A Taste of Ashes (DI Bob Valentine Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

knew all about being tough. He’d know what to do with this mess.
    In the street outside her home a group of people had gathered. Jade watched them from beneath a tree on the other side of the road. There was a police car and an ambulance, another couple of cars with flashing lights that were probably police cars too, and a blue truck that blocked nearly the entire road. Men and women in uniform were taping off the fence, the gate and the bushes. Another group directed the neighbours indoors. It looked like a television show, like the time Brad Pitt had come to Glasgow and it was on the news.
    Jade took her hands from the sleeves of her coat, it didn’t seem right to have them there when she knew her mother objected. For a moment she stared at her hands, what should she do with them? God, what was wrong? It was like her mind was missing or all the thoughts had fallen out. She tried her hands in her pockets, felt for her mobile phone and gripped it tightly when she found it.
    ‘Oh, God …’
    Tears came, slow at first, because they were a surprise to her. But when she knew they were there, rolling down her cheeks, they intensified. They weren’t normal tears, they came from another part of her. Tears appeared when you were in pain, she knew all about that, but these were for something else.
    She didn’t know what to do. Darry said Mum always knew what to do and wouldn’t listen to advice that didn’t suit her. Jade hadn’t said that, they were her brother’s words. But wasn’t that the problem? She had everything mixed up and Darry wasn’t there either, she wished he was.
    She couldn’t read the message in her phone again, the one she’d sent to her brother at the barracks, because all the words just got jumbled up, started to mean something else. She needed someone to sort out the mess, to tell her everything would be all right.
    She pulled up her contacts on the phone again and dialled her brother.
    He answered quickly. ‘Jade, what’s up now?’
    She tried to speak but her mouth was numb with all the crying. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ He was still travelling, she could hear noise from the wheels echoing in the cab of the bus.
    ‘Darry, it’s Mum. I don’t know what to do.’
    ‘What’s happened, Jade? Just tell me, slowly.’
    ‘I went home, like you said. I was waiting for you. I … I had a fight with Mum and, oh God, Darry I don’t know what happened. There’s police everywhere, in the house, in the garden. I can’t see a thing except police and everyone’s out staring at the house.’
    ‘Calm down, Jade. If you get hysterical, it’s not going to help you.’
    ‘But I don’t know what to do.’
    ‘Where’s Mum?’
    ‘I don’t know. She was with him. Darry, it’s such a mess.’ Her sobbing increased.
    ‘You can’t go home, Jade. Do you hear me? I don’t want you to go near the police. You can’t talk to anyone.’
    ‘I’m right across the street, though. And somebody needs to do something.’
    Darry exhaled slowly into the phone. ‘Jade, you have to listen to me.’
    ‘I know.’ The sobbing reached hysteria.
    ‘I’ll be in town soon and you can tell me everything but don’t talk to anyone before then. I’m staying at Finnie’s place, do you remember where that is?’
    ‘I think so.’
    Darry’s speech quickened. ‘Good. It’s on the way to the harbour, above the pub. Now, the bloke in the pub is a good lad, his name’s Brian and he has the key for Fin’s place, you can ask him for it, say you’re going to tidy up before your brother arrives.’
    ‘But won’t Fin be there?’
    ‘He’s out of town for a few days. He won’t mind you being there because he knows why I’m coming home.’
    ‘You told Fin?’
    ‘I told him some of it, Jade. I had to. He knows I’m not due leave and wouldn’t desert the place if it wasn’t serious.’
    ‘But …’
    ‘Jade, he’s an old friend, he understands. He’s on our side,