The Claim Read Online Free PDF Page B

at all. Women like your mother tend to be really lonely. All they need is an ear. Or whatever takes their fancy.”
    Rocco chuckled, even as his solicitor touched his shoulder. Laughing was better than trying to pull out the man’s paltry brains through his nostrils. “Amateur,” Rocco murmured.
    The interview was abruptly interrupted and the officer left the room. Rocco’s solicitor turned to him. “Work with me here, Rocco. Were you there?”
    “Don’t be so fucking thick,” Rocco thundered.
    “Call your girlfriend.”
    “What for?”
    “It’s what will help.”
    “No,” he refused. “She is not getting in the middle of this.”
    “Then you are doing yourself no favours.”
    “Can you hear me? I said no.”
    Norcross came back in. “Well, well, well. Like father, like son, eh? Some girl has just said you were with her last night. Some girl who says she’s not your girlfriend and you don’t want your girlfriend to know. Sound familiar?”
    Rocco didn’t let a flicker of a muscle move on his face. “It’s personal.”
    “Don’t play about with me.”
    “Look, I’ve said I wasn’t there. Other people say I wasn’t there. The person who was allowed to be in the office at the time says they were there. Why are you wasting my time?”
    “Interview terminated at nine forty-eight p.m.” The tape was abruptly switched off, and Norcross pushed his face uncomfortably close to Rocco’s. “I fucking hate you Mamiones. Swanning around like it’s fucking Sicily in the 19 fucking 50s. You’re not smart. You are not fucking clever. You will slip up. One of you or all of you, and then I’ll have the pleasure of throwing every single one of you into Brixton Prison. Nice and cosy. See if you can run shit from there. It’ll leave your mother all alone and in need of a real man to look after her.”
    Whilst Rocco couldn’t agree more, there was no way this slimy dick would touch his mother. “Nice meeting you,” Rocco replied. He hurried out of the station and saw how many voice messages there were. Ignoring all of them, he called Anna. It rang for a few beats before it cut. He tried again. Cut off. The third time, it went straight to voice mail. “Annie, call me.”
    He rang Beppe. “What the hell, man?”
    “Crazy bitch said you were with her.”
    “What?”
    “Imogen,” Beppe repeated, and Rocco’s heart sank to his toes. Jesus, that girl was mad. She had the weirdest obsession with having anything Anna gave a second look to, and he had been top of the list. Rocco wouldn’t touch her for fear of rabies. “She saw you get arrested and said you two were at your flat banging away all of last night so you couldn’t have been at your dad’s office. Anna called me, so if she doesn’t know now, she will do real soon.”
    “Why the fuck!” Rocco roared.
    “You can sort it out with Anna, later, but you can’t say anything. We can’t say you were with us, because that’ll put you in the shit, and you can’t say Imogen’s lying because that’ll put you back to square one—why the fuck were you at that office? Worst bit is your dad. That floozy he was shagging just showed the police where she got the money from. We didn’t have time to get to the company accounts, coz we didn’t think he was stupid enough to touch company money. He’s done for Rocks.” Rocco lost his stomach. All of that. For what? “Mate, look, it could have been worse. If they found anything of what we got rid of, he’d be in so much shit, nothing could help him. At the most he’ll get a few years, maybe a fine given his age.”
    “He won’t. That cunt of a pig is after him, hardcore. If dad gets away with less than five years, he’ll be lucky.”
    Rocco trod as carefully as if his whole world was laid with broken glass. Norcross stalked him and, worse, stalked Anna outside college for a fortnight to catch Rocco out in a lie. It meant that Rocco could only try to contact Anna at the college in a weak attempt to keep