Bad Boy

Bad Boy Read Free

Book: Bad Boy Read Free
Author: Peter Robinson
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such. Always has been. Cheerful. Quick to smile. Gregarious, even. But this time she’s been acting like a hermit, staying in her room.”
    “Did she ask you for any help at all?”
    Juliet frowned. “What do you mean? What sort of help?”
    “Financial, emotional, medical. Anything. Could she be in trouble?”
    “You mean pregnant ?”
    “It’s a possibility,” said Gervaise. “Though that wasn’t what I meant specifically. Would she have been able to talk to you about something like that?”
    “I’d like to think so.”
    “How long has she been back here in Eastvale?”
    “Since Friday morning. We kept her room. Always. Just as it was. Well, tidier.”
    “Lots of parents do that,” Gervaise said. “It offsets the sense of loss when their children leave home. Sometimes it’s hard to let go.”
    Annie knew that the superintendent had two children of her own, though it was hard to imagine it at the moment, as she perched there in her pinstripe skirt, buttoned-up jacket and crisp white blouse, all business.
    “Yes,” said Juliet.
    “Did you get the impression that this time it’s more than a passing visit?”
    “Definitely.”
    “And is this the first time she’s come to stay for any length of time since she left home?”
    “Yes.”
    Gervaise paused. “Now, about the gun you found on top of the wardrobe,” she went on.
    “It was near the back, where you couldn’t possibly see it unless you stood on a chair or a stepladder. It was wrapped in a tea cloth. I suppose she thought it was safe up there. I mean, she doesn’t really think about housework or anything like that.”
    “It would have been if it hadn’t been for your thoroughness,” said Gervaise. “You did the right thing coming to us, Mrs. Doyle.”
    “I don’t know,” Juliet said, shaking her head. “My own daughter. I feel like such a…Judas. What will happen to her?”
    Annie had deeply conflicted feelings toward Juliet Doyle at that moment. On the one hand, the poor woman was turning in her own daughter, and she must be going through hell. Whether Juliet was aware of it or not, Annie knew there was a mandatory five year sentence for possession of a handgun, and the courts tended to be strict in its application, though there had recently been some complaints about overly lenient judges. Perhaps they would take special circumstances into account for a young woman with no prior record, but however forgiving they were, Erin Doyle was looking at a prison sentence of some sort, rather than probation or community service. And she would come out with a criminal record. Juliet probably didn’t suspect this. Still, Annie reminded herself, as yet they had absolutely no evidence that Erin Doyle was guilty of anything.
    “It’s a very serious matter,” Gervaise went on. “Guns are dangerous weapons, and the more we get off the streets the safer our towns and cities will be.”
    It was the party line, Annie knew, and Gervaise was clearly trying to make Juliet feel more at ease with her betrayal, feel like a right-thinking citizen. But Annie sensed that Juliet Doyle was getting seriously worried now, and beginning to regret that she had come. She was probably thinking that she and her husband could have dealt with the whole mess themselves, disposed of the gun, chucked it in the river, given Erin a good talking to. In a way, Annie thought, she was right.
    For a mother to take such a step was almost inconceivable to Annie, no matter how much police policy encouraged it, or how much, as an officer of the law and a campaigner against gun crime, she was supposed to applaud it. While a part of her admired Juliet’s sacrifice to duty, to the greater good, another part of her felt disgust for what the woman was doing. Though Annie had never raised a child herself, she didn’t think she would be capable of betraying her daughter. She was certain that her own mother would never have done such a thing, though she had died when Annie was very young.

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