Blood is Thicker Than Water Read Online Free PDF Page A

“That poor girl does so much for him and never gets so much as a thank you.” She leant forward, lowering her voice. “He’s a mean old man, that’s for sure. He worked for decades as a design engineer in the same firm as my Stanley. Stan reckoned he was earning three times what he did—but we live in the same street. They rarely went on holiday and when he used to drive, he had a clapped-out old thing that he’d spend hours keeping on the road.
    “That’s why he never got any help from the social services. He must have a fortune stashed away, he was too tight to spend it, and so he doesn’t qualify.” She took another sip of her tea, before starting up again on a topic that clearly exercised her.
    “I know it’s wrong—that folks who work hard to save a bit of money shouldn’t be penalised whilst the lazy or spendthrifts get everything paid for—and I understand why he would resent paying for the care that he should have gotten for free from paying his taxes, but it isn’t fair on his kids to make them do everything when he could afford to pay for somebody to help them out.”
    Warren nodded neutrally, he was waiting for the paperwork to clear so that the bank would release Michaelson’s financial records and they could confirm what everyone had suggested. “How was his relationship with his family generally?”
    “Well they put up with a lot, Kathy especially, but they were pretty tolerant of him. They took it in turns and never missed a day. Tommy worked full time, so Kathy probably did a bit more during the week, but Tommy was there at the weekends.”
    “What about extended family?”
    “I don’t think he had any any more. He used to have a couple of brothers but they died years ago, heart attacks, and Vera, his wife, passed away about twelve years ago.”
    “What about Kathy’s family?”
    “Her husband, Ian, is a good man. He works all sorts of hours to support those kids; he’d do anything for them. He doesn’t come around as much as he usually looks after the little ones, but he does do a bit of shopping and I’ve seen him bring his toolkit around.”
    “So Kathy didn’t bring the children around?”
    The old lady’s face fell slightly. “Not so much these days. It’s a shame. They’re such lovely children. The oldest, Callum, would be seven now. He used to have such a cheeky face on him. And little Poppy must be about five; she’ll have started school now. Such a pretty little thing.”
    “It sounds as though you miss them. How long has it been since you last saw them?”
    “Would you like some more tea, Chief Inspector?” She made as if to get up.
    “No, I’m fine thank you. When did they last come around?”
    “It’s been a while.”
    She bit her lip slightly. It didn’t take a trained detective to see that the old lady was hiding something.
    “Did something happen?”
    “I don’t know.” Her voice was quiet, unsure.
    “Did you see something? Perhaps something that we need to know about?” Warren had no idea what was bothering her, but he wanted to know what it was.
    She gave a sigh. “About a year ago, Kathy turned up one morning with the kids in the car. It used to be that she’d leave them with their granddad whilst she went shopping and that. They seemed pretty happy. He even used to sit in the garden with them if the weather was nice. He clearly loved being with them and Callum in particular seemed to enjoy sitting on his knee and listening to stories.”
    She paused again, clearly reluctant to continue.
    “Well that morning, Callum refused to get out of the car. He was having a huge big temper tantrum. I had my windows open and I could hear him screaming. I thought he was just in a strop.”
    “But?”
    “He was shouting that he didn’t want to go in, that he hated Granddad and that he never wanted to see him again. He was in floods of tears. That’s the last time Kathy brought them around.”
    “Do you know what it was about? It seems a bit strange