SKINNED a gripping crime thriller full of twists by Emmy Ellis

Author:Emmy Ellis [Ellis, Emmy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books Mystery, Crime Thriller, Suspense
Published: 2024-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

There’s that knocking again. It’s annoying, because I don’t know where it’s coming from. Next door on the right are usually a quiet couple, rarely a peep out of them most of the time, and the left — well, he’s not there that often, although he is at the moment. He works away somewhere abroad for stretches at a time, then comes back for a week or two. Our houses aren’t joined anyway, so I can’t blame him.

It’s not the same here now. I think I’m the only resident left in the street from when I was a kid. There’s no one to have a chat with about the old days. They’re either dead or have moved away to better houses, better lives.

I don’t feel right since the Mrs Roberts business. Out of sorts, but I suppose I could put it down to the events that took place. I wish we hadn’t fallen asleep. Then we would have checked the rooms regularly, every half an hour like we’re meant to. And Zello is blaming me, I know she is. That dig about it being down to me because I was in charge that night . . . it hurt, but it was the truth.

It is my fault.

It was a stupid idea to give the nurses a bit of downtime. I shouldn’t have suggested it. The only reason I did was because of how Mrs Roberts had been behaving. No one enjoys going into work when there’s someone who makes those hours difficult.

I’m not sure why she went all funny either. She’s usually a decent sort, if a bit anxious, looking around her all the time at everyone, as though she’s trying to spot a face she recognises, maybe someone from her family. Then she started wanting to go outside, to get away from her room, from the building, because she said a man had come in and threatened her. And she stopped coming to the dining room to have her meals with everyone else. It seemed a sudden change in her, and I can’t work it out.

The other day, she’d said to me, “I don’t like him.” I didn’t know who she meant, so asked if it was Nurse Matthews she was on about, but she’d said, “No, not him. Him.” So I’d asked about the man in the van, Martin, and she said he was nice, although he reminded her of a fella she used to know years ago. She didn’t say anything more about that when I pressed her.

So a man had upset her, and that only leaves the two gardeners or the owner of the care home, and he doesn’t visit except once in the spring and then near Christmas, so it can’t be him.

When I’m next at work, I’m going to ask about the gardeners, see if anyone knows anything. I have no idea who they are, seeing as I work nights.

I can’t help but think I ought to know the man Mrs Roberts was on about.

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