Hard Press: The Evie Black Files by Adam Nicholls

Author:Adam Nicholls [Nicholls, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-08-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Nick fought against her struggle. Every time the woman tried to wrestle, he only clamped down tighter. He took her to the bed, threw her down onto the mattress, and then stood by the door, guarding it.

Evie stood over her after she finally stopped thrashing. She hadn’t expected her to look this way. For some reason, she had built up the image of a straw-haired lady with dead eyes, so gaunt that her cheekbones protruded from her face. Instead, she was looking down at a radiant and attractive woman in her twenties with reddish-brown hair and full lips.

“Are you police?” Black Widow asked, her wide emerald eyes filled with terror. She brought her knees to her chest, looping her pale arms around them.

“Police are on their way.” Evie remained blunt, never once forgetting this woman was a cold-blooded killer.

“And… Barry Marsh?”

“Alive. No thanks to you.”

And then the unexpected happened. The killer nodded slowly, an act of understanding… and then a lonely tear spilled from her eye to run in a sad rivulet down her cheek. “They’re going to kill me.”

Evie looked to Nick, who looked back at her with mutual confusion. He shrugged, and Evie sat down on the far end of the bed before she turned back to the murderess. “Who’s going to kill you?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Is it… Sanyasi?”

Black Widow looked up but said nothing.

“What’s your name? Your real name.”

Another sob. “Teresa.”

“Well, Teresa, I think you’ve got less than five minutes to appeal to my empathy. The police will come, and you will be convicted—there’s no question about that. But if it’s protection you need, then you had better get explaining.”

Nick unfolded his arms and spoke loudly. “You can’t seriously be feeling sorry for this bitch?”

“Shut up,” Evie said, not affording him a glance. “Teresa, clock’s ticking.”

There was an elongated silence, during which Nick’s heavy breathing filled the air around them. Gusts of disdain and censure flowed over Evie as she waited for Teresa to explain the unexplainable. Teresa kept her head down, probably at war with herself, and Evie only waited patiently for this crying young woman to say anything that might make sense.

“I owe a debt,” Teresa finally said.

“To Sanyasi, right?” Evie spoke calmly, softly. At the heart of it, she knew that this girl had to have the mind of a monster, no matter what her reasons for killing those men. But if she had only been playing someone else’s game, she needed to make her think she cared. Lull her into talking. Otherwise, the trail would end right here, and they’d never be able to cut the head off the snake.

“My sister fell ill and needed heart surgery. We didn’t have the insurance to cover it, and I desperately needed the cash. Someone tipped me about this Sanyasi guy. At the time I didn’t know how I would afford to pay back what I owed, but I wanted my sister to get help. What would you have done?”

Evie stayed silent, intent on listening and gave a slight shake of her head.

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