BooksBarbecue
Back The Snakes Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. Title Page
  2. About the Author
  3. By the Same Author
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. PART ONE
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. PART TWO
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. PART THREE
  29. 21
  30. 22
  31. 23
  32. 24
  33. 25
  34. 26
  35. PART FOUR
  36. 27
  37. 28
  38. 29
  39. 30
  40. 31
  41. Acknowledgements
  42. Copyright

‘Yes. Blame. Blaming yourself. Blaming anyone. Raging against it. That’s easy. And it will make you mad. You have to try not to.’

He squinted at her, calculating, then gave a sudden, big, barking laugh, like someone who’s witnessed a conjuring trick. It made her jump.

‘You’re actually quite good,’ he said. ‘You should have been a lawyer.’

16

16

It wasn’t funny any more, Dan thought. It hadn’t been before, but he had been able to be cool about it when the cops were talking to the whole family, even the second time. Now this was just him, and he’d been forced to leave Bea, alone with more of them. It was hard not to panic. It wouldn’t do any good to fight, but he felt so scared. He pictured losing it in the back of the police car, and trying to escape and when they let him out, inside the compound of the barracks, he could see himself making a run for it, and imagining what would happen then was terrifying. They had guns, they were soldiers, he was in a foreign country and they had no reason to treat him well, and he didn’t know what was going on and his wife was alone at Paligny with three men. He didn’t need to let his mind go far before it went to very bad places, it didn’t take a lot of imagination. So he texted Griff from the back of the car, and texted Bea once, and then concentrated on sitting as quietly and calmly as he could, and not letting them see how scared he was.

They were very courteous. They stood aside for him to go through doors first, and even smiled. He reminded himself of the facts, and that everything else was just his panic talking, and his ingrained, natural distrust of the police. It was all in his mind. He told himself that. He tried to look fine with it all as, just like the afternoon before, he had to wait while they found the interpreter. That’s why it had taken longer than Bea’s interview. That was the reason, nothing sinister.

Today, he only had to wait twenty minutes. And he was upstairs in an office with people around, and he had his phone, it wasn’t like they’d asked him for it. There was nothing to suggest he was doing anything other than helping them with their enquiries. He didn’t know where he’d got that phrase. So-and-so was said to be helping the police with their enquiries. So-and-so is not a suspect. He had a feeling so-and-so usually got booked. As far as he could guess, the cops had no more idea what had happened to Alex than he did. They were just digging around. And he was helping them, with their enquiries.