Dirty Angel-BarbaraElsborg (33 page)

“What’s your name?” Leah stirred in Aden’s arms.

“Aden. How old are you?”

“Seven.”

“Your mum says you’re poorly.”

“My lungs get clogged up and I cough a lot.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“It isn’t. I’m going to die.”

Rita let out a little gasp.

“We’re all going to die,” Aden said. “Some of us live longer than others, that’s all. You’re much too pretty to die yet. Your mum and dad need you to stay around to look after them. You think you can do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“You have to try your hardest. Your mum and dad need you.”

She nodded. Aden gave Rita a helpless look. Brody thought this was crazy. It had to be a coincidence that the animals Aden had touched had gotten better. Sometimes it was like that at work. Animals you didn’t expect to survive did, and others that were bouncing around one moment, keeled over the next. Brody didn’t believe anyone could heal by touch.

He tugged Rita to one side. “Rita…” He didn’t know what to say to her.

“I know it sounds crazy,” she whispered, “but he did something. I checked the security tapes. Every animal Aden touched is better. People sat in the waiting room with their pets, and those Aden handled turned out to be fine. Today, everything was back to normal, apart from the increase in the number of appointments, but Odin is a changed dog. He’s cured.” She glanced at her daughter who was whispering to Aden. “I don’t understand it, but I had to try.”

“Rita?” Jim touched her shoulder. “Let’s go now. Thank the guy.”

“Henrik told us not to talk about it, but how could we not?” Rita said. “All those people whose pets were made better, they told others and that’s why we were so busy today. If the TV people haven’t been in touch yet, they will be.”

“Oh f…flipping heck.” Aden groaned.

“I’m surprised they haven’t phoned you.” Rita gathered Leah from Aden’s arms.

“I don’t know what happened at the practice, but I wasn’t doing anything other than be kind,” Aden said.

“I still had to try.” Rita smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Brody led them back to the door and Rita carried her daughter to the car.

Jim lingered. “Sorry. She got it into her head that it would make a difference. I think, maybe sometimes, if you believe in something hard enough, it
can
make a difference, though it’s not going to cure Leah. Thank him for going along with it.”

After they’d driven away, Brody closed the door. He turned to see Aden staring at him and asked the question that had hung in the air. “A murderer?”

“I killed my mother.”

Brody sucked in his cheeks. “So did I, if you remember.”

“Your parents died in a car crash. It wasn’t your fault, nor Des’s. I killed my mother with my own hands.”

Brody’s mouth had lost all moisture. “When you were ten?”

“Yes. When I was ten.”

He wanted to ask him how, when, where but that wasn’t what came out of his mouth. “Are you really trying out for a job?”

“Not a job. A place in heaven or hell.”

Brody frowned in confusion.

“I died and found myself in front of an angel and a demon who were supposed to decide whether I went to heaven or hell. But I ended up with one white wing and one black so they gave me a month—nineteen days left—to be a better man. To—“

“Shut the fuck up.”

“The feathers are—”

“Enough.” Brody dragged his fingers through his hair. “I want the truth not some stupid fantasy.”

“For the third time, the marks on my back are from where my wings were ripped out.”

“Shut up,” Brody screamed.

Aden sagged slightly but didn’t take his gaze away from Brody. “I died when you hit me with your car, but—”

“Get out of here,” Brody said. “I can’t cope with this. You’re doing my head in.”

“You asked for the truth.”

“Aden, listen to yourself. How can you expect me to believe any of that? This is real life, not a film.”

“I need you to believe me.” Aden’s hands clenched.

“Well I don’t. I want you to leave. I have enough to cope with without this crap. Fuck off to Nick Starr. Con your way into his bed like you did into mine.” He glared at Aden. “What are you waiting for?”

“I need to say one last thing. Don’t go near Matt. He’ll pull you down again. He might even kill you.”

“Oh fuck off.” He shoved past Aden and went into the kitchen. His head was going to explode.

A few moments later, when Brody heard the front door quietly close, he let out a choked groan. He strode into the living area and threw himself on the couch. How could everything have turned to shit so fast? A murderer? At ten? No child of ten was a murderer. And all that crap about dying and wings? It wasn’t funny. What had Aden been playing at? What was he trying to tell him?
Brody rolled onto his back and groaned.

