Free Unfinished Business by Heather Atkinson Page B

treatments including electroconvulsive therapy. Sounds barbaric but sometimes it does improve her for a bit.”
    “What exactly is wrong with her?”
    Sarah shrugged. “You name it she has it. Depression, severe mania, psychosis, bipolar disorder. She used to self harm too but I think she’s stopped that now. Sometimes she even gets catatonic depression where she’ll just sit there staring into space, not moving or speaking for hours. It’s really weird.”
    Brodie, who had a brother in a psychiatric hospital, was annoyed. “It’s not her fault.” It was attitudes like Sarah’s that kept people’s opinions of the mentally ill in the dark ages.
    She was surprised by his vehemence. “I never said it was, I know she can’t help it. It’s just a bit unnerving, that’s all I’m saying. Lauren’s the one I like most out of all the Creegans now I know what Mark really is. When she’s having a good day she’s great, she’s so bright and funny and clever, a real live wire. It’s such a shame. Her family’s done that to her.”
    “She seems frightened of Seth.”
    “Who isn’t? Apart from you of course. He’s not used to people standing up to him.”
    “Then he’d better get used to it,” glowered Brodie.
    “I’m glad you’re here,” said Sarah. “I’ve no idea who sent you but I’m very grateful to them. If you hadn’t turned up they never would have left. They don’t listen to me.”
    He nodded and gazed meditatively out of the window. “What do you know about Seth? Any dark secrets?”
    “Loads I should think but I try to have as little to do with him as possible. He creeps me out.”
    “He probably gets a kick out of it. It’s just got me thinking…”
    “Thinking what?” she said when Brodie drifted off into his own world. She’d noticed he had the tendency to do that.
    “Nothing.”
    Sarah knew it wasn’t nothing, he’d made a connection but he wasn’t sharing.
    “I think they’ve gone for now,” announced Brodie, making it clear he wasn’t going to elaborate on his earlier thought. “Have you heard from Mark?”
    “No, I haven’t heard from Theo since this morning when he called begging me to meet up with him. I told him to get stuffed then hung up. He tried calling back but I unplugged the landline and turned off my mobile. He’ll turn up here soon, I know it.”
    “So your talk earlier didn’t do much good?”
    “No, I just got angry and he got soppy, telling me how much he loved me, couldn’t live without me, blah, blah, blah. It got on my nerves, so I told him to get lost.”
    “It’ll be hard but you have to face him again at some point. He was right when he said there are things you need to discuss, especially the weans.”
    “Who’s Wayne?”
    “I mean your kids,” he explained.
    She blushed. “Sorry. You know what’s weird? If it was just the killing his dad thing I probably wouldn’t have chucked him out, I would have been willing to talk it through. It was a long time ago and his dad was a bastard but if there’s any possibility that he’s The Carver then I want him as far from me and the girls as possible.”
    “Maybe we can prove he’s not. Why don’t you ask to speak to the senior investigating officer on The Carver case? He might tell you how seriously they’re considering Mark as a suspect.”
    “Don’t you know that already?”
    “No. They won’t tell me anything because I’m not a police officer.”
    “You used to be a copper.”
    He thought copper a strange term for her to use, it didn’t fit in with the upper middle class image. He’d get Cass to do some digging into Sarah Creegan too. “I did,” he said through a set jaw.
    “Is that a tense subject?”
    “It is.” The shadow passed and he forced himself to smile. “It doesn’t matter to them. They wouldn’t give me any information about on ongoing investigation.”
    “Would they tell me?”
    “They can’t give you details either but if you play the terrified card