The Piggy Farmer (The Barrington Patch Book 3) by Emmy Ellis (free children's online books txt) š

- Author: Emmy Ellis
Book online Ā«The Piggy Farmer (The Barrington Patch Book 3) by Emmy Ellis (free children's online books txt) šĀ». Author Emmy Ellis
Another photograph of a child, a brown-haired boy, was pinned next to Jess with a small circular magnetāpink. The final insult, Gorley choosing her daughterās favourite colour. She studied the image. Wasnāt that the lad whoād gone missing, Lee Scrubs, an almost-teenager whoād told his friends he was going to run away because his dad was a bully? Lee had turned up dead in a ditch on the land the New Barrington now stood on, years before Jess had died, and the whole town had been horrified.
She ignored the red arrows and writing.
āYou dirty ponce.ā She wanted to attack Gorley with her bare hands like she had with Vance Johnson but held back. āFrancis, stand by that window so old nosy bollocks out there doesnāt see.ā
āHe wonāt say owt even if does, heās on the payroll as ears, but maybe weāll save him the shock.ā Francis blocked the view, and the shed darkened. āWe donāt need another body on our hands, death by a sodding heart attack.ā
Gorley whimpered and fumbled with the lamp, no denial about being a kiddie pervert coming out of himāhe canāt even give me thatāand the time he was taking to find the switch was doing Louās head in, stretching her nerves then shrinking them so the shrivel gave her goosebumps. She clenched her fists and her teeth, counting to three, telling herself if she got to five, Gorley would know about it.
At last, the shed lit up, Jess and Lee drowned in light, their innocent, stuck-in-time faces gazing on. Gorley stared at Lou as if about to shit himself. His silly grey fringe, usually held back with Brylcreem, flopped forward to cover one eye.
Good. She wanted him to experience fear like Jess had.
Like herself and Joe had.
He pushed his hair back. āPlease, I donāt know what you think Iāve doneā¦ā
Was he the man in the back of the van? Is that why he was never found?
My God, heās been walking amongst us all this time, the absolute wanker.
Her mind accepted that as a complete factāit was the only reasonable explanation in her eyes, akin to her pretending Jess was in Cornwallāsheās still down there on the beach with her bucket and spadeāa story she made up to cope.
It cemented itself in her mind. Yes, Robin had clutched Jess to him, his dirty pig hand over her mouth to stop her screaming. Robin was the one they were after. No matter that Jess had wandered from The Mechanicās house to Sculptorās Field, Vance intercepting, as Cassie had explained. Robin had let her out of that home office, heād encouraged her to her death.
Yes, that was how it had happened.
āYou let my daughter down.ā She unzipped her bag and eased her hand inside, careful not to jab herself on the weaponāshe didnāt need any of her blood left here. Forensics were so good these days, who knew if itād still be found in the ashes? āTwenty-three years Iāve thought about this day, told myself Iād come and see you, get things off my chest, and here I am. I canāt hold it in any longer. I need justice.ā
Gorleyās mouth flapped. Any more of that, and his creamy dentures would pop out. āIām sorry, but there were circumstancesāā
āYes, we know about the bribe,ā Cassie said on a sigh, reversing and planting her back to the door.
Cassie hadnāt gone to bed. Instead, sheād read the RESIDENTS ledger, then looked the coppersā names up in the others to see what Lenny had written about them. This bastard here, heād suppressed the caseāon Lennyās ordersāso no wonder the person in the back of the van had never been found (but itās Robin, thatās why). Lenny hadnāt found him either; maybe heād known the DCI was the accomplice after allāand if he wasnāt, what the hell was he thinking, getting the case shut down? If Lenny were alive today, sheād use her weapon on him, no matter that theyād been good friends. Heād had no right to interfere, to cover for a bent copper, a paedo. When Cassie had told her about the information found in the ledgers, all Louās suspicions had been confirmed. How come Cassie and Francis hadnāt remembered this before now? Theyād both read all the ledgers.
Maybe there was so much data it had slipped their minds.
Thinking of Gorleyās wicked part in this brought on a surge of anger, topping up the rage that was already present, boiling it so her face flushed with heat, prickled with sweat. āYou told your superintendent the case was going nowhere. How the hell have you lived with yourself?ā
Gorley rubbed his wrinkled forehead, his liver-spotted hand jolting from the shakes. āSleepless nights, guilt, you name it, Iāve been through it. Lenny was a nasty piece of work. He threatened my wife, my kids. What would you do in that situation?ā
āWhat was right.ā Although she would have done everything to protect Jess and Joe, she wasnāt about to say so. In his position, yes, sheād have gone down the same path as him, but that wasnāt the issue here. āSomeoneās still walking around out there, a man or woman who held my child in the back of a van, maybe too tightly because she wiggled, screamed for her mammy and daddy. It was you, wasnāt it.ā
Gorley winced, leaning on the bench. āI canāt apologise enough forā Oh, my chestā¦ā
So he was admitting it then. He hadnāt denied being in that van. āNo, you canāt say sorry enough.ā
She felt about in her bag, slipping her hand inside the brown leather loop sheād created on the back of a five-by-three-inch piece of woodāthe brown to match the gloves of the accompliceāRobinās glovesāa reminder to her of what this was all about. Sheād cut one of
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