Hush Hush. Mel Sherratt
nothing. There had been no door closing. It was probably the heating clicking on or something stupid like that, something that shouldn’t have been enough to spook him.
Eddie went back to his office. There was crime scene tape across the side of the car park with no access, but was he risking it sitting here on his own? Was he next? Or had Josh’s murder been a one-off? He thought of all his rivals. He had as many as Josh. Was it someone with a grievance?
Tomorrow he would start getting word out to see. Once the police were gone, he would be doing some investigating of his own. He was going to root out the bastard who had done that to his friend. He would cut his eyes out. He would burn him too. And there would probably be someone behind the person who had carried out the attack, paying them to do their dirty work. He was going to find out who was at the top of the tree.
One last mouthful and, with the drink gone, he threw the glass at the wall, taking great delight in the noise and the mess that it made. It was better than using his fists, which was what his father would have done.
Sleep was the last thing on Grace’s mind as she arrived home just before midnight. She was famished, having only had time to eat a sandwich and the doughnuts throughout the day. She popped two slices of bread into the toaster and flicked on the kettle.
Well, the day hadn’t gone as she had planned but she certainly hadn’t thought of the date much. It hadn’t even had time to infiltrate her thoughts. Meeting her half-siblings in that manner had been immensely awkward. She suspected Eddie and Leon were going to be trouble and go out of their way to stall things. Or maybe they would surprise her and work with her to solve the murder, and simply want to get the police off their backs as quick as possible. It seemed that had been the case after the murder of George Steele had gone unsolved. She would have expected them to be coming in for weekly updates until the suspect had been caught.
Still, it must have been a shock to find someone dead on their premises. And such a high-profile person too. Parker shared tips on personal training and had quite a large following on social media. His murder might not only affect the club revenue; the funeral would be huge and the attention brought to the gym would be massive. She could bet Eddie wouldn’t like that.
She thought Leon, on the other hand, would lap it up. He seemed sharp, untouchable and a little ruthless. He tried to act as if he cared about Josh, but she could see it wasn’t sincere. Whereas Jade, she thought, seemed to be the only one with real tears. Whether that was because she was not as insensitive as her brothers remained to be seen.
Perry had been pissy again today. She’d thought she was getting through to him, that he might ease off with the catty remarks and the undermining comments. She knew he missed working with Allie because he mentioned her all the time. Allie did this and Allie did that. Grace had to bite her tongue on several occasions.
She also knew he wanted to be in control, but she’d got the job, not him. She’d give him a few more days and if he hadn’t changed his attitude she would have to talk to him about it. It wasn’t something she would look forward to but she had to start as she meant to go on.
The toast popped up, burnt around the edges and hardly touched in the middle, but she slathered it with butter all the same. Coffee made, she went through to the living room and sank into a deep orange armchair. It had been Matt’s favourite chair, so she hadn’t been able to part with it; instead, she’d bought a clashing bright blue leather sofa to fit alongside it perfectly. Even though she had never really felt settled here on her own, the house had such a homely feel to it without her even trying. She’d only had to add dashes of colour to help, alongside cream painted walls and light wooden flooring.
She flicked on the television. Their investigation might get a small mention on Sky News. It would gather momentum soon, because of who their victim was.
She sat back and thought of the day. Although she would never admit it to anyone, when she’d met her half-siblings she wished she could have spoken more with them, to see what it had been like for them as children. Of course she would never share what had happened to her in great detail, but she would always wonder if it had happened to them too. Or had it stopped with her and her mum?
The news clip she was waiting for came on and she turned up the volume. She had seen it earlier, but it was always something she liked to keep abreast of as fresh clips came through. Flowers had started to appear along the perimeter railings of the gym when people started to hear the news, but since the press release had gone out, people had turned up in their droves. Now alongside them were teddy bears, cards, candles. A football strip from both of the city’s football teams, which she bet didn’t happen very often. In a weird way, the outpouring of grief for Parker had been good to see. A lot of murder victims went unnoticed.
Yet she’d heard a few rumours today of Josh’s habit for hard knocks and doing whatever it took to get what he wanted. Perhaps they would find some good leads because of who he was. He must have had lots of loyal fans as well as enemies. Although his face was now damaged beyond recognition, he’d been exceptionally good-looking from what she had seen of his images everywhere, and he was a powerhouse of muscle underneath his clothes. She knew how many hours’ training that would have taken and, even though it sounded strange, it was a shame to see all that hard work go to waste.
She wondered if the senior CSI guy – what was he called? – had worked out cause of death. Dave Barnett, that was it. She picked up a notepad and wrote down his name. So many people met in one day had made her face-blind and she hated forgetting people’s names. In her line of work, you needed all the favours you could get; the last thing she wanted was to annoy someone because she couldn’t remember the basics.
Exhausted, she went back through to the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher with its lone plate and mug. Then she thought better of it and washed them.
With one last glance at Matt’s image at the bottom of the stairs, she checked the doors were locked, switched off the lights and set the burglar alarm. Going upstairs with its gentle beep in the background was reassuring but nowhere near as good as having someone coming to bed with you, to wrap their arms around you.
Grace had always been a loner, having only a handful of close friends growing up. It took her a long time to trust people, always having a guarded attitude. That way, she couldn’t get hurt. It was obviously something to do with her childhood. Luckily, Matt had had the same kind of personality.
They had been an insular couple from the moment they had got together. They’d met at a bowling alley when she had been out with some of the girls from the station she’d been working out of and he’d been with a group of his friends. Her girls had been whooping and hollering and his group had started doing the same. After a lot of catcalling, they’d merged and she’d paired up with Matt. By the end of the evening, he’d invited her out for a drink and they’d been together ever since. They’d bought a house within two years and married a year later.
Things had been going great until the diagnosis. Sometimes they had laughed together but mostly there had been tears. It had been tough to go through, but she hadn’t been the one dying so she had tried to keep their spirits raised. Matt had been determined not to give in until there had been no hope. He’d finally lost his faith when he had been admitted to the hospice. He’d been given weeks to live but had lasted only three more days. It was as if he knew that he wasn’t going to see out the end of that month. And who could blame him? He’d been in so much pain, ending his life as a shadow of his former self. Their life together now gone.
After he’d passed away, Grace remembered the empty feeling she’d experienced going back to their home. Even so soon after his death, it was as if he had never lived there. An emotion she couldn’t describe to anyone had washed over her – the grief, the anger, the fear, the relief; all mixed into one. Her work colleagues had rallied round, as too had her mum, but it hadn’t been enough to keep the loneliness at bay. She’d stopped going out for a while, her job giving her the ultimate excuse to work long hours and have no time for socialising.