Choose Your Parents Wisely (Joe Grabarz Book 2)

by Tom Trott

  In the middle of the void was a steel trapdoor. The chill wind played a tune across it. I tried to wrench it open but it wouldn’t move.

  Fumbling in the swaying light I could see a padlock. I grabbed one of the iron bars that were rusting away on the floor, making sure not to let iron splinters through my gloves, and swung as hard as I could. It pinged off without resistance and flew away into the darkness as though it wanted to give up its secrets. To be absolved of its sins. It was just an innocent padlock, it hadn’t asked to be part of this.

  It took everything I had left to lift the rusted door. The little flame flickered in the air that escaped. Or was it the breeze? Cold night rain was dripping through the obliterated roof, plummeting seven storeys down. All I could see in the flickering glow was bricks, and steel steps leading down into the crypt. My hand was shaking, but I convinced myself it was only the cold, and stepped down into the darkness.

  I won’t describe what the corpse of an eight-year-old girl looks like, left underground to die, except for the fact that the nail of her right index finger was worn down to a stump, clotted with blood, where she had scratched a word into the wall. Just one word:

  MAX

  joe grabarz will return

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tom Trott lives in Brighton, with his wife, and his wife’s parents. He works in a Sixth Form College, and saves money by re-using shopping bags as bin liners. He sometimes uses leftover candle wax to make new candles. He likes gin. He rarely enjoys writing, but frequently enjoys having written. He reads less books than he should, eats more crisps than is healthy, and has been known to talk too much.

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