The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud .TXT) 📗

The boy muttered something unintelligible.

‘Anyway, what was the detention for? You know I can just call your head of year and ask, if you won’t tell me the truth.’

‘Ugh, why does it matter? I’ve done it now. It’s all bullshit anyway.’

‘Watch your language.’

‘Why? You never do.’

Caroline sighed. She didn’t have the energy for these conversations. Where had her cheerful boy gone? It seemed like he’d turned into some sort of Neanderthal in the space of a few weeks. She waited to see if he would eventually cough up the information she was looking for.

‘Fighting, all right?’ he mumbled.

‘Fighting? Oh, love. What made you get into a fight?’ That was so out of character for Mariusz, she knew there must have been something seriously wrong for him to lash out at another kid.

‘He started it,’ he said defensively, and she could feel the tension radiating off him in the cramped car.

‘I believe you,’ she replied quietly. ‘What happened?’

‘Nothing.’ His voice had dropped to a mutter again.

‘Mariusz, I want to help you with this. I know you must have had a good reason for reacting to this person, but fighting isn’t usually the best solution.’ Caroline was of the opinion that sometimes giving someone a swift punch was the best way to sort out an issue, but she didn’t think it was a good idea to tell him that at this point.

‘He called my dad a retard,’ the boy said, turning to look out of the window. Caroline winced. She knew Mariusz was sensitive about his dad, whom he worshipped, and she could understand why that sort of comment had made him snap.

‘Oh, love,’ she said, not knowing how else to respond.

‘It’s fine.’

‘It’s not fine, obviously. That boy should never have said such a vile thing about your dad.’

‘Why do you care? You hate him.’

Caroline sighed. ‘I don’t hate him. It’s complicated – you understand that. Do you want me to talk to him about your fight?’

Mariusz shook his head. ‘He wouldn’t care. I feel like he doesn’t notice me much these days.’

‘Nadia then?’ she suggested. The idea of having a chat with her ex’s new wife made her clench her hands tight on the steering wheel, but Caroline would be willing to do anything to help Mariusz.

‘She’s just as bad,’ he muttered. ‘She’s been different lately …’ His voice tailed off.

As she pulled into a space in front of their house, Caroline turned to her son, hoping to try and comfort him and delve a little deeper into how he was feeling, but he was out of the car before she’d even turned the engine off. She followed him into the house, but by the time she’d shut the front door she heard his bedroom door slam, shortly followed by loud music. She sat down on the bottom stair, feeling like she’d let him down yet again.

Chapter 15

Saturday 20th April

That morning, I left home with some trepidation. I’d gone over the plan I’d made with Sasha the day before, and I didn’t think it would be too difficult to do what she’d asked, but I was still concerned. There was a possibility that I’d be putting myself in harm’s way, or at least making myself known to someone with a dubious reputation. Still, if I didn’t do it I knew Sasha would be annoyed with me, and I didn’t want to wind her up, at least until I could work out why she’d been so secretive with me.

Just before ten that morning, I got in my car and headed up to Frodingham Road, to Worx gym. I’d packed a bag with the nearest things I could find to gym gear – a T-shirt and some leggings – and made an appointment online for a tour. If any of my friends had seen me they would have suspected that I was up to something, because I hadn’t set foot in a gym in at least ten years. The whole environment was my idea of a nightmare, but I needed to look like I was there for a reason other than finding out more about Roy.

After getting home from the funfair the previous evening, I’d spent some time looking up Roy online. I’d started with the local paper, but the only mentions I could find of him were focused on the gym – a couple of articles about it opening, and one about the members contributing to a local fundraising project. The most promising story was about a drugs raid eight months earlier: one of his employees had been bringing drugs back from regular trips to Europe and then selling them from the gym, but it looked like the police hadn’t found any connection to Roy himself. Was that because he hadn’t known anything about it, or because he was good at keeping his hands clean? I couldn’t imagine that a business owner wouldn’t notice someone dealing right under their nose, but without any evidence I couldn’t go very far down that route. I wanted to ask Singh if he’d be looking into it, but I knew my interference wouldn’t be appreciated.

My next avenue of investigation had been social media. Worx had its own Instagram account, Facebook page and a private group for members, but I wouldn’t be able to access that without joining the gym myself. Instead, I searched for references to the gym and Roy. On Instagram it was all positive, usually people’s workout photos, mirror selfies with muscles on display, or occasionally photos of the outside of the gym. Facebook was a different story, however. There was a group for the local area that I joined without needing to be approved by an admin, and after a quick search I found a couple of posts from last year about the drugs raid. It seemed that some people weren’t surprised by it, and said they’d suspected the owner of dodgy dealings for a while. One person expressed surprise