Free Killing a Stranger by Jane A. Adams Page A

trade ideas and bad jokes, be peaceful and happy in one another’s company. Oh, Harry knew how to behave when Patrick was around his college friends. Then, if you were a sensible parent, you took a back seat and kept yourself just a little bit apart. He remembered his own embarrassments at the hand of his beloved mother, Mari, when he’d been Patrick’s age. He didn’t think he’d done too badly in comparison.
    â€˜I know I could,’ he corrected himself. ‘Patrick, if I’d had a weapon during that siege … I know I would have used it. Believe me; I’m not comfortable with that little piece of self knowledge.’
    Patrick nodded. He was, Harry noted, now staring fixedly out of the front windscreen. They turned into their road and pulled on to the drive, though, by some tacit consent, made no move to get out of the car.
    â€˜I know I could have then,’ Patrick said quietly. ‘And that kind of scared me, you know?’ He turned to look at his father, eyes fixed and intense, searching for confirmation, understanding.
    Harry nodded. ‘As I said, I’m not comfortable with that either, but Patrick, I think of all those ordinary men and women who have had that decision, that … acknowledgement thrust upon them. In war or in danger or … whatever. It’s kind of comforting, knowing that they must have found it just as hard. Just as revelatory and just as distasteful and uncomfortable. I can’t believe many people kill easily. I can’t believe many actually become immured to it. Maybe even get to enjoy it.’
    â€˜You’ve thought about it a lot, then.’
    Harry nodded. ‘I don’t think there’s a day gone by I haven’t considered it. I’ve not tried to convince myself that I’m different.’
    â€˜Different?’
    â€˜From the man who murdered Helen. From the men who held us hostage.’ Harry shrugged. ‘Just
different from
…’
    â€˜Rob was
different from
,’ Patrick said slowly. ‘Dad, I’ve thought about it so much and I’m certain now. Rob would never just go and kill someone he didn’t know. Not even as an accident, he, just wouldn’t.’
    â€˜Accidents, by their very nature, aren’t preventable or predictable,’ Harry said cautiously, not really understanding where Patrick was going with this.
    â€˜No, I know that,’ Patrick’s voice carried an edge of impatience and Harry, wisely, made no comment that might put him off further from getting his thoughts out. ‘I’ve thought about it a lot and I think … I know … that’s what Rob must have been doing. Protecting someone else. Someone he cared about.’
    Harry frowned. His first instinct was to tell Patrick he was clutching at straws; trying to make sense of the incomprehensible. He bit down on the impulse to voice this, knowing it was a sure fire way to stop Patrick in his tracks.
    â€˜Who?’ he asked. ‘You don’t think Becky might have followed him? Been there …’
    Patrick was shaking his head vehemently. ‘No, not Becks,’ he said. ‘She wasn’t there. No, someone else, someone … we don’t know about and the police don’t know about.’
    Harry considered. ‘Alec would have said if there was evidence of a third person.’
    Patrick shook his head. ‘No one was looking, were they?’ he asked bleakly. ‘They’ve got a dead body and someone to blame for it. Not even Alec cares about anything more than that.’

Eleven
    I t seemed to Jennifer that the whole world had Christmas on the brain. She hadn’t attended college much in the past month; morning sickness that lasted all day and fear of the looks, the sly nudges now she was starting to show, had contrived to keep her at home. In the end, her mum had given up trying to make her go. Her form tutor had kept in touch, though and was still