Blood Never Dies Read Online Free PDF Page A

right,’ Tash defended him. ‘It’s a bit sad, really. He loves them kids.’
    ‘Then above us there’s Nicky and Graham.’
    ‘They’re gay. Nicky’s a barman down Notting Hill. I dunno what Gray does.’
    ‘I don’t think he does work,’ Mish said. ‘He’s a lot older than Nicky. I don’t think he’s
very well
.’ She gave Slider a significant look. ‘They been here, what, eight, nine months. And opposite them there’s the two Pakistani boys, been here a few weeks.’ Another look. ‘I don’t know what they do. I wouldn’t ask.’
    ‘You could ask Milan,’ Natasha said, ‘but he wouldn’t tell you.’
    ‘He may have to tell us things,’ Slider said. ‘I doubt very much that he’s up to date with his tax and VAT.’
    ‘VAT!’ Michelle said derisively.
    ‘And there’s the matter of fire regs,’ Slider went on smoothly. ‘I didn’t see one single fire door in the whole house.
    Now they looked alarmed. ‘’Ere, you’re not going to make trouble and get us chucked out, are you?’ Mish cried. ‘After I made you the good coffee and everything. I thought you was our friend.’
    ‘It won’t come to that,’ Slider said. ‘The threat will be enough.’
    ‘Depends,’ Mish said thoughtfully. ‘I mean, he’s owned this house – what? – two years, and he’s been down here for a drink and a chat a few times, but
I
don’t know what he’s mixed up in. I don’t reckon much of it’s stuff he’d want to talk about.’
    ‘Well, I don’t want to either. That’s not what I’m interested in. I want to know about Robin Williams.’
    Mish narrowed her eyes. ‘Which means you don’t think it was suicide, or you’d—’ She stopped as though her switch had been thrown, staring at the wall. ‘I saw somebody,’ she said at last, starting up again. ‘I was seeing one of my customers out – must’ve been, oh, two o’clock this morning, round about then. Sunday’s a big night – lot o’ blokes like poor old Ronnie upstairs get very lonely of a Sunday. Anyway, I was knackered, and this was my last. I came out to the door with him, and he went up our steps, you know, up out the area, and when he’d gone I just stood there a bit, gettin’ a bit of fresh, and I see someone come down the steps from the street door and cross the pavement to a car parked there.’ She scanned Slider’s face for reaction, and asked, ‘Could that be something?’
    ‘Why didn’t you mention it right away?’ he asked.
    ‘Well, I never really thought about it. I mean, you don’t, do you? People are coming and going all the time. But whoever it was, they were carrying a black plastic sack full of something.’
    ‘Did you get a look at them? Was it a man or a woman?’
    She frowned in thought. ‘Hard to say. I
thought
it was a man – well, I thought it was one of the Paki boys, to be honest, cause it was about their size – like, slim and not very tall – but I s’pose it could have been a woman.’
    ‘It wasn’t Botev, then?’
    ‘No, I’d know
his
shape anywhere. This person was wearing kind of dark pants and top, and a beanie so I couldn’t see any hair, so it could have been a woman. But I just sort of thought it was a man. He opened the back door of the car and threw the sack in, and that’s all I saw, because I went back inside then. But I suppose he must have driven away, because the car’s not there now.’
    ‘I suppose you didn’t see the reg number?’ Slider asked without hope.
    ‘I wasn’t really looking,’ Mish said apologetically.
    ‘Bloody hell, Michelle,’ Tash exploded, ‘you seen all that and you didn’t say. Why didn’t you call me out to have a look?’
    ‘Because you were busy, and I didn’t know it was important,’ Mish said exasperatedly. ‘Haven’t you been listening? I said, I wasn’t really taking any notice.’
    ‘Can you say what sort of car it was?’ Slider cut across the budding argument.
    ‘I dunno. I think it was black. And it had four