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

of minutes, thinking. Nobody wanted to listen to me about Mariusz and this gang – Singh had told me to back off, Lukas didn’t believe his boy could ever get mixed up in any trouble, and Caroline clearly had her head in the sand. Even Sasha didn’t seem interested now that Lukas had been released. I wanted to find out what the boy had been up to, and what the group he was hanging around with were involved in. If I could find some way of linking them back to Lukas and Nadia, then perhaps I could get Mariusz off the hook.

An idea came to me. It was reckless, I knew that, but it would hopefully answer some of my questions. Looking at the street around me, I worked out a plan.

Chapter 29

It was dark by the time I returned to Caroline’s street that night. I parked a couple of minutes’ walk away, because she would easily recognise my car if I left it outside her house. I’d worn dark clothes, but nothing to suggest I was trying not to be seen – I thought that would make me look more suspicious.

It was too mild an evening for a hat or scarf, but I had a dark jacket that zipped up to my chin, dark blue jeans and black shoes. I’d left my mousy brown hair hanging loose rather than tying it back, in the hope it could hide my face from some angles.

The front window glowed blue with the light of the television, but that was the only light coming from their house. I didn’t want to go too close, in case Caroline or Mariusz saw me and confronted me, but I wanted to know who was in. Caroline’s car was parked outside, so I assumed she was there, but there was no way of knowing if her son was at home or if I was too late and I’d already missed him. The only thing I could do was wait.

Most of the houses along the road had their curtains shut, but I still didn’t feel comfortable sitting in one place and watching the house. You never knew which of the neighbours was a curtain-twitcher, and the last thing I needed was a police car pulling up and asking what I was doing there. Rav had got me out of a few scrapes in the last year or so, but I knew he wouldn’t do it this time, not after he’d warned me himself to stop digging.

I walked slowly up the road, keeping an eye on Caroline’s house for as long as I could before it became uncomfortable to crane my head round, then kept walking for a short distance, before pausing, checking my phone then walking back the other way. I did this a couple of times, but I knew it wasn’t sustainable, so I cast around for something else to do while I waited. For a few minutes, I stood at the end of the road, making a pretend phone call, until I ran out of things to say to myself, then I began my slow walk back up the road again.

When I reached the end of the road, I saw a small shop just round the corner. Glancing back over my shoulder, I didn’t see anyone coming up the road, so thought I could chance it. I ducked my head in, browsed the magazines for a moment, bought myself a chocolate bar and a drink then turned to leave. As I did, I saw someone pass the window, and I hurried out onto the street – the figure was about the same height as me, slight, and wearing a dark hoodie with a design I recognised from the other day. It was Mariusz.

Berating myself for nearly missing him, I followed him along the road. He’d had a head start, so I was far enough behind him that he wouldn’t notice me. I only hoped he wasn’t going to catch a bus or something like that, because there was no way I could stand at a bus stop next to him without him recognising me. For now, though, we kept on walking.

I assumed he was off to meet the gang he’d been hanging around with yesterday, which was precisely why I was following him. I needed to know who they were and what they were doing. They had to be connected to the fires, but I couldn’t quite make it all add up in my head. Nobody had been hurt in the second fire, so I wasn’t convinced they were responsible for Nadia’s murder, but I wanted to learn more and understand what they were doing.

It was Tuesday night, when I thought most teenagers should be at home doing their homework, but that didn’t seem to be a priority for Mariusz. I followed him along a couple of residential streets, until we came out on Frodingham Road. It was busier than some of the other roads, with numerous takeaways and off-licences still open at this time and doing decent business, by the looks of things.

To my dismay, Mariusz suddenly stopped and went into a kebab shop. I couldn’t follow him in there without being noticed, so I would have to hang around outside and hope he wasn’t in there for long. There were a couple of tables inside by the window, but I doubted many customers stayed and ate their food there. Then there was the issue of which way he would walk once he left the kebab shop – if he came back the same way then he’d walk right into me. To be safe, I crossed the road and lingered outside an empty unit. I could watch the kebab shop from there, then follow Mariusz when he came out, without risking him seeing me.

As I stood there I wondered if I was doing the right thing. If I was caught following one of Sasha’s clients’ children around Scunthorpe after dark there would be