Crow Bait Read Online Free PDF

time. She didn’t work the streets now, but she still had contacts among the working girls so he used her whenever he could. Naturally, there were no more freebies. The virus put paid to all that. But there was another reason that he kept coming back. He actually liked her.
    ‘It’s no free, Mary,’ he said as he began to put the food away in cupboards. He knew where everything went. He’d done it often enough. Even so, he didn’t like the cow-like way she looked at him now. He brought her food whenever he could, but it was just to keep her as healthy as possible for as long as possible. She still looked okay, thinner certainly, and she still dyed her hair a deep auburn, but he knew she was dying by inches. She’ll peg out sooner or later , he told himself, but until then I’ll use her. He may have liked her, but Jimmy Knight didn’t do sentiment. He planned to have that put on his tombstone.
    ‘What have you got for me?’
    He’d asked her earlier to listen to the jungle drums about the Virginia McTaggart murder. Her face turned solemn. Without her make-up, and thin as she was now, he could see the scars of teenage acne clearly. That’s what had given her the street name of Plooky Mary. She was the neds’ favourite tart and that had made her invaluable to Knight over the years. It was amazing what a ned will say when he’s doing the business.
    ‘Ginny was a poor soul. A nice lassie, didn’t deserve that.’
    ‘She didn’t live out Springburn way, did she?’
    ‘No, she dossed up Maryhill Road. Lived with another girl, Patsy something or other, cannae mind.’
    Knight nodded. He knew the Baird Street team had already found her address and spoken to her flatmate, another tart. She knew nothing, it seemed. ‘Did she have any regulars?’ 
    ‘Christ, Mister Knight, we’ve all got regulars, you should know that. You was one of mine…’
    ‘Aye, but did she speak of any? She wouldn’t go to a bloke’s flat without knowing him, would she?’
    Mary nodded. ‘There was one, name of John.’ She rolled her eyes at that. ‘She talked to the lassies about him as if he was Prince Charming.’
    ‘She say what he looked like?’
    ‘Blue eyes, just. Older than her. That’s all she ever said about him.’ She slugged from her bottle again. Knight didn’t know what was in it, but she knocked it back like water. ‘Course, it could be a crawler, no this John at all.’ Kerb crawler, a man in a car trawling the Drag for flesh. He’d pull up close by her corner, call her over, a deal made and she’d get in.
    ‘Could be,’ said Knight, but his copper’s nose told him it was John, whoever the hell he was.
    Mary saw the doubt on his face and nodded in agreement.  ‘But it’s more likely this John guy. He’d phone her, arrange to meet somewhere, make it an all-nighter. I’ll ask the lassies again, see if there’s anything else they can remember.’
    He had emptied both bags and now turned to face her. He took out his wallet and pulled out a £20 note. ‘Gimme a call if you get anything more.’ He laid the money on the table top. Mary looked at it and bit her lip.
    ‘I feel bad taking your money, Mister Knight, after you buying me messages and all.’
    ‘Don’t feel bad. Just get me something I can use.’
    ‘Aye, I’ll do my best. But do you no want a wee something else, maybe?’
    She set the bottle of medicine down and moved towards him, her head tilted in a way she thought might be sexy. ‘I mean, I know we cannae shag but I can give you a hand job. No harm in that…’
    He laid both hands on her shoulders, kept her at bay. There was a time when he’d’ve taken her up on her offer, hell, there was a time he’d’ve just told her she was going to give him a seeing to. But not now. ‘You’re all right, Mary. I’ll pass.’
    Her face fell. Knight wondered if the offer had been a way of boosting her self-esteem. Instead it had made her even more pitiful. He felt a wee bit sorry for her and he