Numb: A Dark Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

twenty, twenty-one. Fair-haired and blue eyed. Probably only shaved once a month. He was a big lad but he still had the face of a kid. Blood was pooling from both nostrils and his nose was beginning to bruise. It looked broken but he didn’t seem too concerned about it.
    “Please,” he said, clutching his leg. “My knee... call an ambulance...”
    Riley put his finger to his lips and ordered the lad to be silent. Then he pulled out his mobile phone.
    “What are you going to do?” Simpson asked, panicking.
    “Be quiet,” Riley told him as he waited for the call to connect. Then, when Howden answered, he said, “Everything’s alright. Just getting the money now. Yeah, the bloke has it. Give me five minutes.” Then he hung up and put his phone back in his pocket.
    “Why did you say that I had the money?” Simpson asked, confused.
    “You owe three thousand, two hundred, Mr Simpson,” Riley said, picking up the paperwork he’d dropped earlier. “This has to be paid today or we’ll have to take a lower payment, maybe some belongings, and then interest will be charged and you’ll be even deeper in the shit.”Simpson sniffed his nose again and lowered his head.
    “I told you that I don’t have anything,” he said, quietly. “So do what you have to do.”
    Riley nodded. Yes, he would. He would overlook the little thing with the two nephews for starters. If the situation was reversed, and he found out an elderly relative was getting fleeced for everything he had, he’d have done the same thing. It shouldn’t be held against them – even if they had fucked it up.
    “You got any alcohol in here, Mr Simpson?” he asked.
    The question seemed to take the older man by surprise.
    “I’m sorry, what?”
    “Booze,” Riley said. “Spirits, preferably.”
    “There’s a bottle of cheap whisky in the cupboard behind you.”
    “Cheap’s okay. It’s not for me.”
    Riley found the bottle, unscrewed the top and handed it to the screaming, semi-crippled nephew. The other one still wasn’t fully awake yet and the only liquid he’d be able to handle would be through a drip.
    “Drink as much as you can,” he said. “It’ll help the pain a little.”
    The lad hesitated but eventually began to slurp down the amber fluid straight from the bottle. Riley then turned back to Simpson, put his hand in his inside pocket and pulled out a wad of cash totalling five grand.
    “I’m going to offer you a deal,” he said. “You have two choices. The first is that I go back to my boss and tell him that you can’t pay and explain everything that’s happened here this afternoon. Then there will be consequences – I think you understand what I mean by that?”Simpson nodded as he wiped his damp eyes. “The second is that I pay Nash what you owe and you pay me back.”
    Simpson looked like he was about to burst out laughing.
    “Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” he said. “How will that help me? I can’t afford to pay Nash so how can I pay you?”
    “How much can you afford a month?” Riley asked. “ Comfortably afford a month?”
    Simpson shrugged. Then said: “Two hundred, like agreed. I have a small private pension. I get a few benefits and help with the rent and council tax on this place. Yes, two hundred.”
    “Right,” Riley said. “You pay two hundred month and the debt’s cleared in eighteen months.”“What about interest?”
    “No interest. I’m doing you a favour. I pay Nash today and he’ll think you cleared your debt fair and square. He’ll not bother you again, I promise. Then I’ll stop by on the first of every month to collect my money and when it’s paid back you’ll not see me again either.”
    Simpson stared at the money in Riley’s hands. The nephew with the fresh limp continued to drink. The other had rolled on his side and had started to groan and mumble like he had the world’s worst hangover.
    “How do I know I can trust you?” Simpson finally asked.
    “Look,” Riley