The Shadow Friend by Alex North

Author:Alex North [North, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405936262
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2020-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

20

Paul didn’t drive far.

A few minutes after they’d left the hospital grounds, he indicated and pulled into a car park. Amanda drove in and parked up behind, then followed him into the pub at the side. Given the general state of Gritten, she was worried it would be a pit, but it turned out to be nice enough: dark wood and polished brass, with enough screens to suggest it would be lively later, but quiet for the moment. Most importantly of all right now, of course, it had a bar.

I need a drink.

Amanda imagined she had said that numerous times in her life, usually after what had been, in hindsight, a comparatively mild day at work. Today it was genuinely true. The near encounter back at Billy Roberts’s house had caused her fight-or-flight mechanism to kick in, and after the police and ambulance arrived, the adrenaline had begun to settle listlessly in her system like sludge. Adrenaline was a poison; if you didn’t use it up, it used you instead. She had been shivering as she talked to the lead detective, a man named Graham Dwyer, and her hands were still trembling a little even now.

The barmaid fetched a beer for Paul automatically. Mindful of the drink-driving limit, Amanda ordered a single vodka and coke along with a separate single shot. She downed the latter in one as soon as it arrived. Paul started to get his wallet out, but she waved him away, her throat burning.

‘On me.’

‘Thanks.’

Once the order was settled, she looked around and then led him to a table to one side, as far away from the handful of other customers as possible. As they sat down, she resisted the urge to down the second drink too. Instead, she just took a sip, closing her eyes and rolling the liquid around her mouth.

‘Is this about this morning?’ Paul said.

Amanda swallowed slowly and opened her eyes.

‘This morning?’

‘The marks on my mother’s door,’ Paul said. ‘An officer came to the house. Holder, I think his name was. He took photos, but he didn’t seem that interested.’

Amanda certainly was.

‘What kind of marks?’

‘Someone knocked on the door in the night and left fist prints on the wood. The officer thought it was probably just a prank.’

‘That’s a weird kind of prank.’

‘Yeah, I thought so.’

He stared back at her for a moment, as though he wanted to explain a little more but wasn’t sure how. Then he shook his head.

‘But you’re not here because of that.’

‘No.’ Amanda got out her ID and showed him. ‘I’m not with the Gritten Police Department. I’m from a place called Featherbank.’

She watched his reaction to that closely. If Paul Adams was behind the CC666 account, the place name would surely be familiar to him. But his face didn’t show a flicker of recognition.

She put the ID away. ‘I’m here because of a crime that occurred there last weekend. A murder. Two boys killed one of their classmates.’

That got a reaction. Paul closed his eyes and began rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.

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