Mel Sherratt - Hush Hush

He cursed himself. What was he thinking? Josh was his friend. Business didn’t matter at the moment, apart from keeping everything under wraps. He wiggled the mouse so the computer woke up again. The Facebook page for the gym had been alight with comments once news had begun to spread. Josh had been well liked, a brilliant instructor and motivator, as well as a valued member of staff. Eddie hadn’t even begun to think of what he was going to do without him. It was too painful to contemplate.

He couldn’t trust anyone the way he’d trusted Josh. He was the only one who knew what George had been like to live with. Eddie had put his trust in Josh and, to his knowledge, his friend had told no one what had been going on in the Steele house. Their bond had strengthened because of this.

And now he was left with an empty space to fill, in more ways than one. With Josh out of the equation, he knew that Leon would want to step up into his place. It wasn’t possible; his brother was too hot-headed, and Eddie knew it was going to cause friction between them, but tough, he was used to it. Brother versus brother had been the norm since they were young, and their earlier years of hell would always be something that stayed between him and Leon.

Eddie scrolled through the messages that were still coming in. As well as his right-hand man, Josh had been a joker. Many would remember him for his sense of humour and his ability to play really silly practical jokes. Josh hadn’t minded if anyone wanted to get him back either. He had always been game for a laugh.

He was also pretty big on YouTube, having his own channel and promoting Steele’s Gym with his charisma as much as his advice. Eddie pressed on a video clip now, tears of anger welling in his eyes as he listened to Josh’s voice. Seeing him racing around the screen as he threw right hooks at a punchbag, it was hard to think that he was dead.

He took another sip of whisky and gazed through the office window into the empty gym behind it. Rows and rows of exercise machines stood as if on duty. Not a murmur could be heard except from the hum of the drinks machine. The emergency lights were on, giving the whole place an eerie glow.

A noise startled him. He turned, standing quickly. It sounded like a door closing, but he knew he was in the building alone. He reached for the baseball bat he kept by the side of his desk and went out into the corridor. Stepping slowly along it, he made his way into the gym, glancing around in every corner.

After a few minutes, he realised it was nothing. There had been no door closing. It was probably the heating clicking on or something stupid like that, something that shouldn’t have been enough to spook him.

Eddie went back to his office. There was crime scene tape across the side of the car park with no access, but was he risking it sitting here on his own? Was he next? Or had Josh’s murder been a one-off? He thought of all his rivals. He had as many as Josh. Was it someone with a grievance?

Tomorrow he would start getting word out to see. Once the police were gone, he would be doing some investigating of his own. He was going to root out the bastard who had done that to his friend. He would cut his eyes out. He would burn him too. And there would probably be someone behind the person who had carried out the attack, paying them to do their dirty work. He was going to find out who was at the top of the tree.

One last mouthful and, with the drink gone, he threw the glass at the wall, taking great delight in the noise and the mess that it made. It was better than using his fists, which was what his father would have done.

Sleep was the last thing on Grace’s mind as she arrived home just before midnight. She was famished, having only had time to eat a sandwich and the doughnuts throughout the day. She popped two slices of bread into the toaster and flicked on the kettle.

Well, the day hadn’t gone as she had planned but she certainly hadn’t thought of the date much. It hadn’t even had time to infiltrate her thoughts. Meeting her half-siblings in that manner had been immensely awkward. She suspected Eddie and Leon were going to be trouble and go out of their way to stall things. Or maybe they would surprise her and work with her to solve the murder, and simply want to get the police off their backs as quick as possible. It seemed that had been the case after the murder of George Steele had gone unsolved. She would have expected them to be coming in for weekly updates until the suspect had been caught.

Still, it must have been a shock to find someone dead on their premises. And such a high-profile person too. Parker shared tips on personal training and had quite a large following on social media. His murder might not only affect the club revenue; the funeral would be huge and the attention brought to the gym would be massive. She could bet Eddie wouldn’t like that.

She thought Leon, on the other hand, would lap it up. He seemed sharp, untouchable and a little ruthless. He tried to act as if he cared about Josh, but she could see it wasn’t sincere. Whereas Jade, she thought, seemed to be the only one with real tears. Whether that was because she was not as insensitive as her brothers remained to be seen.

Perry had been pissy again today. She’d thought she was getting through to him, that he might ease off with the catty remarks and the undermining comments. She knew he missed working with Allie because he mentioned her all the time. Allie did this and Allie did that . Grace had to bite her tongue on several occasions.

She also knew he wanted to be in control, but she’d got the job, not him. She’d give him a few more days and if he hadn’t changed his attitude she would have to talk to him about it. It wasn’t something she would look forward to but she had to start as she meant to go on.

The toast popped up, burnt around the edges and hardly touched in the middle, but she slathered it with butter all the same. Coffee made, she went through to the living room and sank into a deep orange armchair. It had been Matt’s favourite chair, so she hadn’t been able to part with it; instead, she’d bought a clashing bright blue leather sofa to fit alongside it perfectly. Even though she had never really felt settled here on her own, the house had such a homely feel to it without her even trying. She’d only had to add dashes of colour to help, alongside cream painted walls and light wooden flooring.

She flicked on the television. Their investigation might get a small mention on Sky News. It would gather momentum soon, because of who their victim was.

She sat back and thought of the day. Although she would never admit it to anyone, when she’d met her half-siblings she wished she could have spoken more with them, to see what it had been like for them as children. Of course she would never share what had happened to her in great detail, but she would always wonder if it had happened to them too. Or had it stopped with her and her mum?

The news clip she was waiting for came on and she turned up the volume. She had seen it earlier, but it was always something she liked to keep abreast of as fresh clips came through. Flowers had started to appear along the perimeter railings of the gym when people started to hear the news, but since the press release had gone out, people had turned up in their droves. Now alongside them were teddy bears, cards, candles. A football strip from both of the city’s football teams, which she bet didn’t happen very often. In a weird way, the outpouring of grief for Parker had been good to see. A lot of murder victims went unnoticed.

Yet she’d heard a few rumours today of Josh’s habit for hard knocks and doing whatever it took to get what he wanted. Perhaps they would find some good leads because of who he was. He must have had lots of loyal fans as well as enemies. Although his face was now damaged beyond recognition, he’d been exceptionally good-looking from what she had seen of his images everywhere, and he was a powerhouse of muscle underneath his clothes. She knew how many hours’ training that would have taken and, even though it sounded strange, it was a shame to see all that hard work go to waste.