She looked at him, completely flabbergasted. ‘Beebee?MyBeebee? There’s absolutely no way on God’s green earth she would touch thatstuff.’
Miles breathed a sigh like he couldn’t be bothered with the battle, but said, ‘Most of the kids at Swanhaven were into it when I was there. I can’t imagine it would be much different today.’
‘You must be joking! I hope you never touched any of it!’
Miles rolled his eyes.
Jeannie huffed. ‘Maybe at the kind of school Callum and Martha go to, but not at a prestigious establishment like Swanhaven.’
Callum’s cheeks and ears turned pink.
Miles turned a cold stare upon his mother. ‘Kids like Beebee and Ceecee can afford to buy whatever class A drugs they want, but you’re such a snob that would never occur to you, would it?’
‘Class A drugs?’ She paled. ‘No– there’s no way. Absolutely not.’
He threw his hands up. ‘Don’t believe me, then, I actuallywentto that school, as well as a university not a million miles away in the league tables from theirs, and have first-hand experience of exactly what goes on. But of course, you know best, don’t you, Mother. Your Beebee and Ceecee wouldneverdo such a thing, but my children would?’ He threw his napkin onto the table and got up to leave.
She raised her palms up and looked at me as if to say,What did I do?
I met her gaze and gave her a hard stare.
‘Come on, Callum, let’s go,’ I said simply.
I was sad to leave Mrs Harlow with Fergus and Jeannie, but she would have to fend for herself. I had my own family to think about. And not just that. An email had flashed up on my phone two hours ago from the ghostwriter.
He had delivered the manuscript with the caveat that there was onlysomuch he was able to do in the little time I had given him.Little time?What about the £10,000 he was getting paid? Did that not warrant a little more effort?
I pulled on Callum’s arm as he was about to leave for his room and whispered, ‘I found a packet of these.’ I pulled out the Rizlas. ‘Are they yours?’
He took the papers from my hand and shoved them into his pocket. ‘Yeah, why?’
‘Well, I found them in the secret passage. Have you been using it?’
‘Yeah… Have you?’ He looked at me with incredulity.
‘Yes, to avoid Beebee and Ceecee late at night.’
‘That’s the same reason I did. I got the munchies… Thanks for finding them, anyway.’
I held on to him. ‘Please be careful, Callum. The police know about the passage now. I don’t want them to think that you might have anything to do with this. Now that Beebee is… gone… we won’t need to sneak around anymore. Okay?’
‘Got it. Thanks, Mum. No matter what the twins have said in the past, or Grandma or any of the others… I think you’re pretty badass.’
‘Really?’ I lit up.
‘Yeah, you’re all right.’ He nudged me. ‘Laters,mi madre!’
Callum went back to his room and I trotted away to the pool room, grinning at his compliment. The pool still seemed cold and unwelcoming without the view of the water. I plonked myself down in my corner, opened the attachment and began reading.
The story began with what I had written so far, which considering everything that had been going on, I didn’t think was too bad. It just needed a lot of fleshing out. And he hadn’t even touched the parts I’d already written. I scowled, reading on.
Chapter four was where he had started. It was okay, but pretty dull stuff. There was nothing quite like reading someone else writingyourstory, putting words intoyourcharacter’s mouths that you know damn well they would never say.
Chapter five, six, seven… boring, boring, boring. Those bastards on the forum could say what they wanted about the quality of my prose, but at least I wasn’t boring as hell like most people out there. At least when I wrote,shit happened.
I breathed deeply, my anger getting the better of me as I read on, trying to remain impartial. I was halfway through the book andnothinghad happened, when a man in blue overalls came into the pool room and dropped a canvas bag onto the tiles, the tools inside clattering loudly. He gave me a quick nod in acknowledgment, before bending down to retrieve a crowbar. He began prising open a white box on the far wall, and I tried to ignore his noise as I ploughed through the most boring book in the world.
His wrench was clicking as he pulled out some wires and I tried not to show my irritation. He looked over at the pool, his hand pressed onto something inside the box. It was his turn to huff and sigh as a horrible churning and grinding of metal-on-metal sounded. He swore under his breath.
