Blood Red City by Rod Reynolds

Author:Rod Reynolds [Reynolds, Rod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913193256
Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Back behind the wheel, the same drive he’d been on before, throwing the car all over the road trying to blow off his frustration. East along Seven Sisters Road, passing the fruit-and-veg stalls and the pubs where time had stood still, old men in houndstooth jackets, ties and black trousers, drinking Guinness and reading the Islington Gazette. He followed it to Finsbury Park, stop-start through the bottleneck around the station, then running parallel to the park’s boundary wall. Giant marquees filled the grass, setting up for some kind of music festival.

The block that held his other flat rose into view, and he looped around into the small car park at the back. He checked his phone before he got out, but there was nothing from Milos yet. Wishful thinking on his part.

He took the stairs to the third floor and knocked on the door. He heard soft footsteps on the other side and then Alicia Tan opened it halfway. She stood in the gap and looked him over. ‘Come in.’

He followed her to the lounge and she took his spot by the window, turning to stare him down. The place was pristine, unchanged from when he’d first brought her there, as if she was living like a ghost.

‘How are you doing?’ he said.

‘Just say whatever you’ve come to say. Good or bad.’

‘I don’t have any answers for you. I don’t want to give you false hope.’

‘Then what?’

‘I’d like to show you a couple more pictures. They’re nothing as bad as…’

‘Let me see.’ She bustled over to him, standing ready.

He opened his phone and brought up the picture of the woman Lydia Wright had met with at Brent Cross. She was badly lit, one side of her face in darkness, her eyes half closed.

Alicia Tan looked close and then shook her head, her mouth screwed up. ‘Who is she?’

‘Someone who might’ve seen something.’ He swiped to the next image, the still from the CCTV that showed the getaway SUV at Woodside Park. ‘This?’

She brought it close again, studying the registration number, but again shook her head. Her shoulders slumped a little, betraying her disappointment. ‘Who are these people?’

‘That’s what I’m trying to establish.’

‘You know what I meant. What’s their relevance?’

‘I can’t answer that until I know who they are.’

She backed away. ‘You show up with these pictures and videos and won’t tell me anything. Can you see this is killing me? I sit here going spare and I don’t even know what I’m waiting for. Who I’m hiding from…’

‘Did you go to the police?’

‘Yes.’

‘And?’

‘They’re investigating.’ She locked eyes with him, defying the silence between them.

‘I get that you don’t trust me, but the more I know, the more I can help.’

‘Help? I thought you were just a fixer? Now you’re going to catch his killers?’

He looked down at his phone, the blank screen somewhere to fix his eyes. ‘Did you tell them about me?’

She sat down on the edge of a chair and shot him a murderous look. She drew out the moment, sensing his discomfort.

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