Chapters (61)
- Cover
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Acknowledgements
- About the author
Leggett smiled at that. ‘Then I can’t help you,’ he said and picked up his book. Cardilini had a rush of words but caught them all. He needed to calm down, leave the emotion out of it, and ‘put his policeman’s head on’. He was failing Paul, he was failing who he should be. He watched Leggett reading. He knew he had to sit this out, maybe he could book the ex-high court justice for withholding information. If he was still a policeman, he corrected himself.
‘Okay. My policeman’s head’s on,’ he finally said.
Leggett gave an expression of, ‘It’s about time,’ and put the book down.
‘What do you think Carmody is doing?’ Leggett asked.
Cardilini sighed deeply. ‘He’s interfering with a police investigation.’
‘The police investigation is completed and Edmund’s death was found to be an accidental shooting by parties or party unknown and impossible to determine.’
‘So what’s Carmody doing?’ Cardilini asked.
‘He thinks other boys’ lives could be at risk if the abuse they suffered was to become known.’
‘I’d heard that,’ Cardilini said.
Leggett nodded his head sagely before asking, ‘Then why are you risking so much by continuing to poke around?’
‘Did you see a car here on the evening of the twenty-fifth of October?’ Cardilini heard himself demanding.
‘You can’t expect an old man to remember such details.’
‘I’ll speak to your wife then,’ Cardilini said.
‘No, you won’t. You’ll go straight out the way you came,’ Leggett threatened.
‘Or?’
‘Do you really want to play games with me?’
‘What can you do?’ Cardilini asked.
‘I’m the legal advisor to the St Nicholas board,’ Leggett said with a challenge in his voice. Cardilini looked back stunned. Was this decrepit bag of bones behind the pressure on Robinson and Warren?
‘Do we understand each other?’ Leggett asked.
Cardilini stood staring at Leggett, he felt blood rush to his neck and head, he bit his mouth closed. Leggett looked back like a surgeon, cold and implacable. Cardilini turned and walked away.
Forty-Five
FORTY-FIVE
Day 19
St Nicholas College
6.10 p.m. Thursday, 12th November 1965
After dinner the boy was told to report to the sixth form common room again. He stood in the corridor. Darnley, a fourth form student, wandered in and stood opposite the boy.
‘What are you doing here, creep?’ Darnley asked. Everyone knew Darnley would be expelled. He was the size of a sixth former and had wisps of dark hair on his upper lip like a moustache. He stole things. He had stolen money from boys’ lockers. It was rumoured he had stolen gym equipment and stashed it down by the river.
The boy shrugged. Students were not allowed to speak while standing outside the common room.
‘Creep,’ Darnley said in a normal conversational voice and smiled.
The boy shrugged.
‘You got any smokes?’
The boy shook his head.
‘Creep.’
The boy shrugged.
‘Is Carmody in there?’