She's Out Read Online Free PDF

uneasy. It was back again, that constant undercurrent of guilt whenever he was with his mother. He had made that promise, but what could he do? He held on to his
temper. ‘Mum, there is nothing I can do—’
    ‘You’re a ruddy police officer, aren’t you? Re-arrest her. She did that robbery, Mike – I know it, you know it. She as good as killed our Shirley, never mind her bloody
husband.’
    The tears started again. He was due at his station in half an hour; he wished he’d never called in. ‘Look, Mum, the main problem will be if it implicates you – and it
could.’
    Audrey clung to him. ‘I’ve got an offer. Friend’s got a villa in Spain, I can stay as long as I like. That way I can’t be involved.’
    ‘Look, I’ll see what I can do but I can’t promise anything.’
    Audrey kissed him. ‘Let her sleep in peace, let my little girl sleep in peace.’
    Mike sighed and turned on the ignition of the car but the last thing he felt like doing was going into the station. He checked his watch again and then drove to Thornton Avenue in Chiswick. He
knew that he was making a mistake, that this was a stupid move, but he needed to get his head straightened out. He parked the car and walked up the scruffy path. He was about to ring the front
doorbell when he heard someone calling his name.
    Angela was running up the road, waving. Her face was brimming with a big wide smile. ‘Mike, Mike . . .’
    Mike turned as she threw herself into his arms. He held her tightly as she kissed his neck.
    ‘I knew you’d come and see me again, I just knew it.’
    He walked hand in hand with her to his car, already wanting to kick himself for coming to her place.
    ‘I’ve missed you,’ she said, hanging on to his arm.
    Mike released his hand. ‘Look, I shouldn’t have come, Angela. It was just . . . I’m sorry.’
    ‘Oh, please stay, please. Me mum’s down at the centre, there’s no one in the house, and, please, I got something to tell you, please . . .’
    Mike locked the car and followed Angela into her mother’s ground-floor flat. It was dark and scruffy and kids’ pushchairs and toys littered every inch of the floor. Angela guided him
towards the small back bedroom, and all the time he kept on saying to himself that he was dumb, he was stupid to start this up again. Angela began to undress as soon as she shut the door but he
shook his head. ‘No, I can’t stay, Angela, I’m on duty in an hour. I just . . .’
    She slumped on to the bed. ‘I been waitin’ for you to call for weeks. You know the way I feel about you. Why did you come here, then?’
    He shook his head. He was feeling even worse. ‘I dunno, I was over at my mum’s place and she starts doing my head in over my sister, and I just . . .’ She wrapped her arms
around him, kissing his face. ‘No, don’t, Angela, I shouldn’t have come.’
    She broke away. ‘Well, get out, I don’t care, I’m goin’ away anyway.’
    ‘Where you goin’?’
    ‘Friend’s place, just a few days, bit of work.’
    Mike looked at her, shaking his head. ‘What kind of work?’
    Angela plucked at her short skirt, her face puckered.
    ‘You’re not going back on the game, are you?’
    ‘
No, I am not
,’ she shrieked.
    Mike sat on the bed and rested his head against the wall. He closed his eyes.
    ‘I was never on the game and you know it. You of all people should know it. I just worked as her maid, Mike, I swear I did.’
    ‘This Ester Freeman, is it?’ he asked.
    Angela crawled on to the bed to sit next to him. Mike had been on the Vice Squad when Ester Freeman had been busted for running a brothel. Angela was one of the girls who had been arrested along
with twelve other women but they had all, including Ester, insisted that little Angela was not on the game, just serving drinks. Mike and Angela, who was then only fifteen, had begun an affair, a
stupid, on-off scene that he constantly tried to break. He never saw her regularly, once a month, sometimes