Page 14 of The Bad Girl and the Baby

“You’re talking about Darcy Butler? Christ, Steven hated that woman. And not without good reason—she broke his arm. He said she’d humiliated him, swore he would get his own back, and I suppose he did. She spent time for that.”

“She just gave me a file. It says Steven was drunk at the time of the crash. That he had numerous disciplinary actions against him. I need to know if it’s true.”

The man was silent for a moment. “Look, what can I say? He was my partner, but he had issues, and when he drank, he was a downright mean bastard.”

“So the file is true?”

“I’m guessing so. I’m sorry. A lot of us thought the Butler woman got a rough deal, but the force looks after its own, and Steven’s wife backed him up.”

“Thank you.” He ended the call and sat staring at the phone. He could contact the coroner’s office and check the report, but he knew what he would hear.

How could he not have known this?

He tried to remember his brother as a kid. Had there been anything then? He’d had to stop him a couple of times from bullying some younger boy who lived down the road, but that was normal, wasn’t it? Just boys being boys. And Steven had always had a temper. But the truth was, Matt had distanced himself from his family as soon as he was old enough. He’d loved his parents, but they’d driven him crazy. They’d split up and gotten back together five times before he was seventeen. The emigration to Australia had been after the last reconciliation, when they’d decided a total change of scene might keep them together, and be exciting. They hadn’t been back to the UK since, and Matt had seen them four times in those years. He had a ten-year-old sister, Hannah, who he hardly knew, born in Australia. He talked to them regularly—he found them easier to like at a distance. But then his mother had always said she was sure he’d been swapped in the hospital at birth. She could never have produced such an organized child.

Had they known any of this? He stared at his phone. Should he?

He’d gone into combat and not felt as terrified as he was now. It would be early evening over there, so his mother would still be awake. Finally, he hit the number and waited as the connection was made.

His mother answered straight away. “Sweetheart, how are you? Is anything wrong? Is Lulu okay?”

“Lulu is fine,” he answered. “I just had something I needed to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

Christ, how was he to put this? Maybe he should have thought it through a bit more before he’d called. But it was too late now. “Did Steven have any…history of violence?”

She was quiet for what seemed like an age.

“Mom?”

“Why are you asking now?”

“Someone gave me a report stating that Steven had been drunk at the time of the crash. Other stuff as well. Disciplinary actions at his work.”

“Who? Why now?”

“Emma’s sister. She wants to see Lulu. I’d refused—Steven said she was violent, unstable. I’m beginning to believe he lied.”

“We never heard anything. We thought everything was fine.”

Something in her voice caused his suspicions to stir, churning in his stomach. “But you expected to hear something?”

“Steven was in some trouble before he left here. A fight. He nearly killed a man. We managed to settle out of court, but the arrest was on his record. They turned him down for the police academy here. You remember—he always wanted to be a detective, even when he was a little boy. That was why he returned to the UK. Everything seemed to be going so well.”

“And out of sight, out of mind.”

“That’s not very kind, darling.”

No, it wasn’t, but he wasn’t feeling very kind. How the hell had he not known this? But he was as much to blame. He’d made no effort to get close to Steven since he’d returned to the UK. Had he somehow sensed his brother’s innate violence and steered away? If he had made that effort, would Emma be alive now? Could he have stopped Steven? He knew the idea would haunt him.

“When he married Emma, we thought he’d calmed down. Found what he wanted in life.”

“Emma’s sister claims he was”—he could hardly get the word out—“abusive.”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry. The poor girl. She always seemed like such a sweetheart.”

“And Steven as good as killed her. He was drunk. Lulu was in the car with them. She’s lucky to be alive.”

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