Doctor Who: Rags
Jervis had not made it to his car. He lay three yards from it, his helmet smashed, his head smashed. Nick had seen him
     
    30
     
    go under as the crowd began to panic, and now he dragged Sin away from the stampede, pulled her towards the haven of the Devil’s Elbow.
     
    The pub was deserted. Even the Beast had gone. Nick and Sin stood inside the doorway and watched the turmoil on the streets of Princetown.
    After a while the Beast turned up, looking guilty and confused.
    Nick ordered two pints, the coins shaking in his hand, and waited tor Rod and Jimmy.
    And after a while, they came.
     
    31
     

Chapter Four
    Jo watched the police take the cons away. The prisoners looked dazed and confused, like they’d just woken up from the wildest party of their lives and knew they’d done something bad, but couldn’t remember quite what it was. Jo was shaking. Their bewilderment scared her almost as much as their former violence.
    The Doctor watched them too, his eyes narrowed. Jo saw him glance at the cattle truck still waiting beside the wall. The roadies were sitting in the dark cab, smoking. The police had questioned them briefly, perfunctorily - or so it seemed to Jo. They hadn’t even gone to the back of the truck to speak to the musicians.
    And what were the musicians doing in the back of the truck anyway? Why didn’t THEY sit in the cab?
    The thought was gone almost as soon as it entered Jo’s head.
    She frowned, but couldn’t remember what she had been thinking about. The police were going; the cons were back in safe hands.
    The crowd was dissipating. Most of the townsfolk were silent, stunned, returning to their homes as though they too weren’t sure about what had just happened. Jo could hear the jukebox playing in the Devil’s Elbow. ‘Black Sabbath’. It was filling up quite nicely in there, she thought, and the idea of a drink was suddenly very appealing. She shook herself slightly. She was acting like nothing had happened. Was she shocked too? Just like everyone else around her? Everyone except...
    She hadn’t said a word to the Doctor since the murders. She looked at him now, and he was still watching the truck. He turned to her suddenly, as if she’d spoken.
    Are you all right, Jo?’ He put a hand on her arm.
    ‘I’d like a drink.’ It came out abruptly, making her sound like a spoilt child.
    ‘Of course. Go on inside, I’ll join you shortly.’
    ‘Why, what are you going to do?’
     
    33
     
    He was ushering her towards the pub, deliberately not answering her question. ‘Be careful who you mix with,’ he said.
    ‘There are some decidedly odd people about!’
    She was about to walk away, then stopped. She felt drugged.
    The whole situation was surreal. The Doctor hadn’t mentioned the murders either. She could see the barman serving drinks through the open pub door, business as usual. Had the whole world tipped upside down? Had she slipped a sanity gear?
    ‘Doctor, those prison officers - they’ve just been murdered.
    Horribly. And no one really seems to have noticed!’
    The Doctor looked at her closely, the cracks around his eyes deepening as he frowned. ‘You took your time, too, Jo.’
    What the hell did he mean by that? She felt indignant and annoyed and was about to give him a curt answer, when he smiled compassionately at her.
    ‘Go and have that drink, Jo.’ He waited, hands on hips; a dramatic figure, cloak blowing slightly in the late afternoon breeze from the moors. She nodded and left him.
     
    ‘You’re that newswoman, aren’t you?
    Charmagne looked up from her glass of red wine. The hippie she’d been interviewing at the pub table looked up too. For a bizarre second, she thought she had found fame and fortune at last. Of course, though, the biker who had asked the question wasn’t directing it at her, but rather at the BBC anchor girl who had just entered the pub along with a rotund cameraman. She felt an irrational jealousy prick her. This was her story. They had no
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Army of the Dead

Richard S. Tuttle

A Bridge of Years

Robert Charles Wilson

Snowbrother

S.M. Stirling

vampireinthebasement

Crymsyn Hart

The Three Sentinels

Geoffrey Household

Most Likely to Succeed

Jennifer Echols