A chill ran down Suzie’s spine when something occurred to her. Holly claimed she had never met her father and knew nothing about him, but what if he was the one who had shot that couple, and Josie had known about it and run away with Holly because she was terrified he would try to silence her?
Most of the articles concentrated on the search for the missing child, but Suzie had delved a little deeper into the couple tonight and she had learned that the dead man, Devon Prince, had a criminal past involving drugs and gang-related activities. So maybe Holly’s father had been a rival dealer, and he had killed the pair because Devon Prince had ripped him off or threatened to bring him down. In which case he’d probably had an accomplice, which would explain why Josie had told Holly that ‘they’ were going to kill them.
If Suzie was right, she understood why Josie had been so desperate to get Holly away from her. The woman had kept herself and Holly under the radar for years, moving from place to place and never allowing anyone to get close enough to discover their secret. And now Holly had brought Suzie into their lives, exposing them – in Josie’s mind – to danger.
Holly’s instincts had told her there was a connection between herself and those people in the article, and she’d been right – but not in the way she’d thought. They weren’t related to her, the killer was!
Sure that she had solved the mystery, Suzie wondered if she ought to tell Holly. She got why Josie wouldn’t have wanted her to know her father was a murderer, because no child needed to grow up with that knowledge. But now Holly was growing up and starting to rebel against Josie’s rules, it would surely be safer for them both if Holly knew why her mum had set those rules in place. Not only would it bring them closer, it might also put a stop to Holly’s nightmares if she understood what was causing them.
But Josie was the only one who knew the absolute truth, and she was Holly’s mother, so if anyone was going to tell Holly, it had to be her. And Suzie decided that she would tell her that when – if – she came back.
‘You better had, Josie,’ she muttered under her breath as she stirred milk into the hot chocolate she’d promised Holly. ‘You better bloody had . . .’
33
The sound of glass clinking against glass jerked Josie out of the light doze she had fallen into, and she groaned when she lifted her stiff neck off the bag of clothes she’d been using as a pillow. Her head was pounding, and every muscle in her bruised, battered body was screaming for pain relief. The packet of paracetamol she’d picked up on her way out of the flat had barely touched the sides, and they had run out hours ago – although the bitter taste of the last three she’d dry-swallowed was still coating her tongue.
At the sound of a low male voice and a woman’s soft laugh, she dragged herself up onto her knees and crawled out of the stinking bin cupboard she’d been hiding in all day. The dull light coming from the shabby porch of the semi-detached house attached to the cupboard seared her eyes, and she shielded them with her hand and saw two shadowy figures wrapped around each other in the hallway beyond. The door was open, so she hauled herself up to her feet and staggered towards it.
‘Holy fucking shit!’ Fiona Morgan squawked, almost jumping out of her skin when she turned to shut the door at the exact moment Josie stepped inside the porch.
‘What’s up?’ the man she’d been kissing moments earlier asked, his hard-on bulging in his jeans as he pushed past Fiona and raised one of the two wine bottles he was holding into the air.
Cowering, scared that he was about to smash it over her head, Josie looked at Fiona, and croaked, ‘I need help, Fi.’
‘Josie?’ Fiona frowned, only then recognizing her. ‘Oh, my God, what’s happened to you?’
‘I – I got attacked,’ Josie said. ‘A man . . . a man jumped me in the alley.’
‘Bloody hell, was that you?’ Fiona asked, grabbing Josie’s arm and pulling her inside the house before switching the hall light on and examining her face. ‘Christ, he’s made a right mess of you. Me and the girls were talking about it at work earlier, but we had no idea it was you. Should have clicked when you didn’t come to work, but we thought you were skiving ’cos you were pissed off about the extra shifts Sharon dropped on you.’
Behind them, still holding the bottles, the man cleared his throat.
‘Oh, sorry, Bri,’ Fiona said. ‘This is one of my workmates, Josie. She got attacked.’
‘I heard,’ he replied, giving her a pointed look before jerking his head towards the stairs to remind her they were supposed to be on their way up to the bedroom.
‘Sorry, love, you go on up,’ Fiona said. ‘I’ll be with you when I’ve finished here.’
‘Don’t be long.’ He gave her a lusty smile. Then, nodding at Josie, he said, ‘Hope you get better soon,’ before heading upstairs.
‘Who’s that?’ Josie asked, hugging herself to stop the violent shivering. ‘I didn’t know you had a fella. You’ve never mentioned him.’
‘I don’t tell my business to people I work with,’ Fiona said coolly as she slipped her jacket off and looped it over the newel post. ‘Anyway, what you doing here?’ she asked, folding her arms. ‘Shouldn’t you be in hospital, or home in bed, or something?’
‘I – I needed to see you,’ Josie said.
‘Why?’ Fiona frowned again. Then, drawing her head back, she gave Josie a knowing look, and said, ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve come all this way to get booze? Fucking hell, girl. That should be the last thing on your mind at a
