SEVEN DEADLY THINGS (Henry & Sparrow Book 3) by A FOX (best value ebook reader TXT) 📗

an hour. After that the police had wanted to talk to each of the Bluecoats, too, but not one of them had a clue who was dead or who had been in that chalet when they were alive.

‘We don’t usually come anywhere near here,’ Ellie had told them, when it was her turn to talk to the stern-looking woman in a grey suit, who’d introduced herself as DS Stuart, and her uniformed constable who was taking notes. ‘The Bluecoat chalets are right down the end of the site.’

‘Have you seen anyone on site who you thought was suspicious?’ DS Stuart asked her.

Ellie shrugged and shook her head. ‘There are about three hundred guests here,’ she said. ‘It’s Friday — well, Saturday now — so they’ve all just arrived. We’ve mixed with them in the big ballroom, but we haven’t really had time to get to know anyone yet.’

Shortly after that, realising she knew sweet bugger all, they had let her go. Some of the Blues had congregated in the lamplit adventure playground for a while, speculating in hushed voices about what the hell was happening, but eventually Gary had come along and ushered them all off to bed. ‘I’m expecting you all to rise an’ fuckin’ shine as usual,’ he’d growled at them, with his usual show of affection and respect. ‘Go get your ugly sleep!’

But there didn’t seem to be any ugly sleep to be had. ‘Cup of tea?’ suggested Ellie, and Nettie nodded, sitting up. Ellie filled the small kettle and dropped teabags in mugs. Through the nets across the patio door she could make out soft lighting inside the single caravan parked close by. ‘Looks like Barney’s up, too,’ she said. ‘He might have heard about it. Shall we invite him over?’

Nettie rolled her eyes. ‘For god’s sake, Ellie! We hardly know him and you want to ask him in for tea, while we’re in bed?’

‘He seems nice,’ said Ellie.

‘He seems weird,’ said Nettie. ‘I mean… he’s nice-looking and all that, and pretty fit… but he’s a gypo, isn’t he?’

‘Seriously?’ said Ellie, getting milk out of the tiny fridge. ‘Gypo? What the hell is that?’

‘Well, all right then… traveller,’ said Nettie, making apostrophes with her fingers. ‘He’s, I dunno, different.’

‘Yeah, god save us from the different people,’ snorted Ellie, handing over a mug.

They drank their tea in silence for a while and then Nettie said, ‘Maybe it’s connected… you know… to Martin.’

‘But they said Martin killed himself,’ said Ellie, suppressing a shiver as a memory of pink water rose in her mind again.

‘So… maybe it’s a suicide cult,’ breathed Nettie. ‘You hear about these cults, don’t you? They get people all brainwashed so they top themselves.’

‘I still can’t believe he killed himself,’ said Ellie. ‘Why would he? He seemed fine and even if he wasn’t, why would he do that to you and me and the kids..? You know what?’ She drew her quilt around her shoulders and shivered. ‘I think the parents might be planning to sue us.’

‘You what?’ said Nettie. ‘But they seemed lovely about it… after we’d lied to their kids, of course.’

‘I know but…’ Ellie took a sip of tea and shook her head. ‘I wasn’t snooping or anything, but while I was checking my shifts on the wall in Gary’s office, I knocked his mouse or something and the screen lit up… and there was this email saying LIFEGUARD ISSUE — WE WANT DAMAGES.’

‘Oh holy fuck!’ breathed Nettie. And then she wrinkled her face and added, ‘No! No… I know what that was about! That’s not about the kids. That’s about some stupid teenager saying Martin groped her in the pool.’

‘What..?’

‘Yeah, I heard it from Jenny, who heard it from Martin before he died. Some girl was screaming, saying she had cramp or something and Martin had to go in and get her. Then she goes and says he felt her up.’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I can’t believe he’d do that, either.’

‘Of course he didn’t bloody do it!’ said Nettie. ‘Those girls were always giving him the come-on and pretending to get cramp so he’d carry them out. I saw them do it. She probably got pissed off because he wouldn’t pay attention to her. Anyway, silly bitch will have to shut up about it now he’s dead. That’ll give her a bit of fuckin’ perspective.’

‘So… would Martin kill himself over something like that?’ Ellie wondered.

‘No way,’ said Nettie, draining her mug, putting it beside her bed and settling back down on her pillow. ‘Good-looking lifeguards get that kind of crap all the time. But… if they were pushing for damages it might have got a bit further up the line this time. Maybe Gary was going to have to do an investigation or something… not any more, though.’

Ellie sighed. She settled back down, too. A few minutes later some rhythmic breathing told Ellie her chalet mate was drifting off. It was nearly four in the morning and she really needed to get some shuteye too. She was going to be a zombie — a zombie wearing a Buntin’s perma-smile — at breakfast.

As she drifted off she was aware of a flickering of light outside and thought, for a second, she saw a dark figure looming by the window.

‘Did you see that?’ hissed Nettie, suddenly awake.

But when Ellie sat up, squinting through her tired lids, there was nobody there.

‘It was probably one of the other Blues,’ she muttered. ‘Come on. We have to get some sleep!’

Barney was too wired to sleep. He couldn’t even settle inside the Sprite. He had to pace around outside, his belly fizzing. Seeing them all collapse, weeping, onto the grass outside Julie’s chalet was something he couldn’t get out of his mind. It was bizarrely shocking. They had always seemed so… indestructible.

Apparently not.

The shock at what Kate was telling them was palpable even at a distance. Something very bad had happened to Julie.

Well. Who knew?

He would have liked to watch for longer but the security