Cold Deception Read Online Free PDF

hug. “He should be able to get her into rehab.” He walked down the pathway to the police car lifting his arm in farewell, but not before he shot a cold look at Julia.
    She knew that look. Prison officers looked at her that way every day.
    “Just what we need,” Dee muttered. “Blossom in a state.”
    “How long’s this been going on?”
    Dee shrugged. “About six months. She met him at uni and it’s been downhill ever since.”
    “And the cop?”
    “What about him?”
    “You seem very friendly with him.”
    Dee frowned at her, puzzlement on her face. “What’s wrong with that? We wouldn’t have been able to manage her without his support.”
    “He’s a cop.”
    “And?”
    “They’re bastards and they can’t be trusted.” Her heart was pounding with fury. She had to make Dee understand.
    Dee put her hand on Julia’s arm. “Not all of them are,” she said softly. “Not all.”
    Julia covered her face with her hands and shook. When Dee reached for her, she stepped back, pushed her hair back and took in a deep breath. “It’s okay. I’m all right. Just a freak out for a minute. Let’s join the party,” she said.
    She linked her arm through Dee’s and prepared to fight for her sister’s life. Again.
    *
    Blossom stood at the sink, still crying.
    The last time Julia saw her was seven months ago. This was not the same person.
    Always skittish and nervy, which was yet another worry for Julia to torment herself with in the small hours of each morning, Blossom nevertheless did well in school and seemed to be on the right track for the future.
    She was beautiful. A young Audrey Hepburn, almost a carbon copy of Eleanor at the same age. And like her celebrated mother, just as talented. Now and then, at the back of her mind, Julia worried about the other similarities to their mother, but hadn’t wanted to go down that pathway too much. She told herself Blossom had a stable life full of people who loved her.
    When Julia heard she’d moved to Sydney to share a house with some of her fellow students, she’d been happy for her. She could be a normal young woman about to embark on the best years of her life.
    Until now.
    Nothing could have prepared her for this strung out vision of torment. Dyed black ratty hair, piercings through her nose and lip, heavy dark eyeliner which was now running down her face, and, most worrying of all, rake thin. Under her cheap T-shirt her collar bones were sharp and distinct while the rest of her was hardly there. The smell of stale rum and patchouli wafted from her.
    She fumbled with a glass, trying to turn on the kitchen tap for some water. Her eyelids drooped and she swayed, trying and failing to get the glass under the tap.
    “It wasn’t my fault, Ma. We weren’t doing anything,” she whined.
    Julia’s heart sank. The familiar refrain of every woman who woke up in Silverwater Women’s Correctional Center after a drug-fuelled crime spree. So off their faces they couldn’t remember what they’d done.
    Blossom finally noticed Julia standing at the door. She dropped the glass in the sink where it promptly shattered, and tottered over to her sister, flinging herself into Julia’s arms.
    “Jules, Jules, I’m sorry,” she wailed. “I just wanted to get up here and see you. I didn’t know Rez had some stuff. We weren’t doing anything. Dylan just has it in for me ‘cause he doesn’t like Rez. You know? You do know, don’t you? You know all about those cop bastards.”
    Julia held her. She was all bone and incoherence.
    “Sure, Bloss. I know all about it. Let’s get you to bed, okay? You need to have a little sleep. What did you take?”
    “Nothing, Jules. I swear. I didn’t have anything.”
    “It’s okay, Bloss. Just tell me what you had or we’ll have to call an ambulance.”
    “Don’t do that! Please don’t do that. It was just some xannies, that’s all. Nothing much.”
    “How many?”
    “Five,” she mumbled. “Maybe more. Maybe ten.”
    “Ten