Free Dark Winter by Andy McNab Page B

have something for my nerves. My Amex has gone into hyperspace and my ex-husband doesn’t understand me . . .”’ Her voice went deeper. ‘“Sure, Mrs Housewife, I’ve got just the thing. Here’s a hundred good pills.”’ She gave a sigh. ‘See? It’s that easy. Then Vronnie steals the pills from her mom.’
    ‘Hang on, Kelly, you’re going to have to rewind a bit. When did you start taking them?’
    She shrugged. ‘About six months ago. Vronnie and me were talking about stuff, like her parents are divorced and her dad drinks way too much, and it’s been horrible for her. I told her about Mom and Dad and Aida, and then about you and Josh, and she was like, “Whoa!” At least she still lives in the same house and her dad’s still alive. Just.’
    I took a deep breath. ‘What did you say about me?’
    Another shrug. ‘You know, looking after me, sending me to Josh because you were busy. Palming me off because of work. That kinda thing.’
    ‘You know me and Josh thought it was the best thing for you . . .’
    She cocked her head. ‘Stability, right? That really worked. Why was it so long before you came and saw me?’
    ‘We have weekends and stuff. It was just that Josh and I felt you needed to settle down, and me just appearing out of the blue every so often would go and mess that up.’
    Her eyes narrowed. ‘Vronnie’s parents fight all the time, but at least her dad hasn’t totally abandoned her. He turns up every weekend and takes her out. He’s never missed a weekend – and he’s a drunk.’
    She concentrated on dipping a fry into the little ketchup pot. I started to speak to the top of her head as the rest of the quarter-pounder was shoved into the front of it. ‘You know my work keeps me away a lot. I was doing the best I could.’
    She took her lips away from the burger but didn’t look up. ‘But, hey, that’s history now, isn’t it? I’m here, you’re here, and we’re going to go and get things sorted out, right?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    She looked up and wiped the grease from her mouth with the napkin. ‘So your next question is going to be, why did I try them in the first place?’
    I had to agree.
    ‘OK, well, Vronnie and I were discussing drugs that time, I asked her for the list of what she’d done and she gave me the usual – alcohol, pot, ecstasy, all that stuff. And then she said she took Vicodin to stay chilled. One of her friends told her that she could crush it up and snort it. I asked her what it was like, and she said, “Hey, why don’t we try it? Let’s go to the restroom.”
    ‘Vronnie had a film-canister thing and a little flip-out mirror, and she started to do two lines. She crushes the pills at home and keeps them in the film canister.’ Kelly flipped the top of her straw. ‘She even had one of these in her bag. Anyway, she took a line and handed the straw to me.’
    It was clear from the way Kelly was babbling that she liked talking about this. It worried me, but I still wasn’t going to show it. ‘What did it feel like?’
    ‘There was, like, this real stinging in my nose and throat and it really hurt, but only for a few seconds. Then it kicked in and my head felt like it was floating. It felt like a balloon, floating right away from all the bad stuff around me. I was happy and it felt amazing, even in my fingers and toes. Then all the colours got brighter and sounds were, like, deeper. And that’s how we went off to class, chilled.’ She giggled. ‘Hillbilly heroin, that’s what they call it. It’s not like I’m addicted or anything, but that’s what Dr Hughes and I were talking about today.’
    She stood up, felt around in her coat pocket and headed for the toilets, as if to give me time to consider my answer.
    She was away for ten minutes, and by the time she came out I was waiting by the door. We got back into the car and headed for Bromley, with the strong smell of toothpaste and mouthwash in the air.

13
    London
    Friday 9 May,