Night Fall Read Online Free Page B

rang. Why do you want to know all this?’
    â€˜He’s wondering if it was Gordon who killed Billy,’ Travis said quietly.
    Trudy’s eyes opened wide. ‘Gordon? Kill Billy? Why would he. He likes Billy. Besides, he never went out. He was at home with me all night. That’s ridiculous!’
    â€˜He
likes
Billy?’ Paget echoed. ‘Would he like him as much if he found out Billy was sleeping with you when he’s out of town? It seems to me he would have good reason to go after him. And I must warn you, Mrs Mason, if you’re protecting him, it could mean very serious consequences for you.’
    But Trudy Mason was shaking her head. ‘You don’t understand,’ she said, ‘so I suppose I’d better explain. Just don’t tell Billy, George, because—’ The words died on her lips and her hands flew to her mouth. Tears welled in her eyes once again. ‘It was a game,’ she said shakily. ‘Well, sort of a game.’ Trudy paused to dab at her eyes and blow her nose. ‘Gordon knows about me and Billy; he has done from the very beginning.’
    She turned to face Travis. ‘Remember that accident four years ago, George, when Gordon was laid up for the best part of six months? Smashed himself up when he went off the road trying to avoid a kid who ran out in front of him,’ she explained for Paget’s benefit. ‘Did a lot of damage, that did. Pinned inside the cab for four hours before they were able to get him out. They fixed him up all right, well mostly. Enough for him to go back to driving and that, but not so good on the home front, if you know what I mean. Like he’s never been able to . . . well, you know . . . get it up since then.’
    â€˜He’s impotent?’ said Paget.
    â€˜That’s it. But I’m not. Impotent, I mean in a manner of speaking, and Gordon always felt guilty about that. I mean, I still love Gordon and he loves me, but it did put a bit of a strain on things with him not being able to . . . like I said. So when I met Billy, and we got on so well together, I asked Gordon if he was all right with me and Billy getting together every once in a while. To relieve the tension, as you might say.’
    Trudy Mason turned back to Travis. ‘You know how it was with Billy before that, don’t you, George?’ she said softly. ‘He’d never had a real girlfriend; I was his first. I know it’s hard to believe, but he told me he’d never had sex before, and I believed him, so it was doing him good as well as me. But I didn’t want to go behind Gordon’s back, so I explained the way it was, and he agreed.’
    Trudy made a face. ‘To be honest, Gordon did have a bit of trouble with it at first,’ she admitted, ‘but he came round in the end. Actually, I think he was relieved in a way, because he didn’t have to feel guilty any more. But he did insist on us having a couple of rules. He never wanted to see the two of us together when he came home, at least not in that way, and I wasn’t to tell Billy that Gordon knew. Which was all right with me, because as long as Billy thought we were meeting in secret, it kept him excited. And, to be honest, with me being a good ten years older than him, I wanted it to stay that way.’ She bit her lower lip hard as she fought back the tears. ‘God! But I’m going to miss him,’ she whispered. ‘Who in his right mind would do something like that to Billy of all people?’
    Billy’s bedroom was at the back of the house. It was quite a large room with a ceiling that sloped towards a narrow window overlooking the back yards of the terraced houses in the next street. The linoleum on the floor was old, and it crackled beneath Paget’s feet as he moved to the centre of the room, then paused to look around and mentally catalogue the furniture.
    Billy’s bed, neatly made, faced them from across the