Read Eoin Miller 01 - Faithless Street for Free Online Page B

kid.”
    “-No doubt. But did
he know about your wife and Bennett?”
    If that hurt him, he
was well past showing it.
    “I think everyone
knew apart from me. Funny, eh?” He licked his bottom lip for a moment, said,
“It was only a couple times.”
    “Why did she leave?”
    “She’d wanted to move
away for years. Only stayed because of me, because I feel I owe it to my dad to
stay here and stand up for him, you know? But after what she- well- after that , it was like she became this
object. Just another thing for them to insult and throw around. I couldn’t
blame her in the end, she’s better off away from here.”
    “But Sean stayed with
you.”
    “Do you have any
kids?”
    My throat dried up
and I must have flinched, because he saw something in my face. I mumbled that I
didn’t have any.
    “Don’t,” he said.
“All we do is fuck them up.”
    Silence settled over
the room. Shannon looked around, at all his belongings and pictures, then his
eyes settled on the pile of children’s toys. He stayed that way for a long
time, then put his hands out towards me.
    “I told you, I did
it, take me in.”
    I stayed put. There
was something else eating at me, something that I was trying to reach out and
touch.
    “Sean said something
about Bennett and money, does that mean anything to you?”
    He shrugged, “This
all started when Tom was getting stressed over his business. All those mortgage
and credit card guys, they’re all struggling right now, right?”
    Sirens cut through
the air, and the sound of shouting, louder and farther away than the last time.
    Something was
happening.
    ***
    Shannon and I ran in
the direction of the noises.
    The fence.
    As we cleared the
last row of caravans we could see the crowd gathered by the hole, it looked
like the whole camp had turned out. I pushed through the crowd and saw Bennett,
flanked by three other drunken beer bellied house owners, arguing with Sean and
a group of the camp’s teenagers. The adults of the camp were closing in, and
Becker was between them, arms outstretched in either direction, trying to keep
everyone apart.
    The sirens were
coming from the other side of the fence. The wrong side.
    “I told you,” Becker
shouted over at me, “This thing was stoked.”
    The volume was
getting louder, and the crowds closing in. More home owners were coming through
the gap, teenagers with sticks, adults both trying to calm people down and rile
people up. The couple of uniformed cops from earlier came through, holding onto
people, doing a pathetic job of holding them back.
    I felt Shannon tense
up behind me at the sight of Bennett.
    “Arrest him,” Bennett
pointed over my shoulder, following his call with a string of expletives,
“Gyppo scum.”
    The people behind me
surged forward to get at Bennett, and I got knocked from my feet. Someone
pulled me out of the way of all the rushing feet, and I turned to see the old
man who’d spit in my face earlier. I smiled at him and climbed to my feet,
turning back to the crowd. More officers were coming through the fence, and I
could hear sirens coming through the camp now, I could just about see a way out
of this.
    I pushed back through
the crowd, to find Becker stood between the travelers and Bennett, keeping them
apart by the width of his frame. I pushed in beside of him and started pushing
Bennett back, trying to clear some space. Shannon stepped in beside me and
started pushing his crowd back, helping to keep the peace.
    I turned and got into
Bennett’s face, talking quiet enough that only he and Becker could hear me,
“Half done, you said?”
    “What?”
    “Your extension was
half done. Your business is in the shit and you’re working six days a week just
to cover the mortgage. How much did you need the insurance payout?”
    Becker turned to face
us, looking from me to Bennett with his mouth open.
    I continued pushing
Bennett back, towards the line of officers that was now forming, where I could
get him arrested safe from