Insidious Intent by Val McDermid

Author:Val McDermid
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little, Brown
Published: 2017-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

39

B

ecause it was a midweek match, it had been possible to buy a couple of tickets for Bradfield Victoria’s game against Stoke City at the last minute. It was the best idea Tony could come up with after Paula had tracked him down in the shipping container he used as a library to tell him how worried she was about Torin.

He’d been catching up on his reading when she’d banged on the door, the muffled clang of something hard on metal making him jump. Nobody had ever visited him there before but Paula had once dropped him off outside, so he wasn’t entirely surprised to find her on his doorstep. ‘I was reading,’ he said plaintively.

‘Good for you. Can I come in?’

‘There’s only one chair.’

‘Well, get your coat and I’ll treat you to a coffee,’ she said in the tone she normally reserved for children who’d witnessed something traumatic.

Obediently he grabbed the purple jacket and padlocked the container behind him, hurrying to catch up with Paula, who was already halfway down the street, coffee in her sights. When he caught up, she gave him a sceptical glance. ‘Are you wearing that for a bet?’

‘It was in the sale,’ he said. ‘Carol said it suited me.’

Paula snorted. ‘Carol just wanted you in anything but the disreputable brown thing.’ She turned into the coffee shop and made for the counter.

‘I think this is the last coffee shop in town where the barista isn’t a hipster,’ Tony muttered as they found a quiet table to huddle over their drinks. ‘So what can I do for you, Paula?’

‘It’s Torin,’ she said. And outlined their recent concerns and the discovery that he had apparently sold some of his mother’s jewellery. ‘And then he completely lost it with me. Ranted about me invading his privacy, told me I had no business sticking my nose into his life and that what he did with his own stuff was nothing to do with me.’

Tony sighed. ‘Tell me you didn’t go down the “my house, my rules” line.’

‘I’m not entirely stupid,’ she growled. ‘I backed off. But the last couple of days, it’s been like living in a “no comment” interview. He’s silent and surly, he won’t meet my eyes and I don’t know what to do.’

‘What does Elinor think?’

Paula fidgeted in her chair. ‘I haven’t told Elinor. I’ve hardly seen her since it all blew up between Torin and me and, to be honest, I’d rather bring her a solution than a problem right now. They’re incredibly short-staffed in A&E and she’s having enough of a struggle trying to make sure everything at work is covered.’

‘And you don’t want Elinor to think you can’t deal with Torin,’ Tony said. ‘Because then she’ll take everything on herself.’

‘That too,’ she acknowledged reluctantly.

‘You want me to talk to him?’

‘Would you? He trusts you. When you come round for dinner, it’s like he relaxes.’

‘It’s a guy thing,’ Tony said, clearly mocking himself. ‘Seriously, though. It’s mostly because I’m not in a parental role.

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