Sorcerer Read Free Page A

him a lot, you know I do. But he’s not my concern. You are’.
    ‘And are we talking about me or you here?’
    Jenny’s response to her daughter’s direct accusation was momentarily paused when Cameron brought Jenny her replacement sandwich. She closed her eyes slowly to fight back the tears. What this was really all about was money. The bills for Gabby’s wedding had to be paid in two weeks time and Jenny didn’t know how she and Ed were going to do it. Jenny’s parents were both dead and had never had much money anyway. She didn’t earn much as a doctor’s receptionist. She’d never be able to borrow what was needed. It looked like her only option would be to ask Ed’s mother who lived in Spain. She’d helped them out before although Ed didn’t know. He’d have been furious if he had have found out. He’d never got on with his mother for as long as Jenny had known him.    
    ‘That’s not a question a daughter should ask her mother, Gabby’.
    ‘Mum, I know what it’s like between you and Dad and you’re both still young’.
    ‘I see’.
    ‘Or is it money, Mum? I know the letters that arrive for Dad. I know he’s got financial troubles’.
    ‘He always has had’ said Jenny. ‘That’s nothing new’.
    ‘Mum, do you still love Dad?’
    Jenny breathed in deep and then said ‘I don’t hate him. And it’s not like I can’t stand the sight of him. But I wouldn’t call it love. Not in the way that you and Owen are in love. Not in the way your mate Cameron here crossed the world to be with his girl. There’s something there between your Dad and me but I don’t know what it is’.
    ‘Oh, Mum’ said Gabby as she squeezed her mother’s hand.
    ‘Ah, look, I don’t want to be talking about this now’ said Jenny. ‘I couldn’t be happier for you, Gabby. Owen is a great bloke and I do mean that. I just wanted to make sure that’s all’.
    ‘I know and I am happy, Mum’ said Gabby who’d fallen head over heels in love with Owen the first time she’d met him. She’d broken her ankle and Owen had been the casualty nurse who’d attended to her.  ‘I just wish you and Dad were too’.
     
    Jeff went to see Chief Superintendent Ian Hayward at the earliest opportunity. It was all he needed this morning. His son Toby had started wetting the bed again and at four o’clock this morning he’d been loading the washing machine with the wet sheets before trying to get a very distressed little five year old back to sleep. Toby had ended up sleeping in Jeff’s bed.   
    ‘Sir, something’s come up in the investigation that I need to talk to you about’.
    ‘Like what, Jeff?’ Hayward asked amiably although he had a good idea what Jeff needed to speak to him about. He’d been haunted by it for twenty years and as soon as the human remains had been found at Pembroke House he’d known that it would only be a matter of time.
    ‘Sir, do you remember a young man called Ronnie Wiseman?’
    Hayward swallowed and then cleared his throat. ‘No’ he answered. ‘Should I?’
    ‘You might’ve forgotten because it was a long time ago’ said Jeff who was convinced that Hayward was lying to him already. The body language was loud and clear. ‘He was a resident at the Pembroke House care home for boys back when you were a constable and it was on your beat. In a television programme he says he made a complaint to a police officer about having been physically and sexually abused at the home but he wasn’t allowed at that time to mention the officer’s name. The force took out an injunction against the name of the officer being revealed but we’ve found out that it was you’.
    ‘I don’t know what you expect me to say?’
    ‘I don’t expect you to say anything, sir. I’m just asking as part of the investigation because you see, we can’t find any record of Wiseman’s complaint ever having been recorded. Now we have found evidence in a dungeon-style basement area of the home that suggests