He laughed, called her a silly bunny.
‘Is that what you really think?’
‘I know this isn’t my earring.’
The heat receded as I put it together.
‘It’s a present for Mum, right? Since you didn’t get us that puppy.’
‘I had a slightly different gift in mind for your mother,’ he said with a flirty look thrown her way, and not returned. ‘Talking of presents. . .’ He rummaged in a sports bag, pulled out a Rubik’s Cube. ‘Catch.’
He chucked it at me before I could react, hit me smack in the face.
‘Sorry, pumpkin. You all right?’
My eye was throbbing but I told him, yes I was fine.
‘Sure? It looks red.’
‘It’s not like you did it on purpose.’
‘I’m still waiting to hear where that earring came from,’ my mother interrupted, voice hammer hard.
‘My ma’s place. Same as the leash.’
‘A lot of things of hers seem to have walked into your suitcase. Have you even been in Ireland?’
‘Of course I’ve been in Ireland.’
‘With no working phone and an apartment here full of champagne bottles.’
‘I like to treat myself. You got a problem with that, Amelia-Rose?’
Her shoulders slumped. She took a step towards him, palms open.
‘Just tell me the truth, Matty.’
‘That is the truth.’
‘You really expect me to believe you’ve been drinking champagne by yourself and accidentally put your mother’s earring in your luggage?’
‘I don’t expect you to believe anything. Though I do wonder, why are you here given you clearly have such a low opinion of me.’
‘He was so resentful,’ she told me years later, ‘I almost bought it.’
Matty Melgren is INNOCENT!!
Need convincing? Get this—
Before his arrest, Melgren helped police close in on Clarence Walsh, the Night Strangler who had previously used Matty’s services as a bereavement counsellor following the sudden death of his daughter, Deirdre, in a fire at their home.
Even more interesting, the two men were looking for work in Boston, MA at the same time in the 70s before coming to London in the 1980s. Though it’s not known whether their paths ever crossed there.
What is known is that Walsh had a fixation about feet– just like the Shadow.
Proof that the police got the wrong guy? That maybe he was framed?
It’s definitely possible. . .