Unquiet Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page B

blood right enough. He hoped so anyway. Riley stuffed the little black bag in his pocket and dropped the snubnose over the side of the boat as he crawled down.
    His had filled with a word, ricochet ricochet ricochet. French, innit ? A giggle escaped from his mouth as tourists stepped aside from this muttering madman. The word repeated in his head like a techno beat drumming. But it helped focus him. Only one thought now: mandrake anthrax . He could almost taste it, not this coppery tang in his mouth now, but a sweet nectar.
    Riley faltered at the back door of the pub. The place was crowded with punters. Was it the rugby? He couldn't be arsed to care. Darting through an opening he pushed toward the stairs, knocking into a big fellah who roughly shoved him on his way with a curse. The pounding in his head grew louder as he climbed the steps. Why were there so many people here tonight? Riley looked in vain for Una. He felt for the scarf and found it soaked. Have to wring it out in the sink .
    At last he saw Una. A pint of the black sat before her, a blotch of lipstick on its rim. She laughed, head thrown back, no cares in the world. He sat down heavily beside her and she sized him up, an eyebrow cocked with amusement. "You all right there, Riley?"
    "Fine, fine," he muttered, finding himself gasping a little. "I got it," he wheezed, fumbling in his pocket for the velvety bag. Riley slipped it under the table to Una who took it and grimaced.
    "What have you got on here?" Una scowled as she peeked inside the velvet, then dropped it into her leather bag. She looked down at the red on her hand and hastily put her hands back under the table. "You feckin' eejit! What did you do?"
    "It was an accident," Riley moaned.
    Una stared at him. "You all right there?"
    Riley could feel the sweat pouring down his temples. "Sure, sure."
    Una leaned closer. "Is he dead?"
    "Aye." A wave of exhaustion swept over him without warning. A little snort might sort that right out . Then his eyes blinked open again. "Can I have some?"
    A surprised bark of laughter burst from her lips. "As you wish, Riley, as you wish." Una's and snaked into her coat pocket and emerged with a small paper sachet. "Well done, you. Enjoy. Maybe I'll see you back tomorrow for some more."
    Riley took the packet in his red-stained fingers. "Ta."
    "For fuck's sake, Riley. Get yourself sorted. You're bleeding all over the place."
    "It's all right," he assured her. "Only a flesh wound." He giggled helplessly. "Can I snort it?"
    Una looked blankly at him. "Just let it melt on your tongue, like candy. Or under it, like nitroglycerin."
    "Thanks, Una." Without another word, Riley tipped his head back and let the granules pour into his mouth. The bitterness made him grimace and he shuddered. "Tatty bye."
    "Yeah, right. See you tomorrow. Don't get nicked." Una sipped her pint but he felt her eyes boring into his back as he lurched away through the shouting crowd. Riley headed toward the front stairs. The sodden scarf slipped off onto the floor and he left it. He made the last few steps by clinging to the rail, then stumbled out onto Shop Street.
    The mandrake anthrax danced on his tongue. Pirouettes of stabbing pain spun within his mouth like mosquitoes seeking a vein. Crowds of students and loud Americans bumped up against him but he didn't mind. A girl with a golden throat busked with a fiddler, singing a sad song about where the wild roses grow and she winked at Riley as he staggered by. He almost wished for some coins to throw in the case. They were a damn sight better than the world's worst living statue who generally blocked the corner by Dunnes. A terrible thing to see such incompetence, Riley mused as his chest inflated with billowy air.
    The crowds thinned slightly as he turned toward the square, but the horizontal rain began to pummel him once more as he passed the toilets. Riley stumbled onto the grass. As good a place as any, surely, so he sat down. The ache in his side had