August Read Free Page B

forced my face into an impassive mask. Winter’s call had saved me, and I had to save her from being identified.
    ‘Do you recognise that voice?’ the sergeant asked.
    I shook my head, trying to control my racing heart.
    ‘Who cares!’ I cried. ‘I need to find my sister! Isn’t that more important right now?’
    ‘Once you get out of prison,’ said McGrath, raising his eyebrows, ‘you should go to Hollywood. Won’t be for a hefty number of years, mind you,’ he said with a sly smirk, ‘but you sure are one convincing act.’
    Fury and frustration spilled over. I tried to pull the restraints on my wrists apart but they seemed to just tighten, painfully.
    ‘You’re sitting there,’ I yelled, my voice breaking , ‘making stupid comments instead of getting out of here and searching for my sister! She’s in a coma, for crying out loud! She needs twenty-four -hour care! I know you’re not going to let me go, so you need to find her!’ I stared at the sergeant’s cynical face. He was convinced I was full of it. ‘As if I have her!’ I continued. ‘Where do you think I’ve stashed her? Under this stinking mattress?’
    It was no use. His face remained impassive.
    ‘The girl who called us–your accomplice–who is she? Is she holding Gabbi?’
    I glared at him, furious.
    ‘I can see it’s going to be a long day,’ sighed the sergeant. ‘Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?’

    He was on at me for ages, going over and over the same questions, trying to trick me into admitting that I’d taken Gabbi–that I knew where she was–that I had accomplices who were holding her while I was in captivity.
    I was sick of hearing it.
    ‘What you’re suggesting is crazy,’ I said, exhausted. ‘Why would I take Gabbi? I can’t look after her. Me? A fugitive? On the run, somehow managing an intensive care unit as well?’
    ‘We don’t think you took your sister to “look after her”,’ he snarled.
    ‘You think I’d harm her? Is that what you think?’
    ‘Why not? Finish what you started back in January,’ he said bluntly. ‘If we hadn’t turned up that day, sending you running with our sirens blaring, I have no doubt you would have completed the job. We would have been carrying two dead bodies out of that house.’
    ‘It wasn’t me!’ I yelled.
    We were interrupted by another nurse with a tray of food and a drink. She looked nervousand couldn’t look at me–her hands were shaking , making the juice in a plastic cup ripple.
    ‘It’s OK,’ the sergeant said to her. ‘Just put the food down and be on your way.’
    She nodded towards him, put the tray down carefully, and then happily backed out of the room, leaving us behind.
    On a plastic plate was a bowl of lumpy, greyish stew and some boiled carrots. I was thirsty, but I had no appetite. I was worried sick about Gabbi.
    McGrath reached for the restraints on my wrists, holding out a huge, threatening pair of clippers.
    ‘Can I trust you if I cut those off?’
    ‘Probably not.’
    ‘Ah, the first honest thing you’ve said all day!’ The sergeant laughed before clipping the restraints and handing me the tray. ‘You’re nothing I can’t handle.’
    I picked up the plastic fork and poked one of the grey lumps. I quickly put the fork down again.
    ‘Sergeant, please tell me what happened. Where were my mum and uncle when Gabbi was taken? They haven’t been hurt, have they?’
    He ignored my questions. ‘Let’s talk about something else,’ he suggested. ‘Why did you break into the undertakers’ premises?’
    ‘I didn’t break in. The door was left open for me, just like Rathbone said it would be.’
    ‘Rathbone?’
    ‘It was all arranged by Mr Sheldrake Rathbone, our family solicitor. He organised the meeting. It was at his brother’s place–the undertakers’. We were going to exchange information.’ The sergeant was looking at me in disbelief again. I thought of something that might help my case. ‘Check my blog and