This Other Country Read Free

an undertone, “I think you’re confusing love with total exhaustion. Eight years, Nikolas. It’s a very long time to know you.”
    Nikolas tossed the magazine away with a comment in Russian he knew Ben wouldn’t understand and picked up a newspaper. After a few minutes, Ben snorted. Nikolas sighed. “What?”
    “You can’t read that without your glasses. Stop pretending.”
    Nikolas pouted and chucked it onto the table. “You do know this is a complete waste of time, yes?”
    Ben slunk down a little further in his chair. “Yeah, I know. Squeezy’s totally clutching at straws. But it’s better than having him break in. We’ll see if there’s anything hinky with this—”
    “Hinky?”
    “—It’s a word—with this doctor bloke, and then Squeezy’ll just have to accept it.”
    “The boy was probably confused and depressed, and watched too many American TV shows. It was a cry for help in a way. I suppose if you were gay you might be making quite a number of those.”
    Ben glanced over at him, frowning for a moment, but before he could comment on Nikolas’s assertion they heard the handle to the adjoining door being turned and he sat up straighter. They didn’t risk a glance at each other, slipping seamlessly into their roles.
    Nikolas knew they skirted close enough to the truth to make their proposed fiction plausible.
    Game on.

CHAPTER TWO
    Back from the therapist, therefore, wishing he could go back two weeks and not be roused from a very pleasant sleep, Nikolas waited until Ben had finished making the tea and had placed the four mugs on the table. He gave Squeezy a quick glance and asked neutrally, “Tell me again what your nephew wrote in his email.”
    “Some fucking apology about leaving nothing but darkness behind him—which he fucking has done to his mum. She’ll never get over this.”
    Nikolas nodded. “That’s what I would have thought it meant too, and what I believe the police have assumed. So it struck me as odd, therefore, the doctor had a picture on the wall of himself with a group of friends and one of them was wearing a T-shirt that boasted: ‘Leave The Darkness’. I believe your nephew wasn’t admitting the effect his actions would have on everyone, apologising, as you say, but announcing he was obeying some kind of imperative.”
    “Fucking—”
    Nikolas laid a hand on Squeezy’s arm. “Sit down.”
    “I knew that fucking doctor did something to Jono’s head! Messed him up! The fucker—” He shook Nikolas’s hand off and went out into the tiny courtyard garden, hands in pockets, shoulders hunched.
    Tim stood up, watching him. “You should have let him break in and get the files! He’s been right all this time.”
    Nikolas glanced over at Ben. “We have created a monster. Where is your professor of ethics, Benjamin?”
    Tim ground his teeth in obvious frustration and pointed at Nikolas. “This isn’t funny! I don’t remember you being too concerned about behaving ethically when you thought I was a fucking terrorist!”
    For the first time Nikolas understood exactly how Tim felt about Michael—he’d answered back and sworn at him. It was so unthinkable Nikolas was at a loss for words.
    Ben hastily intervened. “We don’t need to break in, Tim. Kate will hack the files for us now that we’ve confirmed the doctor’s involvement.”
    Tim nodded, looking as if he was on the verge of apologising, but he scrunched up his face instead and went out to Michael.
    Ben apologised on his friend’s behalf. “I think he’s in love.”
    Nikolas didn’t like talking about people in love, even other people—and especially not men—so he changed the subject swiftly. “I’ll call Kate.”
    § § §
    After some more tea, which was always needed in a crisis, Ben had been able to calm Squeezy down. Kate would find out what the doctor had written about the sessions with Jono. They just had to be patient.
    Ben waited until the other two left, eyeing Nikolas as he peered