Next of Kin by Sue Welfare

there, don’t you?’
    ‘How else could it have got there?’
    ‘I don’t know, and if I’d stolen it why did I hide it? Why didn’t I sell it or pawn it. Why hide it, Sarah? It makes no sense. Have you talked to Woody about it?’
    ‘Woody?’ said Sarah.
    ‘Yeah. I’m assuming this is Anna’s stuff that got stolen. I wasn’t the only one in the house that night, you know. Have you asked him what he knows about it? What he was doing? Did you get around to accusing him?’
    Sarah stared at him; the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. ‘No of course not.’
    ‘Why not?’ Ryan snapped.
    ‘You mean Woody, the man who you’re always telling me is minted, who you’re always borrowing money off? Why would he steal someone else’s money and jewellery? Tell me that? You told me yourself he’s as sound as a pound.’
    Ryan ran his hands back through his hair and then gestured towards the jewellery. ‘It wasn’t me, all right? You have to believe me. I don’t know anything about this stuff or how it got in the shed. I really don’t, Sarah. Someone else must have been here. And I’m serious about Woody, what if he is having people round when we’re out, you never know.’ Ryan was gabbling now, looking for another way out.
    Sarah nodded. ‘You’re right. I will ask him. I’m going to take the things round to Anna’s tomorrow.’
    ‘And say what?’ Sarah could see she had his full attention.
    ‘That I found it in the garden. Ryan.’ She paused. ‘But this is the last time I’m going to lie for you. I can’t cover up for you if you break the law, do you understand? This has got to stop. I don’t care what you tell me. You need to turn your life around, get a grip – sort it out, before it’s too late.’
    He slammed his fist down on the table, the shock of the blow making Sarah jump as cups and bottles tumbled over, a glass crashing to the floor. And then he looked up at Sarah, his face a mask. ‘For god’s sake, I already told you that I didn’t do it, didn’t I? What does it take to make you believe me? Some of this is Mum’s stuff. I just said I wouldn’t take Mum’s stuff, surely you ought to know that?’
    Sarah said nothing. She wanted to believe him but the problem was that Ryan lied to her all the time. She gathered the jewellery back up into the tee shirt and rolled it up; the truth was, however much he protested, however much she hated it, Sarah didn’t believe a word he had said.
    ‘I promise you it wasn’t me,’ Ryan said as she was leaving. ‘I’ll show you. I will.’
    Sarah nodded and went back upstairs. She had heard it all before.
     
     
    Sarah
    ‘You say that you’d heard it all before, Sarah? What do you mean?’
    ‘When Ryan was, I don’t know, nine maybe, he got caught shoplifting in the local newsagents. Mr Patel, the man who owned the shop, rang my mum up. He knew my dad was sick and he didn’t want to involve the police if possible or upset my mum any more than necessary. At the time I think we were all stunned, but it kind of made sense of lots of things that had been happening at home at around the same time, money had been going missing, my pens and things, some of my mum’s oddments – just knick-knacks mostly, ornaments, costume jewellery. The thing was that Dad was really ill and it was only a matter of time. Maybe by then he’d just got a couple of months left, I can’t remember exactly, but I remember he was at home, downstairs in the front room of our old house, and there was Mum nursing him, up all hours of the night, sorting every out, trying to keep it all together. Mr Patel didn’t press charges because he knew Mum and Dad. Mum said she thought it was Ryan’s way of dealing with the stress. His reaction to Dad being ill and the centre of attention; and that he was attention seeking, finding a way to make people take notice of him.’
    ‘It was a long time ago.’
    ‘But it wasn’t the only time. When Mum was first diagnosed with cancer,