Merrily Watkins 11 - The Secrets of Pain

Merrily Watkins 11 - The Secrets of Pain Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: Merrily Watkins 11 - The Secrets of Pain Read Online Free PDF
Author: Phil Rickman
days, though it might have been the weight of whatever he kept in the fraying pockets of his tweed jacket.
    ‘Might one suggest you chaps cool off outside?’
    ‘… fuck’s this?’
    ‘Ladies present,’ James said briskly.
    ‘
That
bitch?’ Cornel’s face thrust into James’s. ‘You saw what she did?’ Close to screeching, losing it. ‘
Saw
that, did you?
Did
you?’
    Lol saw an extensive dark stain on the front of Cornel’s jeans.
    ‘Shouldn’t render you impotent for long,’ James said mildly. ‘Big man, little girl, be disinclined to make a fuss, myself.’
    Somebody laughed. The inglenook was oozing smoke like some ancient railway tunnel.
    ‘All right. Enough now, lads.’ Barry was here, in his quiet suit, his slim bow tie. ‘Accidents happen in the dark. If you’d like to leave your trousers at reception, sir, we can get them cleaned for you.’
    Cornel was looking at Jane, his eyes sunk below the bony ridge of his sweating brow.
    ‘I’ll be seeing you,’ he said, ‘girlie.’
    Lol felt Jane shaking and put an arm around her and steered her back to the table by the fire. She smiled slackly.
    ‘Cocked
that
up.’ Lifting up her hands, all wet. ‘More on me than him.’
    ‘What did you say to him, Jane?’
    ‘I was just, you know, so pissed off at the idea of them coming in all
droit de seigneur
kind of thing – and he was obviously legless. So I thought I’ll get him talking, see what I can get out of him?’
    ‘That’s why you wanted to go and buy the drinks?’
    ‘Oh, Lol, it was an impulse thing!’ Her face shone. ‘Like, it’s important to know, don’t you think, what Savitch is letting them get away with? Like, if we’re going to get the bastard closed down before he turns the village into the blood-sport capital of the New Cotswolds—’
    ‘Jane, he’s
investment
. A lot of people love him.’
    ‘
Nobody
loves him! And we don’t want that kind of investment. We’ve got archaeological remains, we’ve got the strong possibility of a Bronze Age henge with actual stones. We could have
loads
of tourism – worthwhile tourism, not these… scum.’
    ‘All right, they love his money,’ Lol said sadly.
    ‘They just think they might
need
his money, so they don’t like to tell the bastard where to stick it.’ Jane glowered for a moment, then looked up, wary. ‘You’re not going to tell Mum about this, are you?’
    Lol sighed.
    ‘So what
did
he tell you, Jane?’
    ‘Actually, it’s not funny.
I
was, like, what do you do at The Court, and he’s going, Shoot things, of course, and I’m like,
Things? Go on
. And he thought… I mean, I could see he thought I was…’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Like turned on by it? The way some women are. The hunt-ball floozies? He said they’d shoot anything that got in the way. Deer… pussycats, he said.’
    ‘Probably exaggerating to try and sound hard.’
    ‘I could tell he was waiting for me to go, Oh, I’d love to come and watch you wielding your weapon. Lol, they’re—Oh shit, look at him now…’
    Lol half-turned, pain spinning into his shoulder where he’d caught Cornel’s fist. Cornel was standing next to the door to the stairs. His eyes seemed to be physically retracting under the shelf of his brow as he looked around the room in the half-light, plucking at the damp patch on his trousers.
    ‘Wherever you are, you little bitch,’ he said mildly, ‘I just want you to know this isn’t over.’
    Lol looked around. Maybe only he and Jane had heard Cornel, because there’d been a sudden scraping of chairs, exclamations and then a hollow near-silence in the bar as a small circle formed around Barry in the centre of the room.
    ‘
Where
was this?’ James Bull-Davies snapped. ‘Say again.’
    ‘Oldcastle?’ Barry said. ‘Have I got that right? Beyond Credenhill, but before you get to the Wye. Don’t know any details. Mate of mine with an apple farm was just passing it on in case we saw any police action. Cops are all over
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Risking It All

Lucy Oliver

Jeopardy

Fayrene Preston

Immortals of Meluha

Amish Tripathi

The Laughing Matter

William Saroyan

The Seduction 4

Roxy Sloane