Like This, for Ever

once. She said it’s like tension builds up inside you and it gets to the point when you just can’t keep it in any longer. Like a really nasty festering sore that you know you have to burst. You know it’s going to hurt like hell when you do, but afterwards it’ll feel so much better.’
    It was actually a pretty good analogy. Like the inside of your body was festering.
    ‘Still with me?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Lacey, blinking herself back.
    ‘So we get the idea of blood-letting to release tension, but nobody had ever heard of doing it to someone else. And as for drinking blood, that’s just gross.’
    The bell rang to signal the end of visiting time. The two women had established a pattern. They never lingered, that just made it harder. They stood up, kissed, held each other for a second, and then Lacey walked away without looking back. This time, though, the brief second didn’t feel nearly long enough. Lacey held on to the young woman’s slim, strong body, felt her soft cheek against her own.
    ‘You’re really OK, aren’t you?’ she said. ‘It’s not just a brave face you’re putting on.’
    Fingers stroked the underside of her chin. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘You’re the one we need to worry about.’
    Lacey pulled away and made for the door. Noise levels in the room always picked up at this point. Chairs were scraped along the floor, people invariably raised their voices to say goodbye.
    ‘You have to go back to work, Lacey,’ called the voice across the room. ‘You can’t do anything else!’

27
    ‘OH, MY LIFE , when did you get so big and ugly?’
    Turquoise eyes blinked at her. ‘That’s no way to talk to my dad.’
    At the door of Dana’s small office on the first floor of Lewisham nick, the older of the two Joesburys gave a muffled laugh, the younger kept a dead-pan face.
    Dana felt her first smile in days pushing at the corners of her mouth. ‘If hugs are on the agenda, I’m willing,’ she said, getting to her feet.
    ‘If I must,’ grumbled Huck, who was already halfway across the room. They smelled of the outdoors, these two men, of dry mud and damp sports clothes, of petrol fumes and, God, how had she never realized how strong and warm and solid young boys’ bodies were? Huck’s hair smelled of apples, his skin was the softest thing she’d ever touched.
    ‘OK, you’re being weird now.’
    She looked up, over Huck’s head, to see Mark with that crease between his brows that meant he was worried about her. She let Huck go, stepped back and tilted his chin up. ‘You’re right,’ she said, ‘you’re much better looking than your dad.’
    ‘He got his mother’s looks and my brains,’ said Joesbury. ‘I never tire of telling him how lucky he is.’
    ‘But my natural athleticism is all my own,’ said Huck, pullingback the sleeve of his rugby shirt. The bicep muscle looked as if someone had pushed a ping-pong ball under his skin.
    ‘Nearly ready?’ Mark asked Dana.
    ‘Yep,’ she said. ‘I’ve got my phone if they need me. Do you want to take a look downstairs first?’
    ‘Back in a sec,’ he told Huck. ‘You two decide where you want to eat.’
    ‘Are you going to the incident room?’ asked his son.
    ‘No, I’m going to ask the desk sergeant who he fancies in the 4.15 at Haydock.’
    ‘Can I come?’
    The two squared up to each other. ‘Since when have you been interested in horse racing?’ asked the bigger of the two.
    ‘I mean to the incident room.’
    Mark pulled the door open. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Your mother said to be sure I showed you lots of photographs of dismembered corpses.’
    ‘Mark!’
    Quick as a rat, Huck had one foot in the corridor. ‘Cool, can I?’
    ‘No,’ said Dana firmly.
    ‘No,’ repeated Mark, ‘because I am not going to the incident room and the desk sergeant doesn’t approve of children gambling.’
    Huck waited for the sound of his father’s footsteps to fade. He looked at Dana, then back at the door, then at Dana again. She waited.
    ‘While my dad’s in the incident room, can I ask you something?’ he said eventually, his bright-blue eyes wide and staring.
    Dana sat down again. ‘Of course.’
    Huck leaned against the back of the chair facing her. ‘Actually, three things. First, is it true that you’re looking for a vampire?’
    ‘No. And where on earth did you hear that rubbish?’
    Huck started swinging the chair round in the usual manner of boys who can’t keep still for a second.