find her. Happy to have some little moment of contact. He enjoyed trying to keep up with her and the hard work had paid off. Without Rose’s high expectations for herself, he was sure he would have never got a first.

There were times when he marvelled at his good fortune to have chosen the same subjects as Rose – criminology and psychology. What were the odds, he’d wonder, and then he’d smile congratulating himself on his choice as if it was cosmic gift. When he’d go for a run, he’d find he could pass the time thinking of her, imagining new conversations and going over old ones. He fantasised about bringing her home, showing her around the farm, and watching her chat away with his mum at the table.

Soon though, he realised that there was no having a hold over Rose. She didn’t feel the same way about him. There was a bluntness to her, a granite certainty in everything she did, which could irritate Danny. He wanted to ask her how she could be so sure, so certain? Wasn’t one of the joys of life not knowing what to expect? She’d laugh and shake her head, the dark hair falling like a curtain around her face. ‘No, Danny boy, life isn’t all nice surprises and picnics.’

When they discussed politics – global, never the bipartisan farce of home – she’d come alive, debating and challenging his opinions, listening intently before annihilating him with a well-executed argument.

The girls he’d known at school would’ve been no competition for her.

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