Like This, for Ever (47 page)

‘It’s weird,’ said Barney, staring at the bandage. ‘I thought I was weird, but—’

‘You’re not weird,’ said Lacey, tugging her sleeve back in place. ‘You’re different and interesting and quirky, but you’re not weird. And you’ve had a lot to deal with lately.’

Barney looked at the slatted wooden floor of the cockpit. ‘You mean thinking my dad was a serial killer?’ he said.

‘Well, don’t feel bad about that. I thought
you
were.’

He looked up again. His lips twitched. So did hers. Neither one of them was quite ready to smile about it yet. ‘What I meant was, you’ve lost your best friend and your mum,’ she went on. ‘At least, the hope of having your mum back one day. That’s a lot, by anybody’s standards.’

Silence.

‘I think I knew about Mum,’ he said. ‘Deep down. I just didn’t want it to be true.’

Silence again. She nodded, wanted to reach out and take his hand, didn’t quite feel able to. But he needed someone who would. Before he grew up thinking there was no love, no warmth in the
world. His father, with the best will in the world, was never going to be the demonstrative type.

‘Your dad said he’d told you about Mrs Green,’ said Lacey. ‘Does that feel a bit strange?’

‘He wants her to move in with us,’ said Barney. ‘Not yet. Not until I go to secondary school, but soon after that.’

‘Well, it will take some getting used to, but she seems quite nice to me.’

‘If they get married, she’ll be my stepmother.’

‘Are stepmothers always bad?’

He thought about it for a moment. ‘Guess not,’ he said. ‘She makes nice biscuits. And I expect she’ll help with homework.’

Lacey smiled, and for a second, the small, fair-skinned face in front of her had turquoise eyes and dark, spiky hair. ‘Biscuits and homework,’ she said. ‘I’ll remember that.’

Splash, splash.

‘What was that?’ Barney was on his feet, had turned to look out over the water, and taken a step closer to her.

‘Just the water banging against the hull,’ said Lacey, puzzled.

‘We should go.’ Already he was on the side deck, swinging his leg over the guard-rail.

‘Of course.’

She let Barney lead the way around the boats and on to the bank. Twice she had to ask him to slow down and be careful. The river was high enough for them to step off the nearest boat on to the yard. Barney walked several paces away from the edge before he turned.

Earlier in the day, when she’d met Dana Tulloch for coffee and peace talks, the DI had told her that none of the children at the Creek that night had wavered in their story that Tyler’s body had leaped out of the water at them.

‘What do you think happened?’ asked Barney, and she knew he was thinking about the same thing.

‘I think Jorge threw the body overboard, expecting it to be washed out to sea, and that somehow it got caught between two of the boats,’ said Lacey. ‘I think it stayed there for several weeks, and then one night, when there’d been a lot of rainwater and a high tide, it worked its way loose.’

‘Harvey saw someone swimming.’

The sun was getting low in the sky and had all but disappeared behind a tall building. The yard was taking on an eerie look in the half-light, the Creek beginning to shine black and dense.

‘I think Harvey saw Tyler’s body being washed around by the tide, and in the dim light it looked like it was moving independently,’ replied Lacey.

‘It jumped out of the water at us,’ said Barney in a small voice.

‘I believe many things,’ said Lacey, ‘but I don’t believe dead bodies can move. I think what happened was caused by a freak wave, or maybe even wash from a big boat out on the river.’

He nodded, looking far from convinced. Even she had to admit that, as explanations went, it was weak. Sometimes the easy answers just weren’t there.

‘I don’t think I’m going to come here again,’ he said. ‘Are you?’

‘Not sure,’ said Lacey, turning back to look at the yellow yacht, so much bigger and cosier below than she’d expected. She thought about curling up in front of the wood-burning stove, about gentle waves rocking her to sleep each night, gulls waking her in the morning. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘I promised your dad I’d have you back before sundown.’

‘He said I had to ask you to come for supper,’ said Barney.

Since when did Lacey Flint have a social life? ‘Well, that’s very kind,’ she said. ‘And another time I’d love to, but I already have plans.’

Plans? What was she talking about? Beyond something to do that evening, she had no plans at all. For the following week. For the rest of her life. And yet, as she and Barney set off across the yard to where she’d parked her car, Lacey had a sense that something tightly coiled inside her had begun to unravel. And the feeling that had been growing for some time now was assuming a recognizable shape. It was starting to feel a lot like peace. She opened her car and the two of them climbed inside.

Splash, splash.

My sincere thanks to the Marine Policing Unit, particularly Chief Inspector Derek Caterer (who probably wouldn’t employ ‘Spiderman’), and the Tactical Team (who wouldn’t need to). Also to Adrian Summons, for continuing to open the right doors and steer me safely along the thin blue line.

For bringing
Like This, For Ever
to the shelves, I’m grateful to Anne Marie Doulton and Peter Buckman of the Ampersand Agency and to Rosie and Jessica of the Buckman Agency. At Transworld, I’d like to thank Lynsey Dalladay, Rachel Raynor, Kate Samano, Bill Scott-Kerr and Claire Ward; at St Martin’s Press, Elizabeth Lacks, Andrew Martin and Kelley Ragland; at Goldmann Verlag, Andrea Best.

Martin Summerhayes, once again, prevented me from making too much of a fool of myself over IT, whilst Eleanor Bailey had some scarily insightful comments and is a publishing star in the making.

Any mistakes are mine.

S. J. Bolton
is the author of five critically acclaimed novels.
Like This, For Ever
is her sixth novel and features DC Lacey Flint and DI Mark Joesbury.

She has been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Dagger in the Library.

S. J. Bolton lives near Oxford with her husband and young son. For more information about the author and her books, or to check out her addictive blog, visit
www.sjbolton.com
.

You can also join her on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/SJBoltonCrime
.

Sacrifice

Awakening

Blood Harvest

Now You See Me

Dead Scared

For more information on S. J. Bolton and her books, see her website at
www.sjbolton.com

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First published in Great Britain
in 2013 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright © S. J. Bolton 2013

S. J. Bolton has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446487839
ISBNs 9780593069165 (hb)
9780593069172 (tpb)

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