Afraid Read Online Free PDF

wallet, or your phone?’ His gaze flicked to the mobile that Jeff had placed on the bedside cabinet. ‘They just stabbed you for the hell of it, then legged it. And you somehow managed to drag yourself into the house, without losing a single drop of blood along the way?’
    ‘I guess so.’ Jeff held his gaze.
    ‘So how come there’s a shitload of blood on the carpet in your place?’ Jones demanded. ‘And how come your missus was covered in it, and she was still holding the knife?’
    ‘She must have pulled it out of my back when I went in, then freaked out when she saw the blood,’ Jeff lied. ‘Like I just told your mate, she’s ill, and something like that would tip her over the edge.’ He turned back to Dean now, and said, ‘I hope she’s getting help and you haven’t just chucked her in a cell, ’cos that’d kill her. She needs her tablets.’
    ‘She was being assessed by the on-call doctor when we left the station,’ Dean assured him. Then, rising to his feet, he put his notepad back in his pocket. ‘I think we’ll leave it at that for tonight, sir. We’ll need to speak to you again at some point, but if there’s anything you want to tell us in the meantime, just give us a call.’
    Jeff nodded. ‘Thanks, lad; will do.’
    Jones stood up and peered down at Jeff with unconcealed disgust. ‘You’re an idiot,’ he said bluntly. ‘She nearly killed you, and if you let her get away with it, what’s to stop her from finishing the job next time you have a scrap?’
    ‘I’ve already told you it wasn’t her,’ Jeff replied coolly.
    ‘And we both know you’re lying,’ spat Jones. ‘What about that kid of yours?’ he said then. ‘How do you think she must have felt finding you like that? The poor girl’s so traumatised she hasn’t spoken to anyone since we picked her up. And what if it’s her who cops for it next time? You thought about that?’
    Teeth tightly gritted, Jeff said, ‘Andrea would never hurt Skye. Just like she didn’t do this to me.’
    Furious, Jones brought his face down close to Jeff’s and hissed, ‘You and your missus can carry on kicking the shit out of each other until one of you ends up in the morgue, for all I care. But if anything happens to that girl because you’ve let her mam get away with this, I’ll be blaming you. Are we clear on that?’
    ‘He’s threatening me,’ Jeff said loudly to Dean.
    ‘Andy, leave it,’ Dean ordered, glancing around to see if anyone was listening. ‘Let’s go.’
    Jones backed away from the bed, but he flashed Jeff one last look of disgust before following Dean off the ward.
    Jeff flopped back against the pillow when they had gone and closed his eyes. Jones was a cunt, and Jeff hated him with a passion, but he couldn’t deny what the man had said. Andrea had almost done for him this time, and there was no telling what might happen if they got into that same situation again and Skye happened to get in the way. His wife was manageable when she took her medication, but she couldn’t be trusted to take it as regularly as she was supposed to – and Jeff didn’t always see the warning signs before she flipped. And she must have flipped big time to have stuck that knife in his back.
    He still couldn’t let her go down for it, though. She needed help, not punishment. And he was as guilty as she was, in some respects, because he should never have argued with her when he knew she was on the edge. It was just so damn hard not to retaliate when she got in his face. She had a way of getting under his skin like nobody else ever had, and he wasn’t saint enough to back down when she provoked him.
    Still, the police couldn’t charge Andrea if he stuck to his story about being jumped in the alley. Jones didn’t believe him, but that was his problem. And Skye couldn’t drop them in it, because she hadn’t seen anything, so Andrea was in the clear.
    But this was the last time Jeff was bailing her out. When she came home, she was