Hurt (The Hurt Series) Read Online Free Page B

their fellow man, replaced with a sudden attack of deaf dumb and blindness. Why admit to seeing the bad man knowing by doing so you could find yourself face to face with him later in court? Or worse still, back on the street after his release? No thanks. I got my own problems and my family to think about without having some psycho lusting for my blood. And anyway, isn’t that why we have the police?
    Standing outside Tanya’s cordoned off block, she surveyed the surrounding flats, each window now with a face spying between the curtains, where three hours ago there had been none…allegedly. However, there was one resident for whom she believed: Sophia Cox, Tanya’s clubbing partner and keen collector of African art, whom Jessop had just finished talking to.
    The heavy set mother of three took the news of her friend’s death by signifying the cross across her ample bosom and bowing her head in silent prayer. A cup of hot tea was then insisted upon, to which Jessop accepted and received gratefully as she asked about their night out down Revels a fortnight ago when Tanya had lost her keys.
    ‘Yeah, that happened. Lord knows where they got to.’
    When she asked if Sophia and Tanya knew Lennox Tyler, the club’s manager, Sophia’s sad brown eyes hardened into bullets. ‘Uh-huh.’
    ‘Did you see him that night?’
    ‘He’s always there, sniffing around skirt like one of those truffle pigs or something.’
    Thinking how easy it would be for Tyler to get someone to lift Tanya’s keys from her handbag on his jailbird cousin’s request, she asked about Junior Dennis and the letters he’d been sending Tanya.
    ‘Yeah, Tanya told me about ’em. Junior thinks he’s found salvation in the good book and wants to prove to her he’s changed when he gets out. But let me tell you this. Just because I read a cookery book don’t turn me into Delia. Know what I’m saying?’
    ‘So Junior wanted Tanya back?’
    ‘Uh-huh, but she weren’t having none of it. Saw straight through him and told him so.’
    ‘Bet that pissed him off.’
    ‘Hope so. I’m surprised they build cells big enough for that boy’s ego, let alone that stupid afro of his.’
    Learning Tanya had dumped Junior three years ago, she had then asked Sophia how Junior with his big ego had reacted. The reply came as a shock.
    ‘He didn’t react. For Keisha’s sake. For all his many faults, Junior cherishes that little girl more than life itself.’
    ‘So he just accepted it?’
    ‘Oh, I wouldn’t say that.’ Sophia had sat forward then, her voice dropping to a whisper. ‘You got kids, Detective?’ Jessop said she had an eighteen-year-old girl. ‘Unique, aint she?’ grinned the mother of three. ‘But they always are in their mother’s eyes, right?’
    Jessop had a gnawing feeling she knew where this was going.
    ‘Tanya never saw the similarities between Carly’s little Robbie and Keisha, but I sure as hell did. Junior didn’t get nasty when Tanya dumped him, he got even in his own sick way by knocking up her best friend. Course, Carly’s never admitted to this. Says Robbie’s daddy is some DJ she bumped uglys with one night in town. But that girl aint been out since I can remember. Poor cow got herself a real inferiority thing going on. Suppose it didn’t help having Tanya as a best friend.’ Sophia had fixed her with conspiratorial eyes. ‘Course, I can’t prove any of this, but the timing’s all right, and I got a sense for these things… Just like you, right, Detective?’
    Right, Jessop thought as she finished telling Mason about her chat with Sophia.
    Mason took a moment to ponder what he’d been told. ‘So Tanya rejects Junior. Junior’s big ego takes it badly, so he gets his cousin to lift her door keys from her bag at the club then hire some sadistic son of a bitch to do the deed and preach some of his new religious philosophy to his daughter. That sound about right?’
    ‘It would if not for both Carly and Sophia agreeing on