Murder in Time Read Online Free

had waited up for me. He was furious. He beat me. He said I was filth, had disgraced him, that he’d never be able to hold up his head in the community if it got out that I’d had sex in public at a party. My mother wept. She did suggest I see a doctor, but he wouldn’t have it, because then everyone would have known what a slut I was.’
    â€˜A doctor wouldn’t have told on you,’ said Thomas, ‘and he would have arranged for you to be seen by the police.’
    Vera covered her eyes with one hand. ‘I was so ashamed. That was the last thing I wanted, believe me. Or my father. But, what with the beating he gave me and all, I don’t think I was in my right mind for a while. Several days. During that time the news broke that Dan’s father, the doctor, had been killed by an intruder at the party.
    â€˜I crawled to the phone with the intention of ringing Dan, just to say … I didn’t know what I was going to say, but I wanted … I hoped … I was desperate to hear his voice, but I knew we could never go back to what we’d had before. I was no longer fit for purpose. Dan was out. I left a message with his mother and she said she’d give it to him, but he didn’t ring me back. He must have thought I’d cheated on him, that I’d consented to have sex with his friends. I had to accept that he didn’t want to know me any more.’
    â€˜You still didn’t go to the police?’
    â€˜My father said I must keep quiet, that no one would ever want to marry me if the news got out. He said the police would say I was drunk and asking for trouble. He said the best thing to do was to put it behind me and get down to the shop to help out. So I did. I worked at the chippy all through the holidays, evenings as well. I didn’t see any of the old crowd. I read the papers for news of the murder. First they were asking for anybody who’d been at the party to come forward. I suppose some of them did. I didn’t. They took in a known drug-dealer for questioning. My father said that would be it. Case solved. But the police let him go without charging him. The following week they questioned another man … and let him go, too. So far as I know, nobody has ever been charged with the murder.
    â€˜The only thing that kept me sane was looking forward to October when I could get away to university, where nobody knew my story. And then … I discovered I was pregnant. I phoned a girl I knew from school, someone I thought might not judge me too harshly, to ask for news. She was embarrassed, said that I’d gone and done it good and proper, brazenly entertaining so many men in the open like that, and she thought I’d do best to keep my mouth shut and move away. That was the first I’d heard that there was more than one man involved. The idea that when I’d lain there, helpless, several men had used me …!’
    Mikey shuddered. He lowered his head to his knees and stayed like that.
    Thomas said, ‘She gave you names?’
    â€˜I asked if one of them had been Dan, and she thought that was a hoot. She said it wasn’t. She said she didn’t know who it was for sure and if I were wise, I’d not ask. Forget it, she said. Every time I went out of doors I imagined people were looking at me, knowing what had happened. I tried not to look into men’s faces, in case one of them might have taken part in the rape. I told myself it had to be someone who’d been invited to the party, but that didn’t make sense. I couldn’t imagine any of them doing … that.
    â€˜It became easier after a while as I realized that all the old crowd had scattered to university or taken a gap year, and that I wasn’t likely to meet up with any of them in the street. In the end I had to tell my parents that I was pregnant. My father …’ She closed her eyes for a second. ‘I can’t blame him, really. Mum had