Free Butterfly Grave (Murder Notebooks) by Anne Cassidy Page A

lead he turned and began to walk away. Rose followed him.
    ‘Why are you still so angry at that boy?’
    ‘Rory? Or his brother, Sean?’
    ‘Rory. Martin said he’d changed.’
    ‘Martin’s an optimist. People like Rory don’t change.’
    His voice had become hard and he was walking swiftly. She had to quicken her step to keep up with him.
    ‘Was that his brother?’
    ‘Sean Spenser, an equally nasty piece of work. He taught Rory everything he knows.’
    Rose linked her arm through his, pulling him back a little, trying to slow him down. They walked for a while in silence passing the point where the police notice was. Joshua’s mood was all over the place. One minute he was calmly talking about his dad, the next he was angry at Rory Spenser, some boy from the past. He was like someone flailing about in deep water, grabbing at anything to keep himself from going under.
    ‘Martin’s nice,’ she said, changing the subject.
    ‘He’s a good mate.’
    ‘He asked me on a date!’
    She stopped. Rose, Rose, why did you say that , she thought.
    ‘What?’
    ‘I saw him yesterday when I took Poppy for a walk and he, he just asked me out.’
    ‘Are you going to go?’
    Joshua was looking straight at her, puzzled.
    ‘ ’Course not,’ she said, steering him away from bumping into a signpost at the end of the path.
    He was quiet as they walked along the pavement back towards the bus stop. Then he pulled her to a halt.
    ‘Rosie, you don’t have to say no to Martin because of all this stuff about Stu . . .’
    ‘I don’t want to go . . .’ she said.
    The bus was coming now and they both ran for it. They got on, breathless and found a seat near the front. Joshua didn’t say any more about Martin and Rose, relieved, looked out of the window, her eye catching the Royal hotel as they passed it.
    Later, in the evening, Skeggsie came round with fish and chips and they watched a DVD that he’d brought. There was red wine and beer and Rose found herself drinking more than she’d meant to. Halfway through the film Josh got some whisky out of a drinks cabinet and asked if anyone else wanted some. Neither she nor Skeggsie did. Joshua left the bottle at his side and kept refilling his glass. When they said goodbye to Skeggsie Joshua was unsteady on his feet, his words a little slurred. He sat back down in his seat and Rose walked to the door with Skeggsie.
    ‘I’ve never seen Josh drunk,’ she said.
    ‘I have. He’ll sleep it off.’
    ‘Did you have any luck with the registration number?’
    He shook his head. ‘Trying a couple of Incision Programmes.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Taking data out of secure files without anyone noticing. Eddie’s helping me down in London. I will ask Dad but as a last resort. I don’t want him poking his nose into our business.’
    ‘Would he be angry?’
    ‘No, he’d just take it over!’
    The door closed and Rose went into the kitchen. She poured herself another tumbler of red wine and returned to the living room. She sat watching television for a while, feeling the wine warming up her throat. She looked over at Joshua and saw that he had fallen asleep. He was still sitting up in the armchair but his head was lolling forward. She put her wine down and stood up. She would have to move him, get him up to bed. She shoved at his arm.
    ‘Josh, time for bed, Josh. JOSH.’
    His eyes opened and with difficulty she pulled him up to a standing position.
    ‘We’re going to go upstairs now, Josh, come on. One foot after the other.’
    ‘Thaks . . .’ he said, one arm around her shoulder.
    She manoeuvred him out of the room and then they took the stairs carefully one at a time, resting between steps. Rose was cajoling him to keep going and finally, at the top of the stairs, she lifted his arm from around her shoulder and pulled him towards his bedroom. He staggered towards the bed, sat down and fell sideways, his head on the pillow, his eyes closed, his feet still on the floor.
    She turned on the