Why did I let him go?

All this because of Brody’s stupid jealous flounce over a suit from a charity shop.

He heard the sound of a car engine and wondered if Des had given Aden a lift. Brody felt as if he were being pulled in different directions. One of them he could make a dead end right now by finding the card with Nick Starr’s number and calling him.

But the card had gone and so had Brody’s phone.
Shit.
He yanked open the front door and shivered at the blast of cold air. He pulled on his boots, grabbed his coat and ran across to the farmhouse. When he registered Des and Karen’s cars were still parked in their usual spots, he stumbled. Brody turned to see no vehicle next to his. Had Aden cadged a lift with the visitors?

Brody banged hard on his brother’s door.

Des yanked it open. “What?”

“Is Aden here?” He still hoped.

“No.”

“Can I borrow your phone?”

“What’s wrong with yours?”

“I don’t have it. Please, Des.”

Des handed it over.

There was no answer when he called his number. “Pick up,” he muttered.

“What’s happened?” Des asked.

“Can I borrow your phone for a couple of hours? Aden’s taken mine.”

Des sighed. “I’ll get you Karen’s. She hardly uses it.” He came back a moment later and handed it over. “Put it through the letter box when you’re done. We’re about to go to bed.”

Brody ran to the cottage next to his and knocked on the door just in case. There was no answer. He went back to his place, and slid down on the hall floor, stress draining his limbs of energy, his muscles leaden. He shook his head in self-disgust and called Aden again. This time he left a message.

“Please come back. I fucked up. I’m sorry.”

He ended the call and banged his head back against the wall. Once, twice, three times. What could he do? He felt as if he was rolling toward the edge of cliff. Aden had needed trust and emotional security and Brody had fucked up. Aden had needed him and Brody had pushed him away. It was too late to try and follow the car. When his neighbours came back, he could ask them where they’d dropped Aden off but until then, he was stuck. He pushed to his feet and went into the kitchen area. His wallet lay on the countertop. Brody chewed on his nail for a long moment, then looked inside. His money and cards were still there. He felt guilty he’d checked.

His laptop was in the bedroom and he brought it into the kitchen and sat at the table. Not difficult to report his phone missing, put a stop on it and order another. He was insured. He needed his phone. But maybe Aden did too.

He called his number again. “Look. I’m not pissed that you took my phone, but I’m going to have to report it lost so I can get another. I’ll give you twenty-four hours. But I want you to bring it back. Okay?”

Brody opened his laptop and went onto Google. He typed in
Aden North…ten years old…murdered mother
and waited. Nothing. Fifteen minutes later, after inputting everything he could think of…
mechanic…Bradshaw…Lucian Traske…Nick Starr…Shadow Enterprises…
he’d still found nothing. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t find Nick Starr or his company. Unless it didn’t exist and it was just a card to impress. Would Aden have been taken in? Brody wished he could remember the number.

In case Aden had used his laptop, Brody pulled up his history and scrolled to the searches prior to the ones he’d done. Aden
had
been on while Brody had been at work. When he saw the name Matthew Frazer-Hamilton his heart jumped into his throat and lodged there. Aden had looked at photographs of Matt’s wife and youngest son.

Guilt wrapped a steel band around his chest. The other searches tightened that band.
What is love? What’s the difference between love and obsession?
Had Aden been trying to help him?
Christ.
What if he still
trying to help him by making Brody push him away with all that fantasy crap?

Aden trudged along the lane with his bag on his shoulder. When he heard a vehicle behind him, he moved to the side of the road. Setting out on a journey to nowhere when it was starting to snow wasn’t one of his brightest moves, but when had he ever done the smart thing? The vehicle passed without stopping, not Brody’s car, and Aden’s spirits fell further.

He might be regretting it now, but he’d decided to leave for the right reasons—aside from the not minor detail of Brody telling him to fuck off. It had always been a long shot that Brody would believe him, but Aden hadn’t wanted to lie, not anymore.

