A Place Of Safety by Helen Black Page A

one eye and rubbed her brow bone with the fleshy part of her thumb. ‘My head hurts,’ she said.
    Lilly could almost reach out and touch the terrors that had driven Artan to kill but she needed to know what Anna thought of his actions.
    They sat in silence until the doorbell rang.
    Lilly opened the door. Her hair was a crazy mass of curls.
    ‘I come in peace,’ Jack said, pulling a Yorkie from the inside of his jacket.
    She eyed him coolly. ‘Unimpressed.’
    He pulled a Mars Delight from up his sleeve.
    ‘Getting there,’ she said.
    And finally a Toffee Crisp from the back pocket of his Levis.
    She threw her head back and laughed, the sound as welcome to him as spring.
    ‘Come on through, we’re in the kitchen.’
    We? Jack thought. Surely not the ex-husband? Jack knew Lilly liked to keep tight with him for Sam’s sake but the bloke turned up more often than the milkman. Please God, it wasn’t bloody Milo, that would be worse still.
    As he rounded the doorway he realised she meant the girl. God, he was some sort of eejit.
    ‘Hello,’ he said.
    She didn’t answer but got up from the table. ‘I watch TV upstairs.’
    Lilly nodded and they followed her tiny frame with their eyes as she backed out of the room.
    Jack sat down and placed the bars on the table.
    Lilly unwrapped the Yorkie. ‘I know this isn’t ideal, but I had to do it, Jack.’
    ‘Did you?’
    She snapped off a chunk. ‘I didn’t do it to be difficult, to make things hard for you.’
    ‘I know,’ he said. And he did.
    Lilly was many things—impulsive, hot-headed, argumentative—but she never meant to hurt. He smiled, content in the knowledge that she did care for him.
    They sat for a moment, Lilly eating her chocolate, Jack chasing stray grains of salt around the table with his thumb. Now he was here, he didn’t know what to say. Or at least he couldn’t find the words. How do you tell a woman that they make you feel whole? That without them you’d unravel?
    ‘So how did Rupinder react?’ he said.
    ‘I haven’t actually told her.’
    Jack roared with laughter. ‘Jesus, woman. If you thought I was pissed off you ain’t seen nothing yet.’
    Her fingers hovered over the keyboard. Every word seemed wrong. Should she grovel? Not Lilly’s style. Should she resign and hope Rupinder wouldn’t accept it? There was always the chance that she might.
    When Jack had left he’d still been chortling over how Lilly was going to tell her boss that she was babysitting the defendant. Although Lilly had stuck her nose in the air and informed him she’d just give her a call, she hadn’t, of course, actually dared to do it. An hour later she deleted the sixth email she’d drafted.
    ‘There is problem?’
    Lilly looked up at Anna.
    ‘You make serious face,’ she said, and screwed up her nose, which made Lilly laugh.
    ‘I don’t even know where to start,’ Lilly said, and closed the lid of her laptop. She watched Anna fill the kettle with water and sighed. ‘What I don’t understand,’ she said, ‘is why you had a gun.’
    Anna pressed the switch with a long, pale finger.
    Lilly pressed on. ‘I understand that Artan was disturbed. He’d been through too much and one day he cracked.’
    Anna took two cups from the cupboard, her hands trembling.
    ‘He told me that those boys had hurt you,’ said Lilly.
    Anna placed the cups on the counter.
    ‘Did he kill that boy because he raped you?’ asked Lilly. ‘Was it revenge?’
    Anna tilted the kettle, steam escaping from the spout.
    ‘To be honest, I suspected he might do something,’ said Lilly. ‘But I never dreamt he’d involve you.’
    The kettle slipped from Anna’s hand and crashed onto the work surface. Hot, angry water splashed towards her. She screamed and jumped away, holding her hands in the air.
    ‘Lilly jumped to her feet. Are you hurt?’
    Anna didn’t speak but kept her hands in the air.
    ‘Did you burn yourself?’ Lilly asked. ‘Anna, are you okay?’
    The girl’s