Exodus by Steve Catto

Author:Steve Catto [Catto, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steve Catto Books
Published: 2023-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

12 – Reaching Out

Across on the far side of New London, moonlight crept through the dark yellow clouds as Hanna turned a corner and scurried along a deserted road towards an old industrial estate. It was unusual for anyone to alert her to the discovery of a dead body, but somehow she'd got a call about one.

Deaths and murders were not common in the city, but they weren't unheard of. A junior reporter usually got sent to take a picture and write a paragraph, or two if it was particularly interesting or gruesome. It was part of learning the job. She used to get sent to them all the time when she was first starting out, but she'd not covered one for years.

She knew the location well. It was an alleyway off a main street on the edge of the city, not far from where she used to live as a child. The area wasn't heavily populated these days, and not especially well lit either. As she headed down the road towards the alleyway she was puzzled. Usually there would have been at least a few people there, maybe the person who had called in to report it, but there was nobody in sight. Perhaps it was just a reaction from her childhood, but that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She'd had enough of fighting lately. The last thing she wanted right now was to walk into an ambush, but that would explain the call. There was no point in turning back now. If it were a trap she would already have been seen.

Hanna approached the entrance to the alleyway cautiously, checking behind her as she walked, but no attackers sprang out. The area seemed deserted. She slowly unclenched her fists, which she'd been keeping bunched up just in case. Her skills didn’t include complicated martial arts from the past, like karate, but there were people around who still practised them, so she would have been at a disadvantage had it been a serious ambush.

There was indeed a shape on the ground a few feet into the mouth of the alleyway. She nudged it with her foot, still half-expecting something might jump up and attack her, but it remained dark and lifeless, as a dead body should.

So, a genuine report. Hanna rolled the body over. The thin face looked familiar. She reached down to check something. Just as she thought, the man was missing a finger. His death was a warning. The question was whether to write a report on it, which might look odd because the call to the incident had clearly not been initiated through the media office, or to keep it to herself and allow someone else to find the body, which would make it very clear to the perpetrator that she had understood the message they were leaving her.

She could decide later, but not too much later. There was nothing else to do here. The best course of action now would be to leave the scene as quickly as possible, before anyone spotted her.

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