Read The Border Part Five for Free Online

there, I’d have had to have been an idiot not to. It wasn’t even a massive shock, I guess I was already attuned to the idea that there were secrets in the world and things that other people did that I didn’t. The only shock was when I saw you . I already knew you were dating my brother and I’d got you pegged as a prissy, prim little thing, and yet there you were, naked and squirming all over some old fart’s lap. I don’t remember who he was now but -”
    “I remember that night,” she said firmly, with a shiver. “You don’t need to remind me.”
    “Do you think you’ll ever forget?”
    She paused, before shaking her head.
    “Do you want to?”
    “I’ve learned to live with it.”
    “But why protect the place?” he asked.
    She sighed.
    “You’re a cop, for God’s sake. Why let the Border keep going? You could raid it any time you like.”
    “Nothing illegal goes on there.”
    “Doesn’t it?”
    “No, I -”
    “What about the deeper levels?”
    She paused again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Yes you do. Don’t be a liar, Jane. I don’t like liars. Or hypocrites. And don’t act like some naive idiot, because it really doesn’t suit you.” Leaning down, he started picking through the pieces of the broken fireplace, as if he was expecting to find something significant. “You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” he added after a moment.
    “I’ve never seen or heard anything that makes me think…” She sighed. “As far as I’m aware, the lower levels of the Border are just as legal as the upper layers. I have no justifiable grounds for interfering.”
    “But you don’t know for sure?”
    She shook her head.
    “How far down did you get in your career there?” Leaving the broken fireplace alone, he made his way past her, heading to the window and looking out at the overgrown garden.
    “A few levels.”
    “Ouch.”
    “I don’t want to talk about it,” she continued, staring down at the broken fireplace. “I don’t need to talk about it. If you’re worried about the Border being linked to these latest deaths, there’s no need. I’ve already checked and I’m confident that any connections are just a coincidence. Mel Armitage had absolutely nothing to do with the place, I don’t think she even knew it existed, and Hayley Maitland…” She paused, clearly a little uncomfortable now. “Well, she’d been working at the Border for some time, but I still don’t see that there’s a link. I know what you think about the place, but -”
    “Oh, no you don’t,” he replied with a grin, turning to her. “You don’t know what I think about that place at all. You don’t know the depths of my disgust at its continued survival.”
    “There’s nothing illegal -”
    “It’s wrong!” he shouted, momentarily losing his temper before taking a deep breath and forcing the smile back to his lips. “It’s disgusting. It’s morally foul and it shouldn’t be there!”
    “Plenty of things are wrong,” she replied, heading over to the stairway and looking up toward the landing, keen not to look into Ben’s eyes and see his anger. “That doesn’t mean we can go shutting them down.”
    “Do you really think,” he continued, “that just because there’s no specific law against the kind of stuff that goes on there, that it should be allowed to continue? Have you forgotten the times I used to find you crouched down in one of the Border’s private rooms, sobbing your eyes out because one of the customers and been a little too forceful and stuck a finger somewhere he shouldn’t?” He waited for a reply. “Do you remember that old man who -”
    “Enough,” she said firmly, turning to him.
    “What about the -”
    “Enough!” she shouted. “Just… Enough, Ben, okay?”
    “You got out,” he continued after a moment. “Good for you. You met a dashing, handsome guy named Jack Freeman and you got the fairytale ending. The family, the