CUTTING EDGE (Thomas Blume Book 9) by Phil Reade

Author:Phil Reade [Reade, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Walking the walk. The same walk I had made a hundred times before.

A thousand? Impossible.

Maybe …

My feet traced the sidewalk, a route so familiar that I could have made the journey blindfolded, but the night wasn’t one to be moving carelessly. When the winter sun had set early, the temperatures had dropped once more, and now, hovering around zero, the crystal dusting of frost was already peppering the sidewalks and bus stops, promising a freezing night and a colder day to follow.

Feeling the gentle sway of my backpack, and its weighty contents, I adjusted the dark red scarf working overtime to keep me warm. One of the few items of winter clothing I did own, it carried more than practical uses. It was one of the last things my wife had bought me before she died. I had never been a fan of scarves, but feeling its comforting warmth around my neck brought back fond memories and pushed away the cold, if only for a moment.

Walking down the Hackney street and making for my local pub, I ran on autopilot. The distance wasn’t far, but my mind was elsewhere, running ideas and equations.

Still, the nagging bust-up with Nicole kept pulling me back. Forced me to re-evaluate what I did wrong.

As I crossed the street, avoiding the sparse evening traffic, and moved along a small row of storefronts including a kitchenware store, an estate agent and somewhere selling kebabs, I pulled my phone from my pocket for a brief moment. One voicemail.

Blume, it’s Lucy. I heard about what happened with the kid from Africa. Jones and his team filled me in. They aren’t happy that we have a private investigator running around but I’ve managed to hold them off from pulling you into the station for now.

My mum is struggling with the whole thing. She’s talking about taking a few days off before the funeral. She hates flying though, so I don’t know where she would go.

Maybe I should head back to Canada after the funeral too. Let the police finish things up. I don’t know.

Anyway, I appreciate all your help. Let me know if anything changes.

A beep ended the message and I sighed. I could hear the disappointment in Lucy’s voice. She wanted me to find the killer as much as anyone, but I felt like I was going in circles and barely avoiding ending up in a cell myself.

Then there was the whole thing with Nicole.

I wished she had called.

I was also glad she hadn’t.

Was it really so bad to try and help her? Or was it Nicole’s pride that made her snap at me?

As always, women were a mystery and I had no answers.

Dropping the cell phone back into my jacket, the sting of the cold began to burn my ears and lips, so I was glad to see the familiar golden lettering of my local haunt ahead.

‘Welcome to the Black Swan’, the casually scrawled chalkboard on the sidewalk encouraged. The old place looked like it had

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