Blood Games by Liz Mistry

Author:Liz Mistry [Mistry, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2021-12-20T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 46

The Forster Square arches, despite it being daytime, were as putrid as they had been last time Sajid had visited. Here in this underground burrow of poverty, abuse and decay, the disenfranchised festered in their own decline, away from the eyes of the city. Sajid’s sphincter muscle tightened against the barrage of overwhelming emotions: pity, anger and helplessness that confronted him. No one should have to live like this. No one should have to die like this. Where Nikki had shown compassion and a certain affinity with the folk who inhabited this dark hole, Ahad’s dismissive scorn reverberated through each harsh word and every threatening gesture as he moved through the huddles of people fighting to stay warm and dry against the inclement November weather.

‘You! Get the fuck up. Do you recognise this man?’ Ahad thrust the photo of Jamie Jacobs under the addict’s streaming nose, his lips curled in supercilious distaste, his tone accusatory.

The old man, cataracts making his dilated drugged eyes seem almost alien, stared at the image, shaking his head and twitching as he did so. Sajid wanted to pull Ahad to the side and challenge him. They were more likely to gain information by sweetening the questions with a hot coffee, a fiver or a bag of chips than a glowering glare and cuss words. As Ahad trailed through the crowds, Saj dropped back behind him, trying to dissociate himself from his boss, shame and anger churning his stomach as he watched Ahad in action. Why exactly had the DI bothered coming here? They wouldn’t pick up any leads about Jamie Jacobs using his methods. Surely this wasn’t the DI’s first foray into the world of the homeless – rough sleepers, self-medicating on whatever drug they could get their hands on and vulnerable to every pimp, dealer and bastard out for their own ends.

More tainted by his boss’s attitude than by the stench that engulfed him, Sajid drifted away from Ahad, and wandered deeper into the tunnel, all the while looking for a semi-familiar face, someone whom either he or Nikki had spoken to before. Finally, he found a group of women, sitting on their haunches beside a rusty old tin bin that served as a fireplace. They cackled and mithered at each other like hags round a cauldron, as they fed bits of rubbish to keep the meagre flames alive. Aware that in his Armani suit and mohair overcoat, he didn’t present the same approachable, down-to-earth image that Nikki did, Sajid tried his dazzling smile. They looked up as he approached. He recognised one of them from last time he’d been here – Nancy? Or maybe Natalie? No, definitely Nancy.

She tugged on the sleeve of her friend’s too thin anorak. ‘Ooooh, we got a bit of meat here – not sure he’ll be man enough for us, but we can break him in, can’t we?’

Sajid’s grin widened as the women shot flirtatious glances in his direction and reached out to smooth their mucky hands down his coat.

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