Страница 1 из 53
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
1
Kate threw her mobile down onto the sideboard.
Why wasn’t he picking up? It’s gone two thirty, please God, answer your phone, she thought.
Kate went back to picking up the shards of glass from the grubby kitchen floor. There was always some domestic going on down this street, no matter what time of the morning it was. The neighbours were very good at pretending to be deaf when they needed to. Getting involved would be more than their lives were worth, and they were all very much aware of that. This morning’s shenanigans had been a little more eventful than most, thanks to her brother and his infamous bad temper. Kate wrapped all the bits of broken glass up in newspaper before carefully putting it in the bin: wouldn’t want anyone to get cut. She knew that there would be enough bloodshed to come. Billy would make sure of that. When he lost it, he really lost it, and tonight she feared would only be the begi
Billy O’Co
He had seemed in such a good mood when he had got home, and Kate had forced herself to tell him. She had been making herself physically sick all day by bottling it all up inside. It would only be a matter of time before somebody told him, knowing what this lot round here were like. It is better coming from me, she had thought. They had been sitting together at their little kitchen table and she had fetched him a whisky, thinking it would soften the blow a little. Boy, how wrong she had been!
Now she was once again alone in the house, Kate slumped down on one of the only chairs that had escaped being broken into pieces. She placed her head in her hands, and she prayed that Billy wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.
She just couldn’t understand how he could have been so angry, so disgusted with her. She grimaced as she went over the night’s events in her head. There would have never been a good time to tell him, though, she thought, and it hadn’t helped that he’d been out drinking with his pathetic cronies all evening. She hadn’t seen him looking so chirpy in ages and it had seemed like the perfect time. He had been telling her all the fu
“Billy,” she said quietly, feeling her nerve go as soon as her mouth opened but realising there was no going back now. “There’s something you should know.”
She watched him take another swig of his drink; whisky was his favourite, it always took the edge off. He was drinking more and more lately, not that anyone would have the balls to mention it to him: or not to his face anyway. As she sat across from him, she was aware, as always, of how much she reminded him of their mother, Kate had the same blonde hair and piercing blue eyes as she had, God bless her soul.
Poor old mum, she thought, what a struggle her whole life had been, their old man had upped and left when they were just babies, leaving their mum to struggle with not a pe
Knocking back the last of the whisky, Billy glanced up at his sister. When the time was right, Kate was going to make somebody a really great little wife, he thought; she would often have him a nice di
“Billy, listen,” Kate’s voice was almost a whisper as she tried to get her words out. Something in her tone had him feeling wary now; the whole mood in the room had changed, and he could feel the tension in her voice – or was it fear?