Looking for JJ Read Free Page B

who you think I am, she wanted to say. Instead she unbuttoned her overall and let it slide off her, stepping out of it, leaving it on the tiled floor like a skin that she had just shed. She was going home because she couldn’t go on pretending.
    The manager looked at her with concern. It wasn’t as though she’d been acting completely normally that week, after all. There had been other things: crying in the toilets, dropping plates, spilling hot coffee on her wrist.
    When she walked out of the shop she felt a moment’s relief. The door closed behind her and she didn’t even look round. But it wasn’t as easy as that. She found herself walking against the crowds, sidestepping people on their way to work, stepping half on the pavement, half on the road, glancing round from time to time to make sure the trams weren’t anywhere near. Then, turning the corner, she was in Rosie’s street and she was hit by the quiet. No people, only a car or two seesawing across the speed bumps.
    Alice knew the manager would ring Rosie. She could almost hear the bleeps on his mobile as he tapped Rosie’s number in and rang her to report Alice’s departure. Rosie was an old friend of his. He’d given Alice a job as a favour. Not that he knew the truth. No, Rosie had had other girls staying with her; girls whose families had given up on them and who needed time and space. A safe house where they could make some sort of life for themselves.
    Rosie had never had a murderer stay with her before.
    “I’ll make some coffee, and I want you to come into the kitchen and chat to me,” Rosie said, walking out of Alice’s room and leaving the door wide open so that a gale could come through it.
    Alice heard the water running and the sound of crockery clinking gently, the fridge door opening and shutting, the tinkling of the teaspoons. Then she could smell the coffee, strong and warming. She let her duvet fall away and got up, her legs feeling like twigs. She made her way into the kitchen, and sat down quietly on a chair that had Rosie’s jacket hanging over the back of it. Rosie placed two mugs on the table, and then pulled a chair along the floor so that she could sit down directly in front of Alice.
    “We knew that things might be difficult,” she said, grabbing Alice’s hand and searching out her eyes. “We knew that someone might come looking for you. That was one of the first things we talked about. You remember? On that day in Patricia Coffey’s flat?”
    Alice nodded. Of course she remembered that day.
    “We are not going to let this get us down. They can look all they like. As far as these reporters, or detectives, are concerned you’ve only just been released.”
    Alice nodded, although Rosie made it sound as though there were a whole group of them searching for her. A posse.
    “I rang Patricia this morning just to check on how things were. She says that no one has approached her for any information. I also rang Jill. She’s not been contacted either.”
    Jill Newton was Alice’s probation officer, a thin lady with white-blonde hair and tinted glasses.
    “The media are looking for a girl who has just arrived in the community. You’ve been around for over six months. No one is going to put you and Jennifer Jones together.”
    Rosie half-turned and lifted a plastic container from the side. She opened it and took out a shortcake biscuit and put it in Alice’s hand.
    “Eat up,” she said, her voice insistent.
    Alice didn’t usually eat snacks but she knew that it would make Rosie happy. Rosie needed her to eat the biscuit. She nibbled at its buttery edges and saw a smile break out on Rosie’s face. Rosie pushed her chair back and stood up, her baggy trousers showing line after line of creases.
    “So what if this detective, this Sherlock Holmes, comes into the café. What’s he going to say? He doesn’t know your new name! He has no photographs of you! He thinks Jennifer Jones has just arrived. He can ask anyone he likes