Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil Read Online Free PDF

at least half a dozen parents and guardians still in transit and it’s important she’s free to speak to them if they ring. If there’s any further information, I’ll update you. All I can say is that I’m grateful my daughter’s here and not at the hospital. Or lying outside. The best thing for now is to be with your kids.’
    The group seemed less manic at least. There was a murmuring among them and Bish went to walk away.
    ‘This business with the LeBrac girl,’ one of the fathers said. ‘My son said she was cagey. Strange.’
    ‘And gave out sexual favours to more than one of the lads,’ a woman said. ‘If she comes from that heinous family ––’
    ‘I can’t speak of that,’ Bish said firmly, ‘because there’s little I know. But regardless of whose daughter she is, Violette Zidane is unaccounted for, and as much a victim of this tragedy as your children.’
    He went in search of Bee, worried that he had neglected her this past hour. She was standing with Saffron on the verandah, watching the forensics team appear and disappear inside the tents.
    When Bee saw him she asked the same question Crombie had. ‘Is it true what they’re saying about her? Her grandfather blew up those people and her mum built the bomb?’
    He dodged the question. ‘Do you know where Violette is, Bee?’
    ‘Don’t care. I hope she rots in hell.’
    Bish looked carefully at his daughter. She was dressed differently to her usual attire. Bee was an athlete, a casual-clothes sort of girl. Today she was wearing some sort of short tulle skirt, Ugg boots, and a black singlet. He didn’t remember her dark hair having blue strands.
    ‘She did this to me.’ Bee pointed to a bruise above her eye.
    ‘A girl did that?’
    ‘Yes, a girl, Bish.’
    So he was back to being Bish. Whenever she used his name she made it sound like a euphemism for idiot. He had liked being Daddy for two minutes. She’d taken to calling him and Rachel by their first names a few years ago. They thought it was a phase. Nothing with Bee was a phase these days except perhaps being surly.
    ‘Apart from getting into fist fights with other girls, did she act suspiciously?’ he asked.
    Bee ignored him, her attention on a group of teenagers being led to one of the parked buses. They were dressed in football gear – the Pas-de-Calais team, Bish guessed. Today would have marked the last day of their tour with a game in Amiens, which had been cancelled. If they were boarding their bus it meant they’d been interviewed and Attal was allowing them to return to their homes.
    When the French teenagers disappeared from sight, Bee walked away. Bish glanced at his mother. She understood Bee better than he did lately.
    Saffron sighed. ‘Bee and Violette Zidane shared a room the entire tour.’
    ‘They were friends?’ Bish was shocked.
    ‘Not according to Bee. All the other girls paired up on the ferry. Bee and Violette were the last two left. They didn’t have a choice. But Bee is fixated about where Violette is, as well as Eddie Conlon.’
    ‘Well, Eddie can’t be far away. His name’s been ticked off on the list.’
    ‘Some of the kids whose parents haven’t arrived are camped out closer to the police barricade, waiting,’ Saffron said. ‘He’s probably with them.’
    Lucy joined them on the verandah. Bish could see the boy who’d called Violette a slag out near the picnic tables. He was with his parents, being interviewed by Sky News.
    ‘Charlie Crombie’s friend,’ Bish said to Lucy. ‘Name’s Kennington, is that right?’
    ‘Rodney Kennington. He imagined himself being in charge for about ten seconds and then Charlie Crombie took over and Rodney seemed satisfied with being his lackey.’
    ‘You’re not a fan?’
    ‘I wasn’t really a fan of any of them.’
    She looked at him guiltily. Not even his daughter.
    ‘The only decent year eleven was Fionn Sykes. The type of lad who helped the younger ones and took the time to chat with us shaps