Walk in the Park by Jay Gill

Author:Jay Gill [Gill, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-24T05:00:00+00:00

I got home to find Alice on her new smartphone and Faith perched next to her.

“I hope you haven’t been on that thing too long,” I said. “It’ll suck all the goodness out of that pretty little brain of yours.”

Faith looked horrified.

“Ignore him,” said Alice. “It won’t do that. He’s just being grumpy.”

I gave the girls a squeeze and a kiss on the head. “Five more minutes. Please do something else. Like pick up a book, maybe?”

I heard the girls groan as I entered the kitchen.

Mum was sat at the kitchen table reading the paper and enjoying a glass of ice-cold white wine.

“Something smells good,” I said, opening the oven door.

“Monica’s made shepherd’s pie. She’ll be back shortly. She’s gone to get some bits for the girls’ lunch boxes for school.”

I could feel Mum’s eyes on me as I grabbed a beer from the fridge. I topped up her wine glass and sat down opposite her. “And Dad?” I asked.

“He’s out tonight. Some golfing dinner. Not my sort of thing. He’s picking me up afterward. So long as he remembers.”

I took a long sip of beer and loosened my tie then undid my top button.

“Tough day?” asked Mum.

“The worst kind.”

“Want to talk?”

“Not really.”

“You know I’ve heard it all before. Your dad saw it all in his day. The good, the bad and the downright evil. There’s nothing new under the sun, as they say.”

I squeezed the back of my neck and put the cold bottle to my forehead. “I can’t say right now; it would be wrong.”

Mum closed the newspaper and slid it in front of me. “Anything to do with this?”

The paper’s headline read: REGENT’S PARK RIPPER KILLS 2ND WOMAN. WHY?

I nodded. I couldn’t tell her more, so kept my answer vague. “Yeah. It’s to do with that. Worse still, I knew her. She was a sweet girl. Very young. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I’m sorry, James. Like I’ve said so many times before, we need more bobbies on the beat, but instead there are cutbacks. And that puts pressure on those that remain. Look at you. You look like you’re ready to drop. You can’t keep this up indefinitely.”

“Not now, Mum. It’s been a long day. Even with more officers, he would have found a way. They always have and they always will.”

Mum tutted and I could see she wanted to say more, but for my sake she didn’t.

Monica arrived back with two bulging shopping bags. Alice and Faith raced to help her before I could get to my feet. They started checking the bags for goodies, while conferring and lining up the treats on the work top.

“Hi Mon’,” I said. “You okay?”

“Yep, all good. Starving, but good.” She could sense the dark cloud hanging over us. “Are you two okay?”

I didn’t want Alice and Faith to hear anything so I pointed discreetly to the newspaper headline.

“Okay,” she mouthed silently. “Maybe later.”

It had been a few days since I’d been able to sit down for an evening meal with everyone, and I’d missed it.

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