Gridlock: A Ryan Lock Novel by Sean Black Page A

right there. Man’s got to make a living.’
    Lock looked back at Raven, who had stumbled from the Range Rover, her face pale and drawn after this latest ordeal. ‘It’s going to be even harder making a living if I break both your legs.’

10
     
    The almond-shaped eyes were the giveaway, the skin folded over so that it almost entirely obscured the inner corners. Set in an overly rounded face, above a slightly protruding tongue, the eyes told the story of Raven’s unwillingness to leave the country, and therefore her need for the services of someone like Lock. Her brother, Kevin, had Down’s syndrome.
    Kevin and Raven hugged, the warmth of their relationship evident for all to see.
    ‘Did you and Wendy have fun?’ Raven asked her brother. Lock noticed a slight tremor in her voice. The strain of recent events was catching up with her.
    ‘Yeah. We watched a movie,’ Kevin said.
    As he broke away from his sister, Kevin stared at Lock for a long second, almost as if he were waiting for the flicker of pity in his eyes. Lock wondered what it was like going through life where the first reaction people had to you was pity or shock or, in some cases, discomfort. In that single split second before they drew the curtain of politeness over their initial reaction there must have been a thousand tiny wounds.
    Brought up to treat everyone the same, he smiled and put out his hand. ‘Kevin, I’m Ryan Lock. I’m a friend of your sister.’
    A single crease etched across Kevin’s palm confirmed, if any were needed, his condition. It also confirmed Lock’s feeling that he’d been correct in accepting this assignment. Protecting the vulnerable was what he did best. And, however you cut it, and whatever politically correct platitudes society offered, Kevin was more vulnerable than most seventeen-year-old boys.
    Behind Kevin stood a girl around the same age, with the same physical characteristics. ‘I’m Kevin.’ He thumbed over his shoulder at the girl. ‘This is Wendy. We’re getting married when she’s eighteen.’
    Behind Lock, Raven and Wendy’s mother raised their eyebrows simultaneously. Clearly, thought Lock, this was not news.
    ‘Kev, can you get your stuff together?’ Raven prompted.
    Wendy’s mother, a woman in her early fifties with short-cropped blonde hair, smiled at them both. ‘They have separate rooms when Kev sleeps over.’
    ‘Mom!’ Wendy protested, her face turning red: Miss Teen Drama 2011.
    ‘Thanks for taking him,’ Raven said.
    ‘It’s not a problem. But I do kind of need to talk to you in private,’ Wendy’s mother said.
    Raven turned to her brother. ‘Kev, what did I ask you to do?’
    Kevin grabbed Wendy’s hand and pulled her out of the room and up the stairs. She giggled at this show of possessiveness as Raven rolled her eyes, more mother herself than older sister.
    Lock sensed that this was a conversation the two women would want to have to themselves. ‘I’ll go make sure he behaves himself.’
    ‘Thanks,’ Raven said, with an awkward smile. Lock trooped up the stairs following the sounds of Kevin’s bravado all the way into a small spare bedroom where he was busy jamming his clothes into a rucksack.
    Downstairs, he could hear snatches of conversation. Wendy’s mother seemed to be doing most of the talking.
    ‘ I think it might be best. ’
    ‘ At least until all this blows over. ’
    ‘ You know how fond we are of Kevin. ’
    ‘ It’s nothing personal .’
    It had started already. The gradual isolation of Raven and her brother. No matter how nice someone was, how kind, how understanding or empathetic, no one wanted themselves or their child drawn into even the furthest orbit of the psychopath who had dumped Cindy Canyon’s body in the back of Raven’s car. Raven’s stalker – assuming they were one and the same as Cindy’s killer – had chalked up another victory.
    Lock had seen it before with stalking cases: the slow and steady isolation of the victim. Human