The White Woman on the Green Bicycle Read Online Free PDF

great care to save those lungs. Then he would pay a visit the Guardian , take the camera straight to Joel on the news desk.
    ‘Talbot, would you mind if we took some pictures?’
    Talbot’s eyes flashed open, he looked alarmed. ‘Uhhh?’
    ‘Don’t worry. It won’t make things worse. I promise. These men need to be punished, taken off the force.’
    ‘Mr Harwood, dey make sure der were no witnesses. Dey take me up to de hill.’
    ‘Yes. I know.’
    Talbot’s face twisted.
    ‘Talbot, this is evidence, ’ Sabine cut in. ‘These bruises tell a story. This is GBH. You’ve suffered a serious assault. And your girlfriend on the force will back up your story. We will back you up, too.’
    ‘Oh gorsh,’ Talbot whispered through his swollen lips. ‘I doh know, Mrs Harwood. No one see what happen. I doh know. I doh want more trouble.’
    George cleared a space on the bed, sitting down carefully. ‘Talbot, one of these men threatened you with your life. Do you think he was joking?’
    Tears appeared in Talbot’s gummed eyes.
    ‘Don’t you see ?’
    ‘I doh know.’
    ‘I think you do know. They did this because they can, because they assume you won’t dare speak out. Will you let us help you?’
    Jennifer sobbed harder.
    ‘Oh gorsh.’
    ‘Let us help.’
    Talbot nodded.
    Sabine left Jennifer’s side, snapping some close-ups of Talbot’s battered face, his ribs, his chest. Flies landed on the forming scabs and she shooed them away. Gingerly, with Jennifer’s help, they lifted Talbot from the bed, helping him into the car, all the while Talbot moaning in pain and Jennifer moaning with grief.
     
    At the medical centre the A & E nurse studied Talbot with sombre eyes. They escorted him to a small room with three beds, leaving him there with Jennifer. There would be X-rays, tests.
    ‘Jennifer, we’ll be back soon,’ Sabine reassured her. ‘You stay with your son. We’re taking these pictures to the Guardian . Mr Harwood knows someone who can write about what happened.’
    Jennifer nodded. She looked taken upon by a different personality, aged, melancholy, another woman.
     
    In the car, George glanced at his wife: Sabine’s mood had turned lethal. For a few moments they drove along in silence.
    ‘I’m going to beat that man myself,’ Sabine declared.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘That idiot should be shot .’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘That Bobby “Big Balls” Comacho. I’ll do him in myself.’
    ‘Darling, Bobby’s no man to get on the wrong side of.’
    ‘Bobby is a thug. He should be locked up. The men on his force are a disgrace. I’m going to make a complaint.’
    ‘Please don’t.’
    ‘I’m going to go into that police station and kick up a huge damn fuss.’
    ‘Please don’t, Sabine. What good will that do?’
    ‘I don’t care.’
    ‘The Guardian may well run with the story about Talbot. The pictures are very strong. That’s enough.’
    ‘I don’t think that fat idiot ever reads the newspapers. I don’t think he can read at all in fact. Illiterate pig.’
    ‘Sabine, please—’
    ‘Don’t Sabine me. I’m going to give him a piece of my mind – if you won’t.’
    ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
    Sabine stared upwards, out the window. ‘There it is.’
    George looked up. The blimp was following them, puttering high overhead. ‘ Please don’t distract me, Sabine. I’m driving.’
    ‘I’ll shoot it down one day.’
    ‘Good. Go out and buy a gun.’
    ‘Maybe I will. I’ll shoot Mr Manning, too, whilst I’m at it.’
    ‘Darling, please.’
    ‘Talbot’s face. If that was our son. If the police had beaten Sebastian like that, then there’d be trouble. God. Then there’d be a fight. But the police don’t beat up white people. They beat up each other.’
    ‘Do you want me to go and beat up Bobby Comacho, Superintendent of the District?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘I’m seventy-five.’
    ‘Good. Old men are dangerous. Can’t knock an old man down.’
    ‘You want me to put on my boxing