Blood Guilt Read Online Free Page A

speak to her, just see her, see how she was doing.
    It wasn’t hard for
Harlan to find her. He looked up her name – he’d learnt that at the trial too –
in the phonebook. Susan Reed. A common name. There was almost a page of them.
Now he had something to fill the empty hours. A purpose. Every afternoon, he
headed out with a list of names and addresses in his pocket. He worked
methodically down the list, staking out the addresses until he was sure the
Susan Reed he was looking for didn’t live there. Of course, he realised, there
was always a chance she’d moved away from the area. But he didn’t think it was
much of a chance. She was a local girl, uneducated, a mother. Not the type to
uproot and start again somewhere else.
    After a fortnight he
found her. He was nursing a coffee in a scruffy café opposite a row of two-up,
two-down terraced houses when he saw her. He almost didn’t recognise her. Her
once bleached-blond hair had grown out to its natural mousey-brown colour. It
hung in greasy strands around her makeupless, puffy-eyed face, as styleless as
the clothes that hung around her body. She’d lost weight, but not in a good
way. There was a brittleness about her movements, a jerkiness that spoke of
nerves stretched close to breaking. Two boys trailed behind her, dressed in
school-uniforms. Ethan and Kane. Her sons. Her fatherless sons. They’d be about
eight and twelve years old now. Ethan, the younger brother, bore little
resemblance to his father. He was small for his age, and had pale, delicate
features and dreamy, introspective blue eyes. Kane, on the other hand, was the
spit of his dad. He was as tall and well-built as a boy of fourteen, with
short-cropped hair and a flushed frowning face. They were kicking a football
along the pavement. Suddenly, for no reason Harlan could see, Kane hoofed the
ball into Ethan’s face. The smaller boy staggered and almost fell, clutching
his face with both hands. Susan turned and snapped something at Kane. She
clipped him across the ear, before stooping to examine Ethan’s smarting cheek.
Kane made to retrieve the ball, but Susan snatched it off him and stalked away
with it under one of her arms and Ethan under the other. Kane dragged his feet
after them, the sullen resentment of an older sibling towards a younger one
glimmering in his eyes.
    Harlan watched them
enter one of the houses. Through the downstairs window, he saw them take off
their coats and dump their bags. A television flickered into life. Ethan sat on
a sofa in front of it, his face palely illuminated, while his brother followed
their mother into the back of the house. Maybe Harlan was just seeing what he expected
to see, but the boy’s expression seemed to speak of someone who’d known more
sorrow than happiness, more anxiety than contentment. A kind of sick, guilty
agony burned through Harlan. He hurried from the café, hurried all the way to
the bank. There was just over ten thousand pounds in his account – his share of
the equity from the house. He hadn’t wanted it, but Eve had insisted. He
emptied his account, put the cash in an envelope and wrote ‘Susan Reed’ on it.
Then he returned to the house and posted the envelope through the front door.
Ten thousand pounds. Not much in return for the loss of a husband and father,
but something. Before he could turn away, the door opened. It was Ethan. He
looked curiously up at Harlan, his mouth a flat line. 
    Harlan couldn’t help
but blink. Not wanting to scare Ethan, he smiled, but the smile felt unnatural,
more like some strange kind of grimace. He pointed at the envelope. “That’s for
your mum. Tell her I’ll send more as soon–” He broke off as, to his horror,
tears spilled from his eyes.
    “Are you okay?” asked
Ethan.
    Harlan nodded, quickly
wiping his tears away. “I…I’m–” he stammered, his voice catching.
    “Ethan!” The shout came
from the rear of the house.
    “That’s my mum. I have
to go see what she wants.”