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Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

‘God knows. No, I’m sure he didn’t. He was living at home then, with Mum and Derek, only he was never there. Mum said he’d turn up, empty the fridge, have a shower, which she said he definitely needed, then sleep round the clock. He never said much but he had some nice new gear, designer stuff, trainers, and I know those, you don’t get change out of three hundred quid. Anyway, then he said he was moving into a flat with some mates in Bevham, he’d be back for Bonfire Night. We all generally go to that big bonfire and fireworks up at Starly Tor so I was really pleased, he’d been to that every year since he was a little kid, we all have, I thought, well, it means something to him. Only he never turned up. It was then . . .’

She was biting the inside of her cheek and her face took on a distant look.

‘Something was wrong?’ Simon asked gently.

She nodded but was still silent, and he waited. He never tried to take the words out of anyone’s mouth, or jump ahead of them.

Eventually, she said, ‘He turned up a few weeks later. He looked awful. Terrible. He looked like death. He’s a handsome lad, Liam, and, look, I know, he’s my brother, I love him, but he has a lovely open sort of face, beautiful eyes, and he’s always been a warm person, friends with everyone. He’s a bit of a softy – you know?’

Serrailler nodded.

‘If anyone was to forget your birthday, it’d never be Liam. And something else, he’s always been fit, he worked out, went running, on his bike, he was never ill – when we all had coughs and colds and stuff Liam never did. So when he came home that day, I didn’t recognise him, if I’d seen him the street I’d have walked past him. I’d never seen anyone look like that. He was thin as a stick, with these dark, hollow shadows under his eyes, and he was an awful colour – his skin was sort of doughy, but with all these sore-looking spots, like teenage ones only way, way worse, they were like boils, I mean, who has boils nowadays? His fingernails were all bitten down and raw, and black and – and this is awful . . . he smelled.’ Abruptly, she burst into tears.

Simon knew that pressing her to continue at this point would not only be unproductive but also insensitive and unkind. She spent several minutes with her head down, a pad of tissues pressed to her mouth. He went out and got her some chilled water from the machine, partly to give her a few moments by herself.