Social Services was supposed to call round to keep an eye on them, but they avoided this place like the plague and visits were fleeting at best. And so Helen, who had little to keep her home at night, would pop in. Which was why she’d been there when Steven Green and company returned to finish the job. He was high as usual and clutching a petrol can that he was trying to light with a homemade fuse. He didn’t get the chance. Helen’s baton caught him on the elbow, then across the neck, sending him sprawling to the floor. The others were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a copper and dropped their petrol bombs to flee. Some of them made it; some of them didn’t. Helen had been well trained in how to take the legs out from under fleeing suspects. She foiled the attack and not long after had the distinct pleasure of watching Steven Green and three of his closest friends get a substantial prison sentence. Some days the job really did give back.
Helen suppressed a shiver. The dingy corridors, the broken lives, the graffiti and filth were too redolent of her own upbringing not to provoke a reaction. It conjured up memories she’d fought hard to suppress and which she forced back down now. She was here for Marie and Anna—she refused to let anything darken her mood today.
She knocked on the door three times—their special code—and after much unlocking, the door swung open.
“Meals on Wheels?” Helen ventured.
“Piss off,” came the predictable reply.
Helen smiled as Marie opened the outer grille for her to enter. Already her dark thoughts were receding—Marie’s “warm” welcome always had that effect on her. Once inside, Helen doled out her gifts, received hers and felt utterly at peace. For a brief moment, flat 408 was her sanctuary from a dark and violent world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M. J. Arlidge is the international bestselling author of the Detective Helen Grace Thrillers, including Liar Liar, The Doll’s House, Pop Goes the Weasel, and his debut, Eeny Meeny, which has been sold in twenty-nine countries. He lives in England and has worked in television for the past fifteen years.
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Little Boy Blue Page 26