Blood Of Angels by Michael Marshall

Author:Michael Marshall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Serial murder, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Detective, Hopkins, Ward (Fictitious character), Fiction, Serial murder investigation, Adventure, Suspense, Crime & Thriller, General, Thriller
ISBN: 9780007163960
Publisher: London : HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.
Published: 2010-08-21T04:01:20.208000+00:00

===OO=OOO=OO===

There was something surreal about walking into the Belle Isle food court. It was a place Brad knew well. Limitless taquitas and egg rolls had been ingested there in the last five years, innumerable sodas and berry smoothies sucked up during slow trawls with the gang or with Pete or lately just him and Karen. Look back far enough and he'd come here with his mom and dad and sister too, withstanding their boring shopping imperatives by asking if he could go to the court and get a chocolate shake and wait, which had generally been allowed.

At this early time of day the food concessions were still being fired up and the seating area was largely empty, just a few housewife kaffeeklatches in progress and a seat-busting monster already hunched over the detritus of enough burgers to feed a small family, fries hanging out of his mouth like the remaining legs of insectile snacks.

And there was a guy.

He was sitting in splendid isolation at a table right in the middle of the floor. This surprised Brad until he happened to look around again. Widely spread around the seating area were three other individuals who didn't look like they were there to hunt for bargain animal calendars in Waldenbooks. None had anything to eat or drink. All were looking his and Lee's way. Casually. Kind of. They ranged from forties down to very early twenties. This youngest was eyeballing them the hardest. There was something about him Brad really didn't like.

Lee had the drug bag with him. Brad didn't like that either — but that was what the pager message had specified. When he got to the main man's table Lee went as if to hand the bag over straightaway. The man shook his head, one single movement.

'In a moment,' he said. 'Take a seat.'

Lee and Brad sat opposite. Funny: the way Lee had described him, Brad had been expecting someone who looked like a famous actor or something, a person you'd notice across a crowded room. Brad thought this guy could fade into background anywhere.

'Brad, right?'

'Yeah.'

'Good to meet you, Brad. I'm Paul.'

'Okay,' Brad said. Thinking: There is something not right about you.

The man turned his attention to Hudek. 'So you're not having much luck with sales.'

'We've done our best, but — with Pete dead it's just not the time.'

'Surely you didn't used to sell only to close friends.'

'No, of course not. But we sold in a controlled area. And to a certain class. Look, we'll keep trying if you want.'

'Don't worry. The Valley's loss is West Hollywood's gain. We'll move them over there instead.'

Hudek felt pained. This didn't feel like it contributed to the upward progression he'd begun to enjoy. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'Things are just screwed up at the moment.'

'It's not a big issue,' the man said. 'And it won't affect the Plan, don't worry.' He turned to Brad. 'Do me a favour, would you, Brad? Go get me an espresso?'

Brad's first inclination was to say hell no, he didn't run people's errands.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.