Keep My Secrets by Elena Wilkes (large ebook reader .txt) 📗

never have agreed for him to work here. I did the usual: I gave him the benefit of the doubt and it was stupid.’

‘Benefit of the doubt?’

‘Yes, I know how he comes across – he’s a likeable, charming, intelligent young man. All that is true, but there’s another truth – the care orders, the juvenile detention, the probation monitoring, I just thought he was past all that.’

Frankie’s head snatched round.

Jude looked at her, surprised.

‘I thought you knew – the other girls were chattering on about it so I assumed everyone did. He was one of my lads from a previous life. He was on my unit. Didn’t you know that?’

‘Unit? What kind of unit?’

Jude took a breath and then paused as though deciding how much to say.

‘He used to have… well… anger management problems. Let’s call them that. But anyway, I really thought he’d turned it around. I knew he’d been sleeping rough but once he started working on that old canal boat he’d found, it really seemed to give him a focus. Then he started talking about college and working with youngsters, and I thought, “Brilliant! I’ll help him in any way I can to get on his feet.” Hence him working here.’

Frankie shook her head slowly. She’d had no idea.

‘And now…’ Jude held out her hands. ‘Now look where he is. God alone knows what he’s done or what he’s got mixed up in. That poor, poor girl…’ Her thoughts seemed to drift for a moment and then snapped back. ‘And that’s the thing, Frankie. That’s how easy it is to get drawn into the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people, and suddenly your life changes forever. So don’t fall into that trap. Don’t put yourself anywhere near his world. You’re not responsible, so stay well out of it.’

‘But he’s innocent!’ blurted Frankie.

‘You have absolutely no idea whether that’s true or not.’

Frankie felt the tears beginning to gather.

‘A girl has died, Frankie.’ Jude lowered her voice and her eyes narrowed. ‘Died. We don’t know how, but people are saying that she was held under the water and drowned, do you understand that? So they’re saying someone did that to her. Some animal, some monster.’

Frankie flinched. A whole barrage of images flashed unbidden into her head. She saw black water and felt a sudden undulating judder beneath her feet.

‘You didn’t see or hear anything at that party, did you?’

She could hear the veiled panic in Jude’s voice, but she could only shake her head – if only she could shake away what was in there.

‘And you’re sure of that? It’s as you said: you gave Martin the slip and you didn’t see him again?’

Another grim shake. She didn’t know if Jude believed her or not, but she obviously wasn’t going to press it.

‘I don’t want you anywhere near this, Frankie, do you hear me? Martin has told you he’s keeping your name out of this whole thing and I want your face kept out of it too.’ Jude came and sat next to her and put her hand on her arm. ‘Look at me for a moment.’

Frankie lifted her head.

‘You think I’m ancient and therefore blind and daft and stupid, but in fact, I’m only one of those things.’ She nudged her playfully. ‘And being ancient doesn’t mean I was always old. I was young, once. I know what attraction looks like and I could see you were attracted to Martin.’

Frankie opened her mouth, but Jude quickly cut across her.

‘I don’t need to know, and I don’t want to know. Right now, there’s nothing to be gained from having that conversation. This is a life lesson for you: no one ever knows anyone. Not really. They think they do, but they don’t.’

She found herself swallowing.

‘There’s going to be a trial, Frankie. It’s going to be in every newspaper and on every screen for a while so prepare to be shocked. I’ve been in these situations before; everyone involved will have their own spin and their own take, so you won’t know fact from hype. I can see that you care for him, my love, but they’ll open him up and peer into his innermost depths until the Martin you thought you knew will disappear. Whatever happened to that poor girl will come out. Trust me.’

Chapter Ten

Martin was sitting with a prison officer on either side of him. He looked lost and very alone. He wasn’t going to look at her no matter how hard she stared. She studied his shoulders, the nape of his neck, remembering the sweet scent of the skin behind his ear; the sheer heat of him against her cheek. The thoughts and sensations wouldn’t go away. She swallowed.

The prosecution barrister was droning on, his voice whining, insect-like. He had small, thick-lensed glasses that kept flashing as though the eyes behind them were absent. The tone wavered like a dying bluebottle. The judge was staring down with his hand propped against his forehead. She wondered if he’d gone to sleep.

The jury shifted uncomfortably, some of them glancing at their watches. The lunch break seemed a very long way away. She needed to get back to school and show her face before she could manage to sneak back into the court again, later. She shouldn’t be here at all, she knew that. She promised Jude, but then she’d promised Jude a lot of things and they weren’t happening either.

She gazed at the other people at the far end of the gallery. There was a woman in a pink jacket sitting next to a sandy-haired man with a round, kind face. In front of them was a boy wearing a denim jacket. She had a feeling she might’ve seen him somewhere before.

‘May I bring the CCTV footage of the towpath to your attention.’

There was a shift in the atmosphere and the jury suddenly sat up and took notice. Several of the large TV screens, placed strategically around the courtroom, flickered into life. A