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“Steal what?”
“Don’t play the fool with me, Manfred. You were in that house on the night that woman was murdered and you stole a guitar, some money, and a box of cameras.”
“Oh come on, Mary, it’s all over and done with now, and you’re back where you belong and we’re gonna get some compensation for the shit we’ve been put through.”
“As I said earlier, Manfred, you think only of yourself.”
“Come on, Mary, that’s not fair. I bought you flowers and chocolates.”
Mary laughed. “Flowers and chocolates?”
“Yes, and there’ll be plenty more where they came from.”
“You’re a millionaire and you bought me flowers and chocolates with your ill-gotten gains, your stolen money?”
“Mary...”
She held her hand up.
“Manfred, I’ve always known you were dodgy. I’ve never witnessed it for real until now. And because of that, I was willing to turn a blind eye. But I can’t do that anymore. You left a woman to die and did nothing to help her.”
“But...”
“Go home, Manfred.” Mary stood up and helped him to the door. “There’s nothing here for you anymore.”
Epilogue
“My mother wasn’t the first... was she?”
He made no reply.
“You killed her over twenty years ago, and you lied about what happened. You claimed she left you. You led me to believe there was some hope all these years. What kind of an animal are you?”
Grace and Robbie were sitting on wooden chairs opposite each other, only a table separating them. The room had four walls, with one light bulb dangling from a length of flex for illumination. A stone floor. No windows. In the corner behind Robbie was a portable CD player, currently playing the classic Slade track Gudbye T’ Jane. The volume was low so the conversation could be heard.
He still gave no reply. The hatred in his eyes all but filled in the blanks, making up for his lack of words.
“I’m amazed that you managed to evade the police all those years.”
Her sentence made him smile, as if he was proud of his achievement.
Grace pushed her chair back and stood up. “Didn’t quite manage to escape me though, did you?”
He couldn’t move from his chair because he was chained to it.
Grace lowered her eyes to the table. Nailed to the top was Robbie’s tongue, which was why he couldn’t answer back.
