The Blissfully Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

as the woman who had handed round the candles picked up a microphone, switched it on and tapped it. The main stadium audience had mostly dispersed now, and the small crowd assembled for the vigil turned its attention to the woman.
    ‘Er . . . hi . . . and thank you so much for coming. As you know, we’re here to pay our respects for a fellow OnTarget fan – my beautiful niece Rose who was tragically murdered two days ago in Kingston . . .’
    The woman’s voice faltered and she blinked hard behind large red-framed glasses. A middle-aged couple next to her was clinging together, openly sobbing.
    Jess nudged Chloe and pointed at the crying woman. ‘That’s MissTargetHeart’s mum and dad. I saw their photo on the news.’
    Rose’s aunt gulped and contained herself. ‘Sorry, girls and’ – she looked around and identified one or two males present – ‘boys. I promised I wouldn’t get all emotional, but it’s hard. Anyway, so, what we’d thought we’d do shortly is all light our candles and stand still for two minutes thinking of our Rose and praying that she’s in a better place now. But first, we have a policeman who wants a quick word with you all. This is Detective Inspector Lennon.’
    Everyone present, including Chloe and Jess, perked up at the sight of the rangy man who stepped forwards. He was quite fit for an old bloke, thought Chloe, although she didn’t usually find men in their thirties attractive. He was wearing proper jeans, not the shapeless dad-jeans her father favoured, and a well-cool battered leather jacket. She imagined him rugby-tackling a burglar to the floor and found it gave her a little thrill of excitement.
    The detective took hold of the microphone and spoke, his expression grave as he scanned their faces. A woman stood beside him, quite old but fit-looking, her hair in long auburn corkscrew curls. His sidekick, Chloe guessed. She wondered if the curls were natural.
    ‘I won’t keep you for long. I’m hoping that you might be able to help us in our search for Rose’s killer. I gather that you all heard about this vigil from either Twitter or the OnTarget forum on their website, and, under the name MissTargetHeart, Rose was an extremely active participant on both sites.’
    ‘Extremely annoying participant more like,’ whispered Jess to Chloe, who cringed again, wishing Jess would shut up. ‘Smug cow. Acted like she was gonna, like, marry Shawn when she totally didn’t stand a chance.’
    ‘Shh, Jess. Stop it. I can’t hear him.’
    ‘I’m bored,’ Jess said. ‘And I need the loo.’ She stalked away, pushing through the crowd towards the Ladies, leaving Chloe to listen to the hot detective without any more distractions. He talked for a few more minutes, telling them to report anything at all that seemed unusual or in any way worrying, and Chloe briefly pondered this. Many of the things said on the forums could be described as unusual and/or worrying, she thought.

    When Jess came back she seemed totally spaced-out, a look of stunned joy on her face.
    ‘What’s up with you?’ Chloe hissed. ‘Did you meet Jesus in the toilet or something?’
    Jess smiled mysteriously. ‘It’s nothing. What did I miss?’
    ‘It’s clearly not nothing!’
    ‘Shhh,’ Jess said primly, as though she had been the attentive one from the start. Several Bic lighters were going around the crowd and they were all lighting their candles. OnTarget’s song ‘Forever Together’ came on and the girls all immediately joined in, their thin reedy voices swelling together as the tiny candles flickered and steadied. Rose’s parents and her aunt now too all cried, as did many of the girls, even though hardly any of them could have known her.
    The next time Chloe glanced across at Jess she was gazing contemplatively at the large tattoo of Shawn Barrett that covered most of her left forearm. Her mum had apparently gone nuts when she’d got it done at the age of fifteen, threatened to report