Blood is Thicker Than Water Read Online Free PDF

to go from seeing their grandfather regularly, to suddenly refusing to see him.”
    The old woman looked uncertain again. She was clearly torn about whether she should say any more. Finally her conscience won out.
    “Nothing was ever proven, you understand. It was just gossip and you know how people like to talk, so it might be nonsense.”
    “Why don’t you tell me what you think and I’ll decide what to do with it?”
    “OK. But I think you also need to speak to Bertie Truss.”
    * * *
    Albert Truss was a robust man with broad shoulders and large, calloused hands. White hair and wrinkles aside, Warren found it impossible to believe that the man had recently celebrated his eightieth birthday. However, the large framed photograph on the mantelpiece showed him blowing out the candles on a huge birthday cake, surrounded by dozens of beaming people of all ages. The youngest looked to be about eight or nine and wore traditional cub scout uniforms not too different to what Warren remembered wearing himself at that age—although closer inspection revealed that at least some of the young children were girls. There were also girls amongst the older children in scout uniforms and the teenagers in tan venture scout shirts. The remainder of the attendees were mostly men, some in leader uniforms, many of them in late middle age themselves.
    “I’ll have been a scout leader for sixty years next spring; the club records show about eight hundred boys and girls have come on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in that time.” He smiled proudly. “Wish I could remember all of their names!”
    “Tell me about Charles Michaelson.”
    Truss’s face darkened slightly. “What’s he done?”
    “I’m afraid that he’s died, Mr Truss. We’re trying to build a picture of what sort of man he was and your name came up as a former acquaintance.”
    Truss gave a tight-lipped smile. “I haven’t seen the man for the better part of a dozen years and I only knew him for a few months.”
    “But you knew him well enough to talk about him.”
    Truss scowled slightly. “I’ve never said anything that was untrue. I just stuck to the facts.”
    “So why don’t you tell me those facts?”
    He sighed. “It was all hearsay and rumour, I grant you, and I never saw anything untoward or had any complaints from the boys, you understand?”
    “Understood.”
    “Charlie Michaelson came to the Fifth Middlesbury Scout unit in about 2000 as a volunteer leader. He was pretty enthusiastic. He was an engineer and he’d been in the army, so he had a lot of really useful skills. We were a leader short at the time, so we really valued his help.”
    “But not enough to keep him on?”
    Truss sighed. “Look the Scout Association has had an unfair press in the past. There have been some pretty hurtful stereotypes bandied about concerning men who want to give up their time unpaid to help kids. But we’re not stupid or naïve, especially these days. Charlie started helping in 2000, before criminal record checks came in, but we were still pretty careful. I’ve been in this game long enough to smell a bad egg when I come across one.”
    “So what did you see?”
    “Not a lot. Certainly not enough to call the police—at least not back then when things weren’t as tight as they are now. Besides, none of the kids ever complained, in fact they seemed to like him.”
    “So what did you not like?”
    “He was a bit too hands-on.” Truss rubbed his eyes slightly. “I’ll be honest, there are those of us who feel that the child protection guidelines have gone a bit far these days. Years ago, you never thought twice about putting your arm around a lad who was a bit upset or who had just hurt himself. I regularly used to drive boys home if their parents couldn’t pick them up and I’ve shared tents with boys who’ve had a bit of a tummy bug when we’ve been away for the weekend. But we all recognised what was appropriate. Yes, we’d get stuck in with the