Keeping Sam Read Online Free Page A

and the brash August climate in Corrin Cove, Kate felt more vulnerable than ever.
    ‘They found drugs in your flat,’ Elizabeth said with a sigh. ‘It was in the police report. To be honest, I thought you knew. After you’d gone in the ambulance, the police dusted for prints, tried to work out if anything had been taken, the usual stuff. They found evidence of drug use, and a large quantity of cannabis. Plenty of people take recreational drugs, Kate. But I guess your parents … Well, they’re obviously kind of judgmental.’
    Kate shook her head, incredulous. ‘But – I don’t take drugs. I mean, I did, once. A long time ago. It was Evan, Sam’s dad. He lived that kind of lifestyle, not me, although I guess I did get drawn into it at one time. I’m not making excuses but … I hadn’t taken anything for months before I got pregnant with Sam, Elizabeth, and certainly not after! For goodness sake, what do you take me for?’
    Elizabeth shrugged. ‘It’s no skin off my nose what you did. Like I said, I’m just here to make sure Sam’s okay.’
    ‘So you think I was a bad parent too, is that it? That’s clearly what my mother thinks, and that’s why she’s done this. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?’
    The relentless questions of the policewoman who visited her in hospital, who, now Kate came to think about it, had always had a noticeable edge of suspicion and disapproval in her face. Daniel’s reluctance to share information with her; the vagueness of the doctors and the rest of the staff; her mother’s letter – the coldness in her eyes. They all thought she was a druggie. It was completely, entirely crazy.
    ‘And what, they think that was what the attack was about? A drug deal gone wrong?’
    Elizabeth looked out towards the horizon. Her sunglasses were no longer holding back her hair, and Kate couldn’t see her eyes. ‘Something like that.’
    ‘They basically think I brought this on myself?’
    ‘I can’t tell you what the police think, Kate. And I probably shouldn’t be discussing with you what was in the report they released to us. But they didn’t press charges, so they can’t have thought your involvement overtly criminal.’
    ‘My involvement? I was hit over the head and knocked unconscious! I was unconscious for nearly ten months. How could they have pressed charges when I was in a coma?’
    Elizabeth gave a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a laugh. ‘My dear, I’ve seen cases where the police have arrested someone within minutes of them coming round after a car crash where the rest of their family died. You don’t know the half of it.’
    Kate decided she didn’t want to. She clasped her hands together and turned to face Elizabeth, blinking against a sudden burst of sea air that brought the taste of sand to her lips.
    ‘Listen. I don’t care what they think. I know the truth, and I’m telling you now that I never touched drugs, or even took one single alcoholic drink, all the time I was caring for Sam. My father is an alcoholic, did you know that? He’s a hypocrite, and she protects him – neither one of them is fit to look after my son, I don’t care what your special order says. But I’m here on my own now, I have no one, no family, no friends, just a boy who doesn’t even know who I am. If I’m going to get through this I need to know that at least one person believes the truth. Do you think you could be that person?’
    Elizabeth reached up and took off her sunglasses. Her eyes were green in the slanted light, and measuring. She regarded Kate for a second or two, then she replaced the glasses and looked back out to sea. ‘Sure,’ she said. ‘I believe you. No problem.’
     

Chapter 4
     
    Barbara Steiner took a glass jar down from the top shelf and removed two tea bags from it. These she flung into the waiting cups, tapping her nails on the shiny worktop while the kettle boiled ferociously. Her husband stood three feet behind her. She could sense him