Cross My Heart and Hope to Die Read Online Free Page A

failed to respond.
    â€˜Any news of the old folks?’ he asked.
    â€˜I’m afraid not,’ said Hilary. ‘The only other member of your family I’ve been able to contact is Sonya, and she couldn’t tell me anything about them.’
    â€˜Our Sonya?’ He shrugged: ‘I’m not surprised. She’s never bothered with them, hasn’t been here for years. Still – no news is good news, eh?’
    The detectives made non-committal noises.
    Andrew gestured defensively at his parents’home. ‘Look, I know what you’re thinking,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have left them to spend their old age in a place like this, should I? But I’ve done my best to persuade’em to move to one of the council bungalows in the village, and they won’t budge.’
    â€˜Old people get stuck in their ways, you can’t force them to do things for their own good,’ Quantrill reassured him. ‘D’you think it’s possible they went off under their own steam, though?’
    â€˜Not a chance. Mum’s poorly on her feet, she’d never have got beyond the gate. Besides, if they wanted to go anywhere they’d have told me when I came over at the beginning of last week.’
    â€˜Have they lived here long?’ asked Hilary.
    â€˜All their married lives. It suits them, they like to keep to themselves. I don’t manage to get here as often as I should, but at least I know they’re contented. I’m certain they’d never have gone away, even for a few days, if somebody in the family hadn’t insisted. Did you find the door key, by the way?’
    â€˜No, they must have taken it with them, so we forced an entry. We needed to be sure they weren’t lying ill.’
    Andrew pulled a face. ‘Oh God, you’ve been upstairs then … I haven’t done that for years. I s’pose it was in a terrible state?’
    â€˜I’ve seen worse,’ Hilary said diplomatically, as she unpadlocked the temporary fastening on the front door.
    They walked straight into a jumbled living-room that stank of wet rot, mice, mouldering wallpaper, old clothes and a lifetime of greasy dinners. The cheap furniture had long ago been battered into submission, and over everything was a fingermarked fuzz of ripening dust. The room was saved from complete squalor only by the fact that the table had been cleared and the worn vinyl floor-covering had recently been given a sketchy wash.
    Andrew went on the defensive again. ‘It hasn’t been easy for Mum out here, with no water laid on or anything. She’s always done her best, she’s just too old to cope.’
    â€˜She’s kept trying,’ said Quantrill generously, ‘we can see that.’
    â€˜Have they anything to live on, apart from their State pensions?’ said Hilary.
    â€˜A few pounds put by, I daresay, but nothing in the way of income. I don’t s’pose they left their pension books behind, did they?’
    â€˜As a matter of fact they did.’ Hilary went to the mantelpiece and took the two books from where they were lodged behind a tarnished looking-glass. She flicked one of them open, and showed Andrew the post office date-stamp on the most recent counterfoil.
    â€˜The 23rd – when was that?’ he asked.
    â€˜Last Thursday. I’ve talked to the postmistress, and she says your father drew both their pensions in the morning just as usual. He didn’t say anything to her about going away.’
    â€˜No reason why he should, I s’pose … P’raps he didn’t know himself, at the time.’
    â€˜But if he didn’t know he was going away, why didn’t he collect his groceries as usual? That’s what’s puzzling us.’
    Andrew Krzecszczuk’s eyebrows knotted over his nose. ‘That’s a rum’un, that is,’ he agreed slowly. ‘I dunno … unless whoever came to fetch them drove