Read Murder With Mercy for Free Online

her head.
    The girl’s colour mounted, and her mouth turned ugly. ‘I was right about you, you’re all the same, filthy capitalists stealing from the poor, but when Dwayne gets going we’ll be living in a big house and you’ll be down at the Council, begging for a squat! And don’t think you can brush me off, you and those toffee-nosed police, because you haven’t heard the last of this, I’ll have my rights and you can all go and suck yourselves silly!’
    Thomas’s car swished to a halt in the drive. A big, bearded man, he got out, putting up his umbrella, smiling his pleasure at reaching home at last. ‘What a day!’ He spotted Petra and looked a question at Ellie.
    â€˜She’s just going,’ said Ellie, knowing that, unless directed otherwise, Thomas would put aside his workday weariness to offer Petra a lift.
    â€˜Any chance of a lift to the tube station?’ said Petra.
    â€˜No,’ said Ellie. ‘In with you, Thomas. Supper’s ready. Goodbye, Petra.’
    â€˜You’ll be sorry for this!’ Petra put up her umbrella and splashed off into the night.
    Thomas gave Ellie a hug and a kiss. ‘Who was that?’
    â€˜Trouble,’ said Ellie. ‘And the worst of it is, I think she’s got a point. Who did give Auntie all those pills?’

THREE
Tuesday evening
    S he remembered yesterday. At least …
    She checked today’s newspaper. Tuesday. She’d picked it up off the mat that morning, so yesterday had been Monday.
    Was it really a fortnight since her last visit to Ruby? Poor Ruby, so frail and in so much pain. How many years had they known one another? Eighteen? Nineteen? Perhaps more. It was hard to remember which year it was that they’d met, but it was long before both their husbands died.
    Almost every Monday afternoon they’d have a cuppa and a chat, and maybe there’d be some chocolate biscuits too, if Ruby’s carer had remembered.
    Ruby had said, ‘I really don’t want to be here any longer. I want to be with my darling husband again, and our lovely son. But it bothers me; I was only twenty-eight when our little one died in my arms, and I was forty-three when my husband copped it. Now I’m past sixty-five. Will they know me again, do you think?’
    A tricky question. They thought about it.
    â€˜What I think is that your little son will see you as you were at twenty-eight, and your husband will see you as you were at forty-three.’
    â€˜Even at forty-three, I was beginning to creak in my bones. I certainly don’t want them to see me as I am now. I did tell you that the doctor wants me to go into a care home, didn’t I? I can’t be doing with that. You brought the pills for me? I’ve tried to save some of mine, but the pain gets too bad so I have to keep on taking them. It’s a poor night on the telly.’ She winked. ‘Maybe I’ll go to bed early and get a good night’s sleep for once.’
    Dear Ruby. At least she’s free of pain at last.
Tuesday evening
    Ellie put the food on the table and called out, ‘Come and get it!’
    Vera sat down to eat with them, but could only manage a few mouthfuls before pushing her plate aside. She looked dreadful and, on being questioned, admitted that her head ached and her throat was raw. ‘I’ll be all right. I must have caught a cold.’
    Ellie took Vera’s temperature and sent her up to bed.
    Mikey sat at the far end of the table with the cat Midge at his side. They ‘talked’ to one another, but to no one else. Rose was fidgety, complaining there was still dirt in her precious sink. Ellie apologized. Again.
    Thomas took a third helping before Ellie could suggest he finished off with a salad – not that she’d prepared any but it was the principle of the thing. Thomas was always ‘forgetting’ that he was supposed to be on a diet.
    Fruit and cheese for