Touch by Robert Innes

Author:Robert Innes [Innes, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-06T14:00:00+00:00

The corridor to Hattie’s office reminded Blake of the cold and stark entrance to the headmistresses’ office at school, even down to the pictures of the highest achieving students on the wall. As he walked down the corridor and towards the office door, a brief flash of one of the dark and endless corridors of the old house swept through his mind. Blake closed his eyes and steadied himself against the wall.

“Enough,” he muttered to himself. “Get a grip.”

“Hello?” said a voice behind him.

Blake opened his eyes and turned to see Peter Simpkins walking towards him.

“Are you looking for Hattie?” Peter asked, gazing at Blake with trepidation. “Is she not in there?”

“I haven’t actually tried yet,” Blake said.

Peter reached past him and knocked sharply on the door.

“Hattie?” he called. There was no response.

Blake frowned. “Where would she be? She was told not to go anywhere, everyone was.”

“She might be outside having a smoke,” Peter replied, shrugging. “She normally goes out the fire exit. I can take you to her if you like. I need to talk to her myself anyway.”

“That’d be great, thanks,” Blake replied as they set off back down the corridor together. “While I’ve got you, can I ask you some questions about your relationship with Scott?”

Peter looked up at Blake nervously. “I didn’t kill him.”

“I didn’t say you did,” Blake replied cheerfully as he held the door at the end of the corridor open. “You didn’t get on very well with him though, did you?”

“No, not really,” Peter said, still looking nervous. “Can you blame me though? The guy was a bully. Sorry, but I’m not exactly sorry that’s he’s dead.”

“That’s alright,” Blake replied. “You’d be surprised how often I hear that. Even from the people who had nothing to do with the murder.”

Peter appeared to mellow slightly. “I guess.”

“The problem I have though is that it seems that there aren’t that many people who are sorry that he’s dead,” Blake continued. “Do you happen to know if Scott had many more enemies?”

“Anybody on the Clackton team,” Peter said as they pushed their way through another door. “Scott wasn’t the sort of person to have many friends. I mean he had Paul, his best mate, and then of course there’s Sarah.”

“Who’s Sarah?”

“His girlfriend.”

“Was she at the match today?”

“Probably,” Peter replied with a shrug. “She’s going to be devastated. I think she saw something in Scott that nobody else did. God knows what.”

“You said that Scott was a bully. Did he bully you?”

Peter’s expression turned dark. “Yeah. You could say that. I’ve never known anybody with a temper like his. He just liked throwing his weight around and intimidating people. It was like he just had to be top dog. He first joined the team about six months after I did.”

“And when he started, you were the striker? You’ll have to forgive me, I don’t really follow football.”

Peter gave Blake a small smile. “It’s nice to talk to somebody who doesn’t care how far Harmschapel gets in the competition.

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