The Border Part Three Read online

  “Son?” Harry said after a moment. “You coming to the hardware store with me?”

  Slowly, Ben turned to face his father.

  “Now come on,” Harry continued with a smile and a sigh. “Let’s not have any silliness. It was good to come down here and straighten things out.” Reaching out, he tried to put a hand on Ben’s shoulder, but the boy instinctively pulled away. “Ben, you’ve got to understand -”

  “I understand,” Ben replied, his voice trembling with shock.

  “I didn’t bring you down here to embarrass or humiliate you. Alex just -”

  “You called Alex. He told me. You called him and told him I’d dyed my hair, and that I matched the description of the killer.”

  “Hang on, that’s not what happened -”

  “He told me,” Ben said firmly. There were tears in his eyes, but that’s where they stayed: in his eyes, not rolling down his cheeks. He refused to let them do that, even though he was filling with a slow, quaking rage at the thought that a member of his own family had begun to suspect him.

  “Are you going to be a child about this?” Harry asked, still forcing a smile. “Come on, it’s over now, let’s go to the hardware store and the electrical place and then we can get home and you can play those video games or whatever the hell else it is that you like wasting your time on.” Still smiling, he stepped past Ben before stopping and turning back to him. “And let’s not tell your mother about this, or Jack or Beth. Come on, let’s be grown-up, let’s be men. We did what we had to do. That’s what a man is, you know.”

  Ben stared at him for a moment. “You thought I killed those women,” he whispered finally.

  “Oh, come on -”

  “You thought I killed those women,” he said again, taking a step back. “You read what happened to them and you thought that’s something I could do to another human being. You looked at me and you thought it’s something I’d be capable of.”

  “Quit with the sanctimonious crap,” Harry replied with a grin. “I was just helping you out, is all.”

  “He strangled them.”

  “Well, garrotted, but -”

  “And he cut them up,” Ben continued, “and did things to them after they were dead. Things that are so bad, they won’t even describe them in the paper. Even Alex just now wouldn’t tell me all the details! It’s like he thinks I’m too young to be told, even though I’m not too young for him to suspect me!”

  “Son, let’s not -”

  “And you thought that might have been me?”

  “It was really the hair -”

  Without letting him finish, Ben turned to walk away.

  “Hey!” Harry called after him, grabbing his shoulder, “don’t you turn your back on me when I’m -”

  Before he could get another word out, Ben swung around and clenched his fist, poised to punch the old man and knock him out. He came close, so close, before slowly unclenching the fist and turning away. Without looking back, he hurried across the road and then down an alley that ran by the side of the bank. Desperate to get away, desperate to avoid people staring at him, he began to run until finally he got to the yard behind the bar, and he crouched down behind one of the bins with his head in his hands. Tears ran down his face and he felt as if his skull was about to explode with rage. He was already regretting the fact that he hadn’t punched his father clean to the ground.

  NEXT

  The Border

  Part Four

  Ben makes a new friend who desperately needs help, but he’s quickly warned to keep away. Meanwhile, Jane faces a tough decision and tries to distract herself, while more and more people start to experience visits from Caitlin Somers. Are they all imagining things, or is something dark and unusual starting to stir in Bowley?

  Available now to pre-order. Release date: July 23rd 2015

  The Border

  Part Five

  Tension is running high in Bowley. Jane is convinced that the killer is about to strike again, and a newly-discovered diagram seems to indicate the precise moment when it will happen. Unfortunately, she has no idea where to look, or who will be the next victim. Meanwhile, Beth realizes she’s gone too far to turn back, Bob is offered an opportunity to escape, and Katie is offered the chance to go through another of The Border’s doors.

  Available soon to pre-order. Release date: August 6th 2015

  OTHER BOOKS

  BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE

  Horror

  3AM

  The Farm

  The Scream

  Tenderling

  The Girl Clay

  The Haunting of Emily Stone

  The Prison

  Asylum

  American Coven

  The Night Girl

  Devil’s Briar

  Ward Z

  Ward Z: Revelation

  The Devil’s Photographer

  Fantasy / Horror

  Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3

  The Hollow Church (Abby Hart 1)

  Vampire Asylum (Abby Hart 2)

  Dead Souls volumes 1, 2 & 3

  Lupine Howl series 1 to 4

  Grave Girl

  Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)

  Ghosts

  The Library

  Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)

  The Ghosts of London

  Archangel (The Ghosts of London 2)

  Thriller

  Ophelia

  The Dead City (Ophelia 2)

  Fallen Heroes (Ophelia 3)

  The Girl Who Never Came Back

  The Dead and the Dying (Joanna Mason 1)

  The House of Broken Backs (Joanna Mason 2)

  The Pornographer’s Wife

  Other People’s Bodies

  Dystopia / Science Fiction

  The Shades

  Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Epilogue