Written In Blood

Chapter Eighteen

Kieran Wright watched as his sisters left the living room in obedience to their father's command. He could hear them whispering, and knew they were wondering what was going on and what sort of trouble he was in, but could not make out exactly what they were saying. He wanted to snap at them to stop their whispering, he hated the way girls huddled together and whispered, but he knew better, doing so would only make his father angrier than he already was.

"Right, now the girls are out of the way," Malcolm Wright said, leaning forward. "D'you want to tell me what happened here this morning? What was Oliver Ryder doing here, and why was he hurting your sisters?" he asked angrily. "How could you let that idiot hurt your little sister?"

"I didn't let him," Kieran protested. "I didn't let him do anything. I heard a crashing noise, I knew it was Oliver smashing through the gate now, and went to find out what was going on. I was in the kitchen, and before I could get to the living room to look out, Oliver was through the front door. The moment he saw me, he came charging down the passage and attacked me. We ended up in the kitchen, wrestling on the floor; Tara got hurt when she tried to break it up.

"I didn't even know what had happened to her until Sergeant Mitchell and Constable Turner arrived and pulled Oliver off me."

"That's worse, you didn't even know what was happening with your sisters; Tara's got a black eye and a bruised cheek – if she doesn't have nightmares about what happened, I'll be very surprised. As for Amelia, she's still in shock." Malcolm scowled fiercely at his son. "You're supposed to protect your sister's, how're you supposed to do that if you don't know what's going on."

"I was attacked," Kieran said angrily, the volume of his voice rising sharply. "What the hell was I supposed to do, I had to defend myself, or he'd have put me in hospital. It's not like I had any idea he was going to come bursting in and attack me. How the hell am I supposed to protect Amy and Tara when something like that happens? Tara should've had enough sense not to get involved, then she wouldn't have got hurt, and if Amy can't handle seeing two guys fighting, she's got bigger problems than being in shock.

"I'm fine by the way, dad, no major injuries or anything."

"Don't you get smart with me, boy." Malcolm half rose, one hand coming off the arm of his chair to clench into a fist, which he waved threateningly at his son. "If you didn't have this ridiculous feud with Olive Ryder, none of this would have happened. Why did he attack you this time?"

Kieran shrugged. "I haven't a bloody clue." He fought to keep his anger under control in the face of his father's. "From what I gather, Oliver had no sooner been told that Geor-Georgie..." He had to pause for a moment so he could collect himself. "Had been found than he was racing over here to smash my face in. It's just like last weekend, when he came racing over here after he heard Georgie had gone missing. Except you weren't here to scare him off with your shotgun this time, and I didn't have a chance to get mine."

"So he still thinks you're responsible for her disappearance, and now her death. Why's that? Did you have something to do with it?"

"Jesus, dad! How can you ask me that? Of course I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Are you sure? We both know what a temper you've got, and the kind of damage you can do when you're angry; or have you forgotten what happened when you caught that fox in the chicken coop last year?"

Momentarily, an image flashed into Kieran's mind of a carnage-filled chicken coop – there was blood and feathers everywhere, and, at his feet, the body of the fox he had kicked to death after cornering it, surrounded by the chickens the pest had killed before being dealt with. It pissed him off that his father still wouldn't let what had happened drop, even after all this time.

"If I've got a temper, it's only because I inherited it from you," he snapped. "And there's a big difference between killing a fox and killing a person."

"If you had nothing to do with what I've heard happened to Georgina, who did kill her? And why does Oliver Ryder think you did?"

"I have no idea who killed her, how would I know, and as for why that prick thinks I killed her – he's a prick, who knows why he thinks anything." Kieran couldn't believe his dad thought him capable of murder; he had always known that his father thought more of Amelia and Tara than of him, but even so, to be thought capable of murder was a harsh blow. "Maybe he's trying to pass the blame. Maybe he thinks if he accuses me and attacks me, the cops will think I killed her and not pay attention to him.

"Did whoever told you about Georgina also tell you that Lucy has gone missing? And before you start thinking I might have had something to do with that, I saw her going into the old Henshaw cottage yesterday afternoon and I told the police as much earlier. If they haven't already, they'll be speaking to Mr Wild soon about what happened to her, and Georgie." Kieran got to his feet then and strode from the living room, he had had enough of dealing with his father just then.