The Silent Suspect by Nell Pattison (epub e ink reader .TXT) 📕

Stop squirming. You don’t want it to get infected.

She was right, so I forced myself to sit still until she’d finished.

Right, tell me what happened, she instructed.

Anna, please, can I just go to bed?

No, you need more fluid in you first, or you’re going to have the mother of all hangovers. And you might as well tell me what happened first, because you’re going to need to repeat it for the police report.

It hadn’t even occurred to me to call the police. I was so busy blaming myself for getting involved with Lukas’s case and thinking it served me right that someone had done this to me, I didn’t think it was something I should report. If I reported it, though, I’d probably have to tell them what Sasha and I had been doing. Rav would be furious if he found out I’d put myself in danger. With how shit the last week of my life had been, having him mad at me too would probably be about par for the course. I knew there was no way Anna would accept me saying I wasn’t going to report it, however, so I just let her comment pass without replying.

She went to the kitchen and got me a pint of water, and I obediently drank half of it before putting it down on the coffee table.

Come on, she signed, watching me carefully. Tell me what’s been going on.

After considering for a moment how much I should tell her, I gave her a very brief summary of Lukas’s case – that he’d been charged with a crime Sasha didn’t think he’d committed, and that she and I had been talking to a few people to try and find any witnesses who might be able to tell the police what had really happened. I made it clear that Sasha was the one spearheading it, and that she had a lot more faith in the theory than I did.

So who was the man that attacked you? she asked.

I grimaced. I expect he works for the guy Lukas owes money to. I spoke to him yesterday, so maybe he’s warning me off.

Is he a viable suspect? Her eyes lit up with interest, and I shook my head.

I don’t know, but that’s not the important thing.

Of course it is, she replied. Come on, tell me who your suspects are and what you’ve got on each of them so far. I can help you organise everything. Then maybe you can figure out exactly who this guy was, for when you report him.

No, Anna, I told her firmly. I’m doing this to help Sasha support one of her clients. I’m not going to get you involved.

She rolled her eyes. It’s a bit late for that, Paige. If you’re going to be looking into the sorts of people who loiter outside your front door and attack you in the middle of the night, you need as much help as you can get.

I knew she was trying to protect me just as much as fulfil her curiosity about the case, but I didn’t let her argument sway me.

No. Honestly, we’ll be passing it all over to the police soon anyway. We’re seeing Forest about it tomorrow.

Anna was slightly appeased by the mention of the DI, but I could tell she was still annoyed with me for not including her. As she forced me to drink another glass of water, I couldn’t help but wonder if we were already out of our depth, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to give up on this until Sasha knew exactly what had happened to Nadia.

Two hours before the fire

Mariusz crept down the stairs with his shoes in his hand and his rucksack already on his back. His mum was in the living room watching some crap on the TV, so he hoped she wouldn’t notice he’d gone. She never checked on him much these days anyway. He’d left his music playing, so she probably wouldn’t even bother looking in before she went to bed.

They’d told him to meet them later, but he wanted to get out of the house already. Unchaining his bike from the fence at the side of the house, he hopped on it and rode up the road. He cycled around the streets aimlessly for a little while, not wanting to go anywhere in particular, but enjoying the freedom of being out on his own. The group of friends he’d made recently would be waiting for him soon, but he was near his dad’s house and decided to go past.

As he slowed down, he saw a car parked at the end of the road that looked familiar. There was no one inside, so he carried on past, glancing back a couple of times. He knew he’d seen that car before, and he was sure who it belonged to. What was it doing outside his dad’s and Nadia’s house? Mariusz didn’t like it. He looped round a couple of times, but nobody returned to the car.

Checking his watch, he knew he needed to go and meet his friends soon, but he made a mental note to tell his dad about it later. In recent weeks he’d been feeling pretty defensive of his dad, and he didn’t want to find out someone was taking advantage of him.

Chapter 23

Monday 22nd April

There was a dull ache in my head when I finally opened my eyes the following morning, but it was nothing compared to the burning pain in the side of my face. I took a gulp of water from the glass on my bedside table then dragged myself out of bed, squinting in the bright morning sunlight filtering through my curtains. A glance in the mirror told me there was going to be no hiding my wounds from the attack, so I’d better come up with a decent cover story. Would people believe I’d fallen and landed on my face? It was possible, I