Straight Back: A Manchester Crime Story Featuring DSI Jeff Barton (Detective Superintendent Jeff Barton Book 5) by David Menon

Author:David Menon [Menon, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Police Procedurals, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Crime Fiction
Amazon: B00SF0BRUY
Published: 2015-04-05T23:00:00+00:00

The three of them sat round a half circle table on red plastic-covered seating with their piping hot coffee in polystyrene cups. Ollie clearly didn’t come into places like this and his slightly uncomfortable pose made Jeff smile. He, on the other hand, had been in this sort of family-orientated eating place many times with Toby and Toby’s mates. Kids love this kind of food although he rationed Toby’s indulgence of it. He didn’t want him ever to make fast food his first choice. Joan looked at peace with her surroundings. No doubt she came in here with her grandchildren.

“So what is it you think your daughter hasn’t told us, Mrs Sanders?” asked Jeff whilst sipping his coffee. The caffeine would be useful to shake off the lethargy that was beginning to creep through his body.

“This is hard for me,” said Joan. “I don’t like going behind my daughter’s back but there’s so much at stake here that I have to try and put those feelings to one side and do the right thing.”

“Which is?” asked Jeff.

“When Arif came into my daughter’s life I was immediately impressed by him,” Joan began. “He seemed to really love my daughter and she’d been so badly let down and scarred by what her ex-husband had done to her. If I was driving a car and that bugger stepped into the road in front of me, I’d be so tempted to put my foot on the accelerator although perhaps I shouldn’t tell you gentlemen that? But he left her almost destitute. I had to clean out my own savings to get her and the girls back on their feet.”

“So what happened with Arif, Mrs Sanders?” Ollie asked.

“Nothing that was bad,” Joan insisted. “He moved in and, a few weeks later, my daughter was pregnant. I didn’t see any wrong in any of it. My granddaughter Paige was thrilled at the prospect of a new half brother or sister. She liked Arif just like we all did.”

“But what are you trying to tell us, Mrs Sanders?” Jeff wanted to know.

“Well, nothing went wrong with Arif,” Joan emphasised. “He’s not the problem here. No, the problem was that Sheridan just wouldn’t accept that her mother had moved on from her father and was now with Arif, to the extent that she was now pregnant by him. She became bad tempered, she answered her mother back and said some terrible things and she sucked all the happiness out of what her mother had found with Arif. It was a happy time and yet it was a dreadful time. Sheridan was so full of anger and spite. I’d never seen her like that. It was as if she just wanted to hit out at the entire world. It was such a worrying time for Ellie and, although she had Arif, I know there was someone else she also came to rely on.”

“Who was that?” Jeff asked.

“He was a teacher at Sheridan’s school,” said Joan. “Sheridan seemed to grow close to him and we thought that if she had someone she could confide in then it might help.

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