Page 59 of He's the One

“Remember our trick with lemon juice,” he whispered in Col’s ear.

“I remember everything.” Much of it he wished he could forget.

Chapter Eleven

When Theo saw Col heading for the car, he tossed his book onto the back seat.

“Okay?” Theo asked as Col dropped down beside him.

“Yep. Let’s get going.”

As they pulled out of the car park, Col unzipped his jeans.

“Oh my God,” Theo blurted. “Shall I pull over? I don’t want to crash when you whip out your monster dick. And I would crash because there’s no way I could keep looking at the road… Oh, damn it, you’ve zipped up again. Now I’m disappointed. You’re such a tease. Would it have been worth crashing? I think you should let me be the judge of that.”

Col chuckled. “Dominic passed me a message.” He unfolded a wedge of paper.

“Why did he have to do that? And he pushed it down there? Couldn’t he have just told you?”

“They listen in to every conversation. Dominic took a chance when the guy watching us couldn’t see what he was doing. Whatever he wanted to say won’t be on— Oh!”

Capsules and tablets dropped onto Col’s lap as he unfolded the piece of paper. “Christ!” Col muttered.

“Is your brother supposed to have swallowed those?”

“I’m guessing so.”

Theo hesitated. “Doesn’t he need them?”

“I don’t know the extent to which he needs them. Maybe not as much as they might think, but maybe more thanhethinks. He had a breakdown after he’d killed our parents. Stopped speaking, wouldn’t eat… I wasn’t considered old enough to be told much about what was happening. At first, I thought they were making excuses not to let me see him. They said he was ill and I heard social workers muttering about psychotic episodes… Dominic talking to someone who wasn’t there. Well, it’s hard to believe any normal person could have done what he did, so as much as I want him not to be mentally ill, I think maybe for a time, he was. But hopefully not now.”

“So why is he in Marsden? That’s for the most dangerous prisoners, right? Like Broadmoor and Rampton?”

Col gathered up the tablets and put them in his pocket. “He said he was safer in Marsden than in Oakhurst.”

“You think he’s pretending to be mentally unstable? Wouldn’t they be able to tell?”

“He might think he has no choice.” Col opened up the paper and pressed out the creases on his knee. “Whatever he wants to say to me, it’s hidden. He’s written a message in lemon juice. I need to use an iron to read it. It was something he showed me when we were kids.”

Col’s phone buzzed. “Hi… Yes, just… Okay.…Fine… I’ll ask him.” Col turned to Theo. “My mum wants to know if you’d like to come for dinner tonight?”

“That would be lovely. Thank you.”

“He says yes, that would be lovely unless you’ve made a Victoria sponge.”

“What?” Theo gasped. “I didn’t say that,” he shouted hoping Col’s mother could hear.

Col laughed. “See you later. Shall I reset the satnav?”

“Please. What’s wrong with your mum’s Victoria sponge?”

“Nothing. We tease her.”

“I don’t think my mother has ever baked a cake but teasing her about anything would be unwise. She has no sense of humour at all.”

“Is she happy about anything?” Col entered the details and pressedgo.

Welcome to Belgiumsaid the satnav.

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