Free Dead and Buried by Anne Cassidy Page A

disappeared and his body was found near Cromer pier. His hands had been tied behind his back. It is my belief that Brendan Johnson and others carried out this assassination as a form of justice for the girls.
     
    How willingly had her mother become part of this group within the police force? This was the question that had begun to play on Rose’s mind. It had been Brendan’ s brother who had committed the first murder, Brendan who went and tidied up the crime scene. It was Brendan who had been part of the group who killed Viktor Baranski.
    It was Brendan who did all of the talking on Skype.
    Had her mother simply been pulled along by Brendan?
    Did she regret her involvement?
    Did she wish she had never got involved?
    If only . . . Rose thought as she continued writing her statement.

NINE
     
    Rose sat opposite Sara and Maggie before class started. Sara had an arm linked through Maggie’s. They looked like twin sisters but they were just friends who’d been around each other for a long time. Now and then they saw it as their job to look after Rose.
    ‘Come out with us on Friday to the Pink Parrot. It’ll be fun,’ Sara said. ‘They, like, have talent spots. People get up to five minutes on stage to show what they can do – comedy, singing, dancing . . .’
    ‘This guy read his poems out!’
    ‘I liked them.’
    ‘Embarrassing!’
    ‘He had the bluest eyes.’
    Rose looked from one to the other. ‘It doesn’t sound like my kind of thing.’
    ‘I’m sure you’d enjoy it. And, anyway, Jamie Roberts might come. He likes you.’
    ‘Jamie Roberts? From Law?’
    Maggie nodded excitedly. ‘He asked us about you. We told him that you’re, like, a special girl.’
    Rose had to smile. Sara and Maggie wanted Rose to live the kind of life that they did. They were both fiercely intelligent and they worked hard in their classes but outside they liked to play. They wanted Rose to have a boyfriend and come to the pub and go to parties. It was an alien life to Rose but they didn’t stop trying to persuade her.
    ‘Here’s a leaflet. The Pink Parrot is not a gay pub. Well, there might be, like, gay people in it, but you know what I mean. It’s in Kentish Town, about two minutes from the tube. Loads of kids from college go there.’
    ‘Not the rough lot,’ Sara said. ‘Nor the druggies.’
    ‘Just intellectuals like us,’ Maggie said, smiling.
    Rose took the leaflet. The bell sounded for the last afternoon class and Sara and Maggie headed off while she sat finishing her tea. She looked at the piece of paper in her hand. Variety Night! Readings, Comedy, Drama, Singers, Dancers. All Welcome. Every Friday, 8.30 start. She couldn’t picture herself out on a night like this. Getting ready at home, deciding what to wear, meeting Sara and Maggie outside the tube, the three of them laughing and giggling on the way to the pub, getting a table or standing around watching the cabaret while keeping an eye out for Jamie Roberts from Law. Could she have a regular night out with college friends? With a frisson of possible romance thrown in?
    This wasn’t the sort of life that Rose lived.
    Sometimes she wished it was. Every now and again she longed to be ordinary, like Sara and Maggie. Each of them was comfortable in their long-term friendship, their days in college, their nights out in North London, their plans for university (the same one for both, of course). But Sara and Maggie didn’t have a history to carry round with them. How could she go out, have a laugh and joke with people, watch a show, flirt with Jamie from Law? How could she enjoy herself when these other things were happening in her life?
    She folded up the leaflet and put it in her pocket.
    Her phone beeped. She had a message from Joshua. It was two days since she’d seen him, since Henry had told them about Brendan’s tie. Two days of silence. She was apprehensive as she looked at the text. Come round to the flat after college. Something exciting to show you.