Cold Light Read Free Page B

fed Natalie, given Karl fish fingers and beans, and made herself some toast. Gary had said he wasn’t hungry. Her mum had asked her to take the kids round some time that afternoon so she could give them their presents and even though it meant carting the pushchair off and on two buses, Michelle thought she’d better make the effort. First thing in the morning, her parents would be off up the Al to Darlington to have their Christmas dinner with Michelle’s older sister, Marie, and her family. Three-bedroom semi, that’s what they had. Picked it up dirt cheap after it was repossessed.
    â€œMichelle!” Gary’s voice from the back.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œLend us a hand, will you?”
    â€œBe there in a minute.”
    â€œNo, now.”
    The kettle was coming to the boil, Natalie was getting into a right old grizzle, Karl was calling something from the front room and she couldn’t tell what; she’d thought while the tea was mashing, she’d see if there was mincemeat enough left to make some more mince pies. Last she’d made were almost as good as you could buy in the shop.
    â€œMichelle! You coming or what?”
    Michelle sighed and pushed the teapot to one side. Through the open front-room door, she could see Karl painstakingly climbing on to the settee so he could roll back off.
    â€œYou be careful now,” she called at him on the way past. “You’ll only hurt yourself.”
    â€œHere,” Gary said, pointing. “Steady that for me there.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œJesus Christ, girl! There!”
    Michelle pushed two fingers against the top of the hinge, her thumb against the bottom.
    â€œOkay, now budge over, give me room to get the screwdriver to it.”
    She could hear his breathing clearly, loud and slightly ragged beneath his shirt. He hated doing jobs like this.
    â€œRight. Whatever you do, don’t let go. Hold it firm. Push.”
    There was a shout, sudden and loud, from inside the house and she knew that Karl had fallen and hurt himself.
    Gary sensed her move and stopped it. “I’ll be done in a minute. Hang on.”
    â€œIt’s Karl, he …”
    â€œI said bloody hang on!”
    Gary gave a final turn and the screw splintered sideways through the wood of the frame, jerking the screwdriver from his hand. The hinge fell away from Michelle’s fingers and the whole door slid sharply outwards, wrenching the bottom hinge away with it.
    â€œFuck!” Gary yelled. “Sodding bastard fuck!”
    â€œGary!” Michelle called. “Don’t.”
    From somewhere, blood seemed to be running between her fingers, collecting inside her hand.
    Karl was standing close by the doorway, fists jammed against his eyes, mouth widening through a succession of screams.
    â€œFuck!” Gary swore again, kicking at the frame. “And you,” he said, grabbing Karl by both arms and lifting him into the air. “You want something to bloody cry about!” He dropped his son towards the floor and before he could land, had cracked his hand, hard as he could, back across Karl’s face.

Three
    â€œCrying out for it, she was?
    Meal time in the canteen and Divine, relieved from his duties at the hospital, was telling Kevin Naylor about his encounter with Staff Nurse Bruton over the drugs trolley. A year or so back, Naylor would have been impressed; now his expression was, to put it mildly, skeptical.
    â€œNo, she was. Straight up.”
    â€œTold you, did she?” Naylor asked. “I mean, you know, came right out and said it?”
    Divine dipped one of his chips into the pool of brown sauce spreading across his plate. “Don’t need to say , do they? Know what’s what, you can tell.” He pointed his fork across at Naylor, sprinkling the table with sauce. “Lot of your problem, you and Debbie …”
    â€œDebbie and I don’t have a problem.”
    â€œFor now,