Bad Blood (DI Marjory Fleming) by Aline Templeton

Author:Aline Templeton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Recent July 2014, Crime
ISBN: 9780749014025
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2013-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

Marnie had never liked the idea of nightclubs. Loud music always seemed to pump out aggression and a mob of sweating dancers sounded wild and threatening. The time Gary had persuaded her to go with him hadn’t been a success – more a disaster, really. Even though this great barn of a place was empty and silent, the memory surged back.

She is screaming, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!’ She’d been wanting to scream that ever since they came in but now that she’s right at the back of this horrible noisy hell with people pressing up against her she can’t keep it in any more.

Gary’s looking embarrassed and people around her are staring. He’s bellowing, ‘Calm down!’ in her ear but she can’t, she’s hysterical, she doesn’t know what to do and people are nudging and pointing now.

Blindly she starts to push her way through and a man stands deliberately in her way, grinning. ‘In a hurry, sweetheart?’ He makes a grab at her but she pushes past and he dodges in front again.

She knees him in the groin and pushes on without a backward glance and there’s a space opening up in front of her and the bouncer holds the door open for her and she’s outside gasping the fresh cool air.

The air in here wasn’t fresh. It felt stale and sickly as she stood wrestling with the images. There was something creepy about the atmosphere, with no windows and minimal lighting and chipped patches showing white against the matt-black walls. The bench seating was ripped in places with stuffing showing, and the wooden floor was scuffed to bare boards and pitted with the prints of countless stiletto heels. Once the lights and lasers were weaving their hypnotic patterns no one would notice but the sleaziness disgusted her.

Marnie looked round uncertainly. Someone must be here, but there were several doors and she had no idea which one to try. The one she tapped on first led into a storeroom; the second to a small empty office. She was just shutting the door again when she realised that she wasn’t alone.

In the shadows by the bar there was a slight figure in black, a woman wearing a headscarf. She was staring at Marnie with huge dark eyes, as if she was afraid of her. There was a pail and a mop at her feet.

Marnie went over to her and saw her shrink away. ‘It’s all right,’ she said, smiling. ‘I’m just here to see Daniel Lee. Where would I find him?’

The girl couldn’t be more than twenty. She dropped her eyes and muttered something, looking helpless.

A language problem. Marnie repeated the question, more slowly, but the only response was a helpless fluttering of hands.

She turned her own hands outward in a questioning gesture. ‘Dan-i-el Lee. Drax?’

It seemed at last that the girl understood. She hesitated, then with a tiny jerk of her head indicated a door at the other end, beside the dais where the DJ’s equipment was, then bit her lip as if she was terrified she had done the wrong thing.

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