Free House of Bones by Graham Masterton Page B

honestly.”
    John took Lucy to his bedroom. As they went upstairs, he heard his father saying, “Nice to seeJohn bringing a girl home.” John thought,
if only you knew why
.
    John sat down on the bed. “What’s the matter with your mum?” Lucy asked him, looking at all his football posters.
    â€œOh. She had a stroke. Dad has to do everything now. Well, Dad and me. My sister’s always out.”
    â€œSounds tough,” Lucy said, sympathetically. John shrugged. “So what are we going to do about Liam, then?” she continued.
    â€œI don’t know. I thought about calling the police but suppose they don’t believe me? I mean, suppose they think
I
did it?”
    â€œWhy should they think that?”
    â€œBecause I was the last person to see him alive, wasn’t I? He’s gone missing but they won’t be able to find his body and they’re bound to think it was me.”
    â€œAll right, all right, calm down,” said Lucy. “Just tell me again how it happened.”
    John pressed his hand flat against his bedroom wall. “He was just sucked in. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now.”
    Lucy thought for a moment, and then she said, “If you’re really worried that the police are going to think it was you, you’re going to need some evidence, aren’t you, to prove that it wasn’t? I think we ought to go down there. Down to Brighton, I mean. I think we ought to knock down the wall and see if we can find Liam’s bones.”
    â€œLiam’s
bones
?”
    â€œListen, John, if the house in Brighton is the same as the house in Norbury, then that’s the explanation for all of those skeletons, isn’t it?”
    â€œI don’t get what you mean.”
    â€œThey said on the news that the skeletons were all bricked up, didn’t they? But the bricks were really old and some of the skeletons were new.”
    â€œSo perhaps they weren’t bricked up at all,” said John. “They were sucked through the wall, the same as Liam.”
    â€œExactly. So why don’t we go down there tomorrow and take a look?”
    John shook his head. “I don’t want to go back there, Lucy. I really don’t.”
    â€œI don’t blame you. But I don’t see what choice we’ve got.”
    â€œYou should have seen Liam’s face. It was horrible.”
    Lucy sat down beside him and took hold of his hand. “If we don’t do it, then the chances are that Mr Vane will get away with it. All he has to do is say that he didn’t know anything about it, and what can they charge him with then? But if we can prove that
all
of his houses are the same, and that he
knew
…”
    Finally, John nodded. Lucy had managed to calm him down a little. All the same, he couldn’t stop himself from picturing Liam’s one green eye, staring at him in utter desperation before it wasdragged right into the wall. He knew that he would remember that eye for the rest of his life.
    They caught the train to Brighton because Lucy didn’t fancy driving all that way. It started to rain when they reached Haywards Heath and by the time they came out of Brighton station it was pouring. They took a taxi to Madeira Terrace and told the driver to stop by Liam’s car.
    â€œWhat a dump,” said Lucy, looking up at the house. “Let’s go inside before we get soaked.”
    They stood in the porch and John tried the door. “Locked,” he said. “Liam opened it with a lock-pick.” He had brought his father’s hammer with him in a Sainsbury’s bag but he didn’t want to break a window.
    â€œTry the old credit-card trick.”
    â€œI haven’t got a credit card.”
    Lucy took out her Barclaycard and tried to slide it down the gap in the front door to release the latch, but she couldn’t force it in far enough. John stepped out into the rain and