Tyack & Frayne Mysteries 04 - Kitto by Harper Fox

Author:Harper Fox [Fox, Harper]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-06-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The statue doubled up laughing. It detached itself from the shadows and made its way out through the porch, tangling en route with the ivy that had grown in through a broken pane. With every step it became more solid and real, picking up colours from the sunshine, until it was standing in the road in front of Gideon, still laughing. A study in bronzed skin and gold. “You little sod,” Gideon said. The old village gossips had been right. Kitto was a feckless runaway, and old man Tregear had probably faced so much heat and suspicion that he’d shipped out till it died down. “Do you have any idea how much trouble and heartache you’ve caused?”

“I’m sorry.” Kitto almost sounded it, even if he was still wiping away tears of merriment from his eyes. “Did you really think I was a statue? One of the cold marble dead?”

“You don’t want to know what I think you are at the moment, son.” Gideon rubbed his brow, where relief had not yet eased a thumping headache. “Right. I know you had some trouble at home, and your step-dad’s not the easiest of guys. But I can help you with all that. I can get social services to work with you and find you somewhere safe to live. In the meantime, I want you to put on your damn shirt and come back to the village with me, and show poor Ray Tregear you’re alive. You’ve just about killed him.”

Kitto listened. He’d put his head on one side and caught his lower lip in his teeth. “Ray is the only one,” he said distantly. “The only one I can come back for.”

“Okay. Well, whatever it takes. He’s down at the shop now, and he’s not mad with you or anything else you might be worried about. Just come with me. I’ll deal with your stepfather.”

“Would you be more comfortable, Gideon?”

“What?”

“If I put on my damn shirt. You’re looking at me.”

Gideon fell back a step from him. Had he been, other than eyes up and front? God, he supposed it was possible. Vertigo was tugging at him, colours from Cosmic Ray’s fractals dancing round the edges of his mind. He felt a wash of excruciating shame, that anyone but Lee could draw his attention in that way. Was that why Lee had been struggling to foresee their wedding—because Gideon couldn’t stop himself from scoping out the teenage talent in a hothouse little village on the edge of the world?

It was a hothouse. There was something strange here, something wrong. Cool Bodmin air filled Gideon’s lungs, restoring a bright clarity. His natural moor-bred commonsense asserted itself. He was a man. Getting engaged hadn’t castrated him any more than it had done Lee, who still cheerfully pointed out the handsome lads who strutted their stuff in Falmouth of a Saturday night. And Kitto, unfortunately for himself, would raise a hard-on in a corpse. “You’re an attractive young man,” Gideon said quietly. “If you’re gay,

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