Shoot to Kill Read Online Free PDF Page A

At least the Renoir was still there. He looked up at the films listed above the entrance. None of the titles meant anything to him, but that didn’t matter. ‘What are we going to see?’ he asked, pulling her close.
    ‘
Alice in the Cities
,’ Helen smiled.
    He looked at her blankly.
    ‘It’s a Wim Wenders road movie.’
    ‘Sounds good,’ Carlyle nodded. ‘Let’s go.’
    ‘This stuff’s not bad.’ Olivia Blackman sucked down on the small joint and offered it to Alice Carlyle.
    ‘Nah.’ Alice shook her head. ‘I’ve had enough.’ She felt sluggish. The latest Lady Gaga CD was playing in the background but she tried to ignore it. Having spent the last five years listening to her dad’s CD collection, she was more into The Clash than whatever was currently flavour of the month. Right on cue, ‘Guns of Brixton’ started playing in her head and she smiled to herself.
    ‘Suit yourself.’ Flopping down on her bed, Olivia took another drag and began coughing.
    ‘Don’t your parents mind?’ Alice asked, climbing into her sleeping bag on the floor.
    ‘What,’ Olivia asked once she’d finally got the coughing under control, ‘about me smoking dope?’
    ‘Yeah,’ Alice said. ‘Mine are really pissed off about it.’
    ‘Big surprise,’ Olivia observed. ‘Your father
is
a cop, for God’s sake.’ She rested the spliff on an ashtray on the bedside table. ‘What do you expect?’
    Alice shrugged. ‘It’s not like they didn’t do stuff themselves, like, when they were young.’
    Olivia pushed herself up onto her elbows. ‘Being a parent means being a hypocrite, that’s what my mum says, anyway.’
    ‘But your parents, they let you do what you want.’
    ‘I wish!’ Olivia took another toke and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘They won’t let Ryan stay over, for one thing.’
    ‘Mm.’ Alice felt herself blush slightly. Her experience of boyfriends wasn’t great and it wasn’t something she wanted to discuss.
    ‘I think they just ignore it,’ Olivia continued, ‘at least my dad does. He’s travelling a lot of the time, so I guess it’s not his problem.’
    ‘And your mum?’
    ‘Ha!’ Olivia collapsed back on to the bed, throwing out her arms, as if she was being crucified. ‘She absolutely
needs
me to do drugs.’
    Confused, Alice sat up. ‘Eh?’
    ‘My dear mama,’ Olivia simpered, ‘is none other than Lucy Pulse.’ She raised her eyebrows as if this explained everything.
    Alice frowned. ‘But I thought her name was Andrea Blackman?’
    ‘It
is
. Lucy Pulse is her pen name. She writes a monthly columnin
The Times
called “My Teenager Hell”. It’s a thinly fictionalized account of life with me and my brothers.’ She lifted her wrist to her forehead in a dramatic pose. ‘You know, saintly parents locked in an endless struggle with their wretched offspring with nothing but a bottle of Gordon’s, a DVD box set and a packet of Benson & Hedges for comfort.’
    ‘Oh.’ Alice thought about it all for a minute. A nasty thought entered her head. ‘Am I in it?’
    ‘Hardly,’ Olivia laughed. ‘Although I’m sure if you manage to vomit down the stairs or something, you’ll get an honourable mention in the next one. She’s on deadline and I heard her moaning on the phone the other day that she had nothing to write about.’
    ‘But why does she do it?’
    ‘Who knows?’ Olivia said. ‘It’s not for the money, which she says is a pittance. I guess she needs the attention and doesn’t have anything else to write about.’ She started to giggle. ‘Sometimes I feel like I’m under
sooo
much pressure to perform. All that my lovely brothers do is play World of Warcaft and masturbate, sometimes at the same time.’
    ‘Gross! That’s too much information.’
    ‘It’s not enough to keep a column going. If it wasn’t for yours truly smoking dope, getting into trouble at school and chasing boys, she would be totally fucked.’
    Alice was beginning to see Olivia’s mum in