Cold Blood by Jane Heafield (great books to read txt) 📕

his wallet with a scary skill. The detective in him assumed something more sinister than a kid needing money for sweets, so he said nothing and pretended to sleep. Wallet in hand, Joe crept out and back upstairs. Bennet checked his phone and saw it was just past midnight.

He gave it a minute, then did his own creeping. Liam’s bedroom door was ajar, so he put an eye to the crack. The room was dark except for the light from a laptop screen on Joe’s lap. He was sitting in bed with his back to the door, and his dad’s debit card was in his hand. Bennet pushed the door open slowly and stepped inside so he could get a better look at the screen. Again, his detective suspicion told him this wasn’t a kid sneakily trying to buy the new UFC game on Xbox that he’d been begging his dad to buy for a week now. And he was right.

The website was called XODeepRichessOX.net, but it wasn’t an online store. According to the tag line, it was a forum for people eager to make money on the dark web. The dark web? That was a portion of the World Wide Web hidden from the normal internet-surfacing community, using encrypted data accessible only through certain browsers. You didn’t get there riding Google. Some of it was legitimate, hosting intranet systems such as those of the military and big businesses, but it was also a territory of criminals. He didn’t know much about the dark web, but he was damned certain a ten-year-old boy shouldn’t be crawling about down there.

There was a chat screen open. Joe – username GuestLBoe – was conversing with someone called KingHack555. He saw a mention of the Department for Work and Pensions.

A hacker on the screen and a bank card in Joe’s hand? Bennet snatched the laptop away.

Horrified, Joe almost jumped out of his skin. But he said nothing as his dad scrolled through the conversation. Joe and KingHack555 had been talking for three days, with all entries taking place at night. At night for Joe, that was. Who knew what time it was in whatever country this bastard was plying his scam from. Bennet typed MY DAD IS A COPPER AND YOU’RE IN TROUBLE NOW, closed the chat box, exited the forum, and shut the laptop.

‘Joe, what are you doing?’

‘You won’t find her, that’s why I did it,’ Joe snapped, his face now one of anger instead of fear and embarrassment.

Liam had hoped he was wrong, but now couldn’t shut his eyes on the truth. ‘You wanted to pay a hacker to find your mother? Joe, you can’t trust people like this.’

‘So who do I trust? The police, like you? Oh, sure, you can find her, but you won’t, will you? So I had to do it this way.’

Bennet’s heart went out to the boy. Ten years old, and smart enough to sink into the dark web and find someone who could sneak into government computers for information. It also showed his level of desire and reminded Liam that Joe wouldn’t have had to employ such drastic measures to find his mother if his father hadn’t been such a barrier.

‘Joe, I think–’

‘Why won’t you, Dad? Why won’t you use your police people to contact her?’

He wasn’t even sure, not fully. But he gave Joe a reason that was easy to admit: ‘It’s against the law, Joe. Police resources aren’t for personal use.’

Crying, Joe flung himself back onto his pillow in outrage, and nearly cracked his skull against the headboard. The smart, mature kid was once again just that – a kid. ‘But it’s my mum. I don’t remember her.’

‘Joe, I–’

Joe told him to go away, then turned over and buried his face in the pillow, even pressing its edges over his ears. Liam didn’t want to leave him upset, but this wasn’t a conversation for past midnight. He left, but halfway down the stairs felt guilt become a heavy ball in his gut. Back he went.

‘I know where she is, Joe.’

Joe sat up. ‘How? When? Where is she?’

The ‘when’ wasn’t going to be part of this: I’ve known since the year she left was an answer that might put an eternal wedge between father and son. ‘She’s living in Birmingham. It’s about a hundred miles away. I found her using the electoral register and Facebook. Her surname’s Cross now. Lorraine Cross. That’s why you couldn’t find her. But I did.’

‘Not Taylor? She changed her name? Was that so I couldn’t find her?’

‘No, no, it’s not because of you. I… I don’t know why she changed it.’

Joe knew Mum and Dad had never married, hence why she’d never been a Bennet. Thankfully, he failed to consider marriage as a reason for the surname Cross. The lie had felt like chewing broken glass, but Liam wasn’t yet ready to broach this subject. Once he did, he would have to go all the way. And he might just tear his little boy’s heart in two. A marriage wasn’t the end of it.

‘Have you talked to her?’ Joe asked. He seemed almost high on fabulous news.

‘Sort of. She left me a message. She says she wants to talk to me.’

‘Just to you?’

He gave his next claim careful thought. ‘Well, it might be about you. I think she might be ready to meet you again.’

‘Can I have her number? Can I hear the message?’

Joe had never heard his mother’s voice. For the second time, he opted to lie to his flesh and blood rather than risk scorn: ‘It got automatically deleted. And it was a withheld number. But you’ll talk to her soon. When I talk to her tomorrow, we might be ready to arrange a meeting. So you can meet your mum.’

‘And go out with her?’

He had to be careful not to go too far with this, before he knew the whole story. He still wasn’t certain what Lorraine wanted to talk to him about. ‘Maybe. We’ll work it