Read The Baby And The Brandy (Ben Bracken 1) for Free Online Page B

that, if left to brood, can lead to dangerous places.
    ‘I can give you 24 hours,’ I add, hoping that that will serve to calm him a little and perhaps offer a little hope - even though I have no idea what this situation is about, let alone whether I can do anything practical to make things better for Jack.
    Jack swigs from the tumbler, a heavy glug. The orange juice looks pale, almost transparent, and I can almost smell the gin from my seat. This isn’t a good sign. If he drinks himself into an angry stupor, he will need the majority of those 24 hours to sleep it off, and that would be a chronic waste of time for both of us.
    ‘Without meaning to tell you what to do, I need you to go easy on that,’ I ask.
    Jack looks at me with a flash of indignation, but cools it quickly. I think he gets it. He drops the glass to his lap.
    ‘You’ve seen things, done things... How are you supposed to behave when your world is ripped out from under you?’ he asks. It seems a genuine request. I think of the awful scene in the hotel room earlier, which I intend to keep from him. There’s nothing to be gained from telling him people want him dead too.
    ‘It never gets easier. You never get your head around it. You never comprehend it. But time help’s you learn to live with it. And that’s all you can ever hope for.’ I reply from the heart. Tears begin to well messily in Jack’s eyes, and spill out uncontrollably.
    ‘I just want to fucking kill everybody...’ he seethes. I don’t doubt him either.
    ‘Just take it easy. I’m here for 24 hours, OK? Now, if you listen to me, and acknowledge that I have a certain way of going about things, we can get a fair amount done in that time. But we need to act fast and you need to be honest with me.’
    ‘I will. But you must promise me something.’
    I was expecting this. A request straight out of the male pride playbook.
    ‘I know what you are going to say. You want to kill them. You want to punish the person who did this to your Dad. You want me to agree to it - that if we find who did it, you can be the one to put them away. I understand that. I really do. But, you need to understand it will change nothing. Taking a life is something you simply cannot undo, and it changes you for the worse. Are you really prepared for that?’
    He looks at me with that burning gaze, trying to make his case.
    ‘Don’t answer that,’ I say. ‘You made it pretty clear that you want to. But think about it. Think about that, which, by doing so, you will lose.’
    ‘Promise me’, he says. I see that vehemence in him again.
    ‘No. I will make no such promise. Let’s not waste time on this pointless debate, OK? We need to get started.’
    Jack releases that mental coil a little, enough to glance out at the golf course.
    ‘Shortly,’ he says. ‘We need to meet someone first.’
    He gestures out to the golf-course. I follow his suggestion, and ambling across the fairway, is what looks like a woman with a startling peroxide bob. I glance back at Jack.
    ‘Is this...’ I begin.
    ‘Just go with it,’ interrupts Jack. ‘She lives in the estate on the other side of the golf course. It will be useful in explaining a few things’.
    That has certainly got my attention, as I watch the woman get closer. She is about Jack’s age, I would guess, and wears a dark winter jacket, jeans and red wellies. She is soft and pretty, although her features are augmented by the streaming mascara coating her cheeks like rivulets of ink. Jack’s girlfriend perhaps?
    She notices me, and I simply nod to her with an understanding smile. She hops the fence into the garden, and walks straight up to Jack, who still hasn’t risen. She too looks shattered by grief.
    ‘Jack, I’m... so... so sorry,’ she says, bending to pull Jack close. Jack doesn’t return the gesture as enthusiastically as he might if this was a romantic entanglement of his. He just opens his arms to accept her, and that’s it. Because he refuses to