Better that Brody hadn’t come after him, even if his tired, cold body disagreed. He had no idea what had happened at the vet practice on Sunday. Animals had got better because of him? Rita thought so and if the TV people were nosing around and decided he was some sort of miracle worker, Aden’s command to stay unnoticed was shot to pieces. His name and face would be plastered all over the TV and he’d be heading for hell faster than he could blink.

The only thing he could do was disappear. The story would die down. Another explanation would be found for the pets that recovered, and Aden could slip back into obscurity for the days he had left. Alternatively, he could use whatever power he’d been given and try and help as many people and animals as he could. Maybe he could slip into hospitals and work miracles. Or were his good deeds something that Raphael had engineered to keep him with Brody? Aden didn’t know how much of what had happened since he’d returned had been down to chance or a result of two bickering guys trying to best the other. How much was real? He had no idea.

Aden had thought that telling Brody he’d killed his mother would have raised questions, but Brody hadn’t asked anything, just pressed him about the job. Despite Brody pushing him away, Aden couldn’t walk out of the guy’s life because there was still a problem to deal with. The teacher. Until Aden was sure Matt was no threat, he wasn’t going far. If he managed nothing else, he wanted to leave Brody with a bright future.

When he reached the main road, he turned right toward Caterham. The snow was settling and he pulled his coat tighter around his neck. He had gloves, but no hat and his ears were cold. When he found a sheltered spot, he’d call Matt on Brody’s phone, though he needed to think carefully about what to say.
Leave him the fuck alone or I’ll…
What? Aden had no money to bribe him though he knew that wouldn’t have worked. Threatening revelation to the right people might.

Gently falling snow suddenly switched to a swirling blizzard and Aden gasped for breath as biting wind and icy flakes struck him head on.
Shit, it’s like the arctic.
Not that he’d been to the arctic. He’d never been out of the country. After struggling for a few hundred yards in near white-out conditions, he was exhausted and frozen. He climbed over a gate into a field and crouched shivering in a sheltered spot at the bottom of a hedge, his back to the vicious wind.

When he pulled the phone from his pocket, the feathers flying out too, he saw five missed calls from Brody and ignored them, one from Des and he ignored that too. Brody said he’d changed his number so Matt wouldn’t recognize it, but Aden suspected the guy would answer any call from a number he didn’t know in case it was Brody. Aden had a plan, not much of one, but something.

Matt answered almost instantly. “Hello?”

“This is the guy you tried to kill. The one in the bath, in case there are others.”
Oh shit.
Maybe there
were
others.

Matt laughed. “I assumed I’d failed when I saw nothing in the paper.”

“The police could be monitoring this call.”

“But they’re not. If you thought you could have me arrested, you’d have reported me. Didn’t Brody believe you? Ahh, never mind.”

Fucking arsehole.
“I’d like to meet you. Well, maybe
like
is a bit strong. I
need
to meet you.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I want to talk about Brody.”

“Does he know?”

“No. I’m calling from his phone. I’ve borrowed it.”
Please make the jump. You’re a bright guy.

“So he kept my number?”

Thank you.
“Yes.” Aden tried to put a note of disappointment in his voice. “Christ knows why.”

Matt exhaled.

“Will you meet me?” Aden asked.

“I’m not coming out on a night like this. You can come to me.”

“I don’t have transport until tomorrow.”

“I’ll call you in the morning.”

Aden switched off the phone, put it in his pocket and pulled the gloves back on. It was surprisingly sheltered in the lee of the hedge. At least he wasn’t getting snow-blasted. Faced with a long walk into Caterham and nowhere to stay when he got there, Aden was reluctant to move, though for a few minutes he pulled feathers out of his pockets and scattered them over him. When he realised it would take him hours to get any depth of protective covering, he gave in and snuggled deeper into the hedge. While this blizzard raged, he was better off where he was. As soon as it died down, he’d set off again and when he reached the edge of the town, he’d find a garage or outhouse to break into.

The snowflakes settled on Aden’s coat and legs. They were as big as pound coins and didn’t melt. He curled up tighter, leaning against his bag, shivering as icy splinters licked at his cheeks, the chill gradually creeping through his coat and shirt onto his skin, into his body, into his heart.