The Trail Killer

Twenty-six

She continued to hurry along, paused to catch her breath only after cresting the next hill.

Only when she felt safe once more.

*

"Why, Lee? Why?"

The words were accompanied by an admonishing slap to his upper arm - one strong enough to cause him to rub at the sleeve of his school sweater, scowl across at her.

"Why?" she repeated, her tone this time stripped of anger, more an uncomprehending maternal murmur.

They were in the street outside the school, the Marina gently vibrating from the turned ignition key but yet to pull off from the curb-side.

"You've said it so many times, mum. Someone shoves you, you shove 'em back twice as hard."

"Give 'em a shove, yea, but I didn't say punch 'em in the bloody eye!"

She heaved out a sigh.

"You know I'm going to make you write this Malcom boy a letter of apology, right?"

Lee gave a reluctant nod.

"And if anything of the sort ever happens again that Atari console of yours is going to end up in the council skip?"

There was a second nod of the head: chastened, regretful.

"And that during this self-imposed week off of yours you're obliged to finally to get round to reading that Roald Dahl book grandma Irene got you for Christmas."

At this, he turned her a horrified glance.

"But---"

"No buts Lee, no buts. Only thick people never read books. Don't want to end up thick, do you?"

After receiving a murmured, grudging promise that he would read it, Shields softened her tone a little.

"So this Malcom fella, what exactly did he say to you that wound you up so much?"

Lee looked out of the passenger side window at the passing traffic, as if contemplating whether to tell her or not.

"What was it, Lee?" she insisted.

He finally turned back to her.

"It was break-time. Him and a couple of other boys were laughing at me. You know, sniggering like a bunch of girls. When I asked them why, Malcolm said that you got sacked from being a pig because---"

"I told you not to use that word, Lee!"

"From being a policewoman," he corrected, "because you tried to defend that Paki who---"

"Okay, two things, Lee. First, the guy was from India, alright. Second, somebody who actually is from Pakistan is known as a Pakistani, not a 'Paki'."

Lee blew out a sigh, as if frustrated by the constant interruptions and linguistic corrections.

"Because you tried to defend that Indian guy," he continued. "And I... I just thought it was wrong of him to say that. You did what you did because you thought it was right. So I told him to shut it, okay. But he just kept going on about how you defend Paki killers, and so in the end I had no other choice than give him a good one."

Though secretly glowing with maternal pride, Shields continued to observe him disapprovingly for some moments. She then shuffled the gearstick into first, slipped out amidst the traffic.

"Promise me you won't tell Jamie about what we're about to do," she instructed.

"Why, what are we about to do?"