Face in the Frame Read Free Page A

activities. It was unlikely she’d ever be released. Lauren had struggled with mental illness her entire life, hardly surprising when not only had one of her brothers and her sister-in-law been serial killers, but her dad too. She had taken a huge shine to Brodie when their paths had crossed while he was investigating the case and had sent him endless requests for visits but so far he’d turned them all down. However Brodie was starting to feel guilty. Lauren had no one else.
    “Well?” said Cass when he’d remained in thoughtful silence for a full minute.
    “Tell her I’m not going.”
    “You rotten sod.”
    “Me?” he exclaimed, pointing at himself. “I get enough visiting people in loony bins just seeing Ricky.” Ricky was Brodie’s older brother who was also locked up in a secure mental unit for life after very brutally murdering their abusive father when he was just fourteen.
    “I get that but maybe she has more information on the Creegan case? There’s still a missing victim and it would mean the world to her family if they could finally bury her.”
    “Lauren wouldn’t know that, she had nothing to do with the killings.”
    “Maybe Seth’s been in touch with her? Doctor Sandler says they write to each other.”
    “Seth’s letters are always checked.”
    “Maybe they have some sort of code?”
    “I think you’re overestimating both of them hen. Why are you so keen for me to go anyway? Trying to get rid of me?”
    “Course not. I suppose I feel sorry for Lauren. She’s just a victim of her family’s madness.”
    She was looking at him with her big dark doe eyes and he felt himself weakening. “Oh…I’ll think about it, alright?”
    “I can’t ask for more Boss,” she grinned.
    They were interrupted by a knock at the door, which opened before either of them could react. In walked a small, thin man with round glasses and a large shiny forehead, his hair receding at an alarming rate, making him look like an aged mole.
    “What do you want?” frowned Brodie.
    “I do hope that awful noise isn’t going to continue all day? It’s very difficult for my clients to find their inner peace when from below sound voices claiming they’re going to rip someone’s scrotum off.” The man spoke in a snooty London accent that never failed to annoy Brodie. He ran an alternative therapy business on the floor above. He and Brodie couldn’t have been more opposite, which was why they constantly annoyed each other.
    “We’re both fine, thanks for asking,” Brodie barked back.
    “I’m not putting myself at risk, it’s not my business. If you want to deal with such awful people on a daily basis that’s your problem but some of us don’t want to risk physical injury.”
    “Your loss,” grinned Brodie.
    “So I’d appreciate it if you would keep the noise down. My clients and I have no wish to absorb so much negative energy.”
    “Why don’t you toddle off back upstairs before I feng shui my boot up your arse.”
    The mole man regarded him with a disdainful look. “You really are the most boorish brute I ever met.”
    “Why thank you. Now get tae. No doubt some veggie munching, cabbage farting hippy freak is wasting away upstairs as we speak.”
    “My clients do not fart,” he retorted indignantly. “Why do you have to be so rude all the time?”
    “Because I enjoy it.”
    “You should come to me for a cleansing. You’re rife with toxic energy. You really are an unhappy man, aren’t you?”
    When Brodie’s eyes darkened into amber flints Cass hastily intervened. “I’m sorry we disturbed you Roger, we’ll keep the noise down, promise.”
    “Thank you Miss Carlisle, I appreciate that. At least someone around here has manners.”
    “Get tae fuck ya wee dick, you’re getting on my tits,” said Brodie.
    An outraged Roger harrumphed before striding from the room, nose in the air.
    “Now that cockwomble’s gone maybe I can get some work done,” said Brodie, picking up the phone.