Taste of Fury by M Comley (dark academia books to read txt) 📗

stop having a go at me because of his failings, you’ve been guilty of doing that a lot lately and I hate it. I’m not him. He was a one-off.”

Her mother touched her daughter’s cheek. “Again, I apologise if I’ve said anything harsh lately. We’ve all been under a huge amount of stress, 2020 was a devastating year for everyone, especially those who are self-employed.”

Katy watched the interaction between mother and daughter with interest.

Sammy gave a short, abrupt laugh. “Ha, right, it didn’t stop him going out four or five nights a week to piss it up the wall though, as soon as the pubs were open again, did it?”

“Sammy, don’t speak like that about your father. Go, leave us alone, don’t you think I’m going through enough stress as it is right now without you being intent on slagging your father off?”

“Sorry, it’s the truth, whether you want to admit it or not, Mum.”

Jane jumped to her feet and pointed at the door. “Get out. Now!” she shouted, shocking everyone in the room, especially her daughter.

Sammy’s tough exterior crumbled in front of their eyes. She burst into tears and dashed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Jane buried her head in her hands and sobbed. “Jesus, why does she always have to test the boundaries? Now look what she’s done. She’s forced a wedge between us, just when I need her support.”

“Would you like me to have a word with her before we leave?” Katy asked tentatively.

“Would you? No, you have enough on your plate without being a mediator as well.”

“It’s hardly that. Once we’re done here, I’ll go up and see her. We’ll get you two talking again, I promise.”

“I hope so. I’m going to be relying on her for support… once I begin making the funeral arrangements.”

“You will. It’s never an easy task to handle.”

Jane fell quiet for a moment or two. “I didn’t have the courage to ask him for a divorce. We should have parted years ago. Yes, I loved him, but I hated him at the same time. Does that sound contradictory?”

“Not in the slightest. The experts will tell you there’s a fine line between love and hate. Can you cast your mind back over the last few months, maybe Jason confided in you about feeling fearful of something?”

She shook her head. “No, not that I can recollect. But that doesn’t mean to say there wasn’t something going on that he felt he needed to keep secret.”

“What about his friends? Are they likely to know him any better? Sorry, I didn’t mean it to come out that way. Maybe his friends were more aware of what was going on in his life than his family.”

“Possibly. He only had one good friend, Nigel Granger. I can get his phone number for you, if you like?”

“That would be extremely helpful. Did your husband go to the pub with Nigel?”

“Now and again. Nigel was more of a homebird, unlike Jason. My husband used to get irate with Nigel at times. Taunted him for being under the thumb, bloody idiot. Just because a man prefers his wife’s company to that of his best friend, it doesn’t mean he’s under the thumb. We had more arguments about that than anything.” She left her seat and went in search of her address book. She reeled off the number and Charlie jotted it down.

“So true. Can you think of anyone else who might have likely fallen out with your husband lately? A customer perhaps?”

“No, nothing along those lines. All his customers relied on him to do a good job, he never let them down either. I can’t think of anything. I swear, I would tell you if I could. I want this person caught. Wait, what if they come after me or my daughter?”

“Maybe you can both stay with relatives for a few days, just in case. Although I have to say that’s probably unlikely to happen.”

“But can you guarantee it?”

“No, which is why I made the suggestion to stay elsewhere.”

“I’ll see if we can arrange that today. I bet that’s going to cause another rift between my daughter and myself. She loves the comfort of her home as much as I do, rarely steps foot out of the house except to go to university or to pop round and see her grandparents.”

“Maybe you can both stay there, if you’re close to them.”

“Possibly, can I give them a call, you know, while you’re here?”

“Go for it. Why don’t I go upstairs and have a chat with Sammy while you make the call?”

“Sounds good to me. Tell her I’m sorry, will you?”

Katy smiled. “Leave it to me.”

She left the room and walked up the stairs. At the top, she surveyed the landing and then moved towards the door at the end of the hall when she heard the faint sound of music coming from the room. She knocked on the door and eased it open.

Sammy was sitting on her bed, her legs crossed, listening to her iPod. Katy entered the room and sat on the end of the bed. Sammy’s eyes shot open and her hand covered her heart. “Damn, you scared the shit out of me.”

Katy smiled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I knocked, but you couldn’t hear me. I hope I’m not intruding, Sammy.”

“You are. I don’t want to speak to you, or to Mum. I just want today to be over.”

“I can understand that. Please, don’t shut your Mum out, she’s going to be counting on you for support now that your father is no longer with us.”

“You reckon? She’s always been a hard cow.”

Katy tilted her head. “Really? She doesn’t come across as uncaring to me.”

“I didn’t say she didn’t care, I said she was hard, emotionally lacking at times. Fails to react like other mothers do when the chips are down.”

Katy didn’t have a clue what Sammy was going on about. From what she could tell, Jane had reacted normally, if there was such