Life Ruins
Page 33
Why hadn’t Alek spoken out? Because of his immigration status. As soon as the police were involved with the drop-in, he’d vanished. He couldn’t risk being arrested and deported, because what would happen then to his daughter, the severely disabled girl who was doing so well at university? But he’d tried to protect the kids at the drop-in. He’d done his best for the kids who were left to make their own way as best they could.
Like Paige.
Like Maireid.
And like Becca had been, before Kay. Before Matt.
Wherever Alek was, she wished him well.
She heard the sounds of voices from further back in the building, and the tramp of heavy feet. Someone was coming, probably the people working on the renovations.
It was time to go.
Outside, the sky was blue and the air itself seemed full of possibilities. Becca felt her spirits lift with a kind of excitement. It wasn’t a bad place, Brid. OK, it was at the bottom of the pile, but then, so was she, right now.
Maybe that was the best place to be when you were starting all over again.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
With many thanks to all the people who helped and supported me through the writing of this book, especially my agent Teresa Chris for all the support she has given me, my editor at Simon & Schuster, Anne Perry who gave me so much help in shaping this book into its final form and Fraser Crichton for his copyediting.
Many thanks to writers Jenny Ryan, Janet Blackwell, Sue Knight and Penny Grubb for their critical reading and feedback, which helped to keep the book on track.
To Annie McKie for her wonderful writers’ retreat and for the manuscript discussion we had in the early days of writing this book.
And finally – but not least – to Ken for his support and for keeping me supplied with endless cups of coffee.
Danuta Kot grew up with stories. Her Irish mother and her Polish father kept their own cultures alive with traditional tales they shared with their children. For many years, she worked with young people in Yorkshire who were growing up in the aftermath of sudden industrial decline. She uses this background in her books to explore some of the issues that confront modern, urban society: poverty, alienation and social breakdown, using the contexts of the modern crime novel. She now works as a senior education consultant, work that involves travel to establish education and training in other parts of the world. She is a regular academic speaker at conferences and literary festivals, and has appeared on radio and television.
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2019
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Copyright © Danuta Kot 2019
The right of Danuta Kot to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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Hardback ISBN: 978 1 4711 7590 9
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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