Vigilante Read Free Page A

to have children of their own, which wasn’t that old for some of them, the cycle would start over. Even if you wanted to get out, you would be up against it. A place like this would have a reputation, so it was easy to get left behind when it came to funding for things like education or anything else that might aid social mobility.
    It didn’t help if you had to live close to criminal scumbags who cared about no one but themselves either.
    Jessica and Cole followed the teenagers’ instructions and soon came across the row of flats they were looking for. He pointed out that the ground-floor apartments all seemed to have even numbers, so they took the nearby stairs up to the first floor. The concrete entrance to the stairwell stank and Jessica avoided looking towards the back of the area where the bins were overflowing. The stairs opened out onto a full row of odd-numbered properties on their left and a wooden rail running the full length of the building on their right plus a hard stone floor underneath them. The first thing Jessica noticed was a bank of satellite dishes overhanging the rail. It seemed as if every property had wires running from their front door across the ceiling covering the walkway and back down to their own dish.
    They made their way halfway along the row until they reached the door they were looking for. Jessica knocked and waited but it didn’t feel very sturdy. Most modern properties had double-glazed entrances and windows but the whole rank of flats had old-fashioned wooden doors.
    Jessica had grown to like working with DI Cole, although his coolness did sometimes unnerve her. When they ended up working together, he was the calm thoughtful one while she went in running her mouth off. She had spent the past year trying to calm those instant reactions but it was a work-in-progress. In most situations, there was a tacit agreement between the two of them that Jessica would take the lead when it came to talking to witnesses or suspects. It wasn’t a tactic they had ever spoken about, more something that had happened.
    There was no immediate answer so Jessica knocked again, louder the second time. This time, she heard a voice from inside but couldn’t make out what was being said. It didn’t sound too friendly. The door was wrenched open and a woman stood there in a light pink dressing gown. She had greying brown hair and was scowling before Jessica had even bothered to get her identification out.
    The flat’s occupant rolled her eyes. ‘What’s he bloody done this time?’

TWO

    It seemed a pretty fair assumption the woman was Craig’s mum but Jessica asked the obvious question to make sure. ‘Are you Craig Millar’s mother?’
    ‘Yes, come on. It’s too early for all this. What’s he done now?’
    The woman didn’t seem in a very good mood and had clearly only recently climbed out of bed. Jessica guessed this wasn’t the first time Craig’s mother had been woken up because her son had been up to no good. Usually officers would make an effort to make sure people were at ease before giving bad news. At the absolute least, they would get the person to sit down. Quite often someone from uniform would be specially trained and drafted in to do it. The ‘training’ actually entailed an afternoon of role-plays with someone paid a lot more than they were. Ultimately, all officers knew there was never a good way to deliver bad news. Not acting like an idiot was rule number one – it was mainly about common sense.
    ‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you, Mrs Millar.’
    The woman rolled her eyes and swore. ‘I don’t know how many times I’ve got to keep telling him. He’s out on his arse this time. I’ve had enough. I don’t want his brother getting involved in all this shite.’ The woman nodded behind her as if to indicate towards another son, who was presumably in a different room. He certainly wasn’t visible in the hallway.
    ‘I’m afraid your son is dead, Mrs