The Golden Locket (Unbreakable Trilogy, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

silence.
    ‘Shame on you both! You’re acting like a pair of common cage fighters. You are
brothers
!’
    ‘So?’ growled Pierre, bouncing slightly on his feet. ‘Ever heard of Cain and Abel?’
    Polly’s face said it all. She’d never seen this aggression in her suave boyfriend before.
    And what it showed me was that mirror image again, distorted. Pierre was a version of Gustav that was younger, stronger, angrier and resolved to see the bad in people. The version I never thought I would meet.
    Crystal stood her ground. ‘You first, Pierre. I’m ashamed of you, speaking this way. What has Margot done to that lovely polite boy?’
    Pierre jabbed his finger rudely at her. ‘Ah, dear faithful Crystal. You always did worship the ground Gustav walked on.’
    ‘And so did you, Pierre Levi. Stamp and curse all you like, but you idolised him. Deep down, you still do.’ Crystal seemed to be rising off the floor with the towering force of her presence. ‘I’m not scared of you. Either of you. It’s time this was out in the open. I was there that night, remember? I know exactly what happened. I didn’t know about any phone call, but I still know who is right, and who is wrong. And I’m telling you, the person we should all be afraid of is Margot Levi.’
    Crystal was magnificent. She was taller than ever, floating round the room, her arm up like Boadicea, a prophetess railing against the gods as we all waited for what she would say next.
    ‘She’s like a bad smell lingering under the floorboards. Still winning. Still wreaking havoc in this very room! She’s the reason you boys are enemies, and if it all hinges on one missed phone call it can surely be resolved. You’ve never had a chance to explain what you were really trying to do that night, Gustav. Now’s your chance. And then perhaps Pierre can man up and confess while he’s here that not only should he not have been so ready to run off with his sister-in-law, it was he, not one of Margot’s cronies as you suspected, who broke into your safe.’
    Crystal was like the umpire in a boxing ring. The two men stared at her.
    ‘It was you who took our parents’ jewellery? His watch, her rings?’ Gustav’s voice was hoarse. His face furrowed into grooves of dismay. ‘But it was all we had left!’
    ‘And it was mine to take, just as much as it was yours. Margot picked the lock for me. When you chucked us out she said we’d need the jewellery to sell.’ Pierre turned, walked over to the window and pressed his hands against the cold glass sprinkled with snow. ‘See how upset he gets over a stash of trinkets. Metal and gems. Not flesh and blood. In the end we’re all just trinkets to you.’
    Another long silence dropped over us. The gallery was empty and cold. Lurking awkwardly round us were the humped shapes of the new sculpture exhibition waiting to be mounted, the pieces still shrouded in plastic body bags like mortuary victims.
    And that portrait of me, the only one still hanging.
    When I took that picture in a grimy station mirror back in October all I hoped was that the future would be a damn sight better than the first twenty years of my life.
    I kept my arm around Polly, but really I wanted to be close to Gustav. I was frightened of the bleak distance in his eyes, the bristle in his stance. The only thread joining Gustav to anyone at this moment was the thin trail of gunpowder stretching between him and his brother.
    The snow was faltering, the flakes still thick and fat but sporadic now. Somewhere out there across the river the Eye was turning, its lit-up pods of sightseers unaware of the drama unfolding in here.
    Crystal started to back out of the room, towards the lift. ‘Gustav. Pierre. Lose your pride.’
    Don’t go, Crystal, I begged her silently. We need you here.
    Pierre thrust his hands into his pockets. His shoulders drooped slightly. Polly and I were still holding our breath.
    ‘I took some precious jewellery from a man who already had