Free White Lies by Rachel Green

them?”
    “To avoid incriminating himself? Maybe.” Jimmy shrugged. “That or John took it with him to his other place.”
    “In which case there’d be no mark. I don’t think your brother was the type to leave dust on the furniture.”
    Jimmy ran his finger across the lines, lifting it to inspect the amount of dust and frowning as if he expected to see angels. “You’re probably right. So...find the pictures find the killer?”
    “Maybe.” Meinwen took another glance around the room. “Did you sleep in this bed last night?”
    “No. I couldn’t face it. After the coppers left I finished off all the beer in the fridge and went to sleep on the sofa in front of the telly. I nearly drank the champagne, too.”
    “Champagne?”
    “Yeah. There’s a bottle in the fridge. Pink champagne! I mean, who drinks pink champagne? Girls and–”
    “Brothers?”
    Jimmy grinned and nodded. “Yeah. Right.” He sat on the edge of the bed, bouncing slightly. “Want to try it?”
    Meinwen ran her tongue across her teeth. She’d like nothing better than to get into bed with this muscled ex-con, but where would that lead their relationship? She’d hardly remain the dominant if she acquiesced to every little suggestion. “Not really.”
    “It’s quite comfortable.” Jimmy fell backward, his feet still touching the floor, so that he was sprawled perpendicular across the duvet. “Very firm.”
    Meinwen looked away from the tent in his trousers. “Some other time. I don’t even want to imagine the stains on the mattress.” She bent to lift the valence. The bed wasn’t a divan as she’d originally thought but a top-range wooden framed model, made with solid pine the thickness of railway-sleepers. Eyelets were screwed all around the edge at two-inch intervals. “Look here.”
    “What?” Jimmy did a perfect sit-up, the stomach muscles taut against his shirt as he came upright. “What am I looking at? Eyelets? What are they for?”
    “Bondage.” Meinwen resisted the temptation to lick her lips, though she couldn’t help salivating and just hoped he didn’t notice. “All sorts of bondage. You could tie off wrists and ankles to individual eyelets, attach hooks or clips to them or lace the lot with a truck load of rope and bind someone to the bed with corset lacings.” She looked up. “Look! There’s a recently filled hole in the ceiling. I bet there was a winch in the loft when your brother lived here.”
    “A winch?” Jimmy held out a hand in a ‘stop’ gesture. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
    Meinwen stared hard at the walls. “There are plastered-over holes, too. I bet he had fetish gear all over the place.”
    “Fetish gear?”
    “Whips, restraints, crosses. That sort of thing.”
    “The mind boggles.”
    “Not just the mind.” Meinwen closed her eyes, imagining the room decked out as a sado-masochist’s wet dream. “I bet his other place is out of this world.”
    Jimmy stood up and crossed to the door. “Are we done here then?”
    “I suppose.” Meinwen took a last look, her gaze lingering on the bed with its rows of bondage eyelets. She imagined Jimmy naked, tied to the bed with only his cock free. She pushed the thought away and followed Jimmy into the hall. She took a few paces to the small room built over the stairs. “What’s this?”
    Jimmy stayed at the other end of the landing, next to the stairs. “That was Faye’s.” His voice died as she opened the door. An old bed and a picture of a girl with a horse. She looked to be about six.
    “Your sister?”
    “Yes. She died when we were kids. She ran across the road and ended up in a tree forty yards away. They said it was an accident but nobody was ever blamed for it. It happened up by the park.” He pursed his lips. “Funny. People said it was safer in them days but it wasn’t. Not for her.”
    “Did you witness it?”
    Jimmy shook his head. “John did. He was supposed to be looking after her but was showing