BooksBarbecue
Back Bad Friends
Chapters (59)
  1. Bad Friends
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. AFTER: DECEMBER
  6. BEFORE: JUNE
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. Chapter Twelve
  19. Chapter Thirteen
  20. Chapter Fourteen
  21. Chapter Fifteen
  22. Chapter Sixteen
  23. Chapter Seventeen
  24. Chapter Eighteen
  25. Chapter Nineteen
  26. Chapter Twenty
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Chapter Thirty
  37. Chapter Thirty-One
  38. Chapter Thirty-Two
  39. Chapter Thirty-Three
  40. Chapter Thirty-Four
  41. Chapter Thirty-Five
  42. Chapter Thirty-Six
  43. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  44. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  45. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  46. Chapter Forty
  47. Chapter Forty-One
  48. Chapter Forty-Two
  49. Chapter Forty-Three
  50. Chapter Forty-Four
  51. Chapter Forty-Five
  52. Chapter Forty-Six
  53. Chapter Forty-Seven
  54. Chapter Forty-Eight
  55. A CONVERSATION WITH CLAIRE SEEBER
  56. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  57. About the Author
  58. By the same author:
  59. About the Publisher

He smiled. ‘Doesn’t it?’ It was a greasy, queasy kind of smile.

‘No.’ I ploughed on. ‘You still have to work hard, you still have to earn respect.’

With a great ache, I thought suddenly of Alex. He’d been so desperate for Malcolm to be proud of him for his own achievements – whereas his younger brother Tom had taken the easy route, going straight into Malcolm’s business out of school. Malcolm’s inexplicable contempt had only served to fuel Alex’s demons.

‘I do work hard.’

I pulled myself back to the present. ‘Not hard enough really, Joseph. You have to start at the bottom. We all did.’ I tried for schoolmarmish jolliness now. ‘So come on,’ I patted his hand awkwardly, ‘show me you can do it, okay?’

He shrugged morosely. ‘S’pose.’

‘And if you did take that book, Donna’s book, just put it back, all right?’

‘I didn’t, Maggie, seriously.’ He glared at me. ‘I said I didn’t and you should believe me.’

I considered my bacon roll for a moment, then reached for my cigarettes. ‘All right, Joseph. You go on back. I’ll be over in a bit.’

He stood up. ‘You smoke too much. I told you that in the summer.’

My stomach plunged. ‘I don’t remember that.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m seriously not surprised.’

I looked up at him. His old Crombie coat smelled of mothballs, pungent and acrid. ‘What does that mean?’

‘Forget it.’ He made a big play of doing his buttons up.

‘No, go on, Joseph, please.’

‘I just meant – well, I know what happened.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘You can’t hide much from me. Though obviously you did try. You’re just lucky I didn’t tell my uncle.’

I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing. ‘I’ll see you back at the office, Joseph.’ I was desperate for him to go now. I didn’t want to remember any more.

Ordering another coffee, I watched Joseph scoot across the busy road, a solitary figure weaving between the camera-crews smoking outside our building, leaning on their tripods, joking with one another in a way I could never imagine Joseph ever being part of. I felt a sudden wave of nostalgia for the business I’d signed up for all those years ago, for the excitement and novelty and camaraderie.

My telephone bleeped. Idly I opened the text message.

I WAS RIGHT. YOU SLUT

Oh God. I dropped the phone like it was hot. Then I cancelled the coffee and went across the road to the pub instead. Standing at the bar, I had a huge slug of nasty thin red wine and then I rang the bloody number back, just like I had each time before. But no one answered and of course there was no voicemail. The phone just rang and rang – until someone cut it off.

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One