Last light by Alex Scarrow

Author:Alex Scarrow [Alex Scarrow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Policier
ISBN: 9780752893273
Published: 2009-09-01T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 46

2 p.m. GMT Shepherd’s Bush, London

‘Come on, let’s see how things are,’ said Dan. ‘Maybe we’ll find some policemen out there. There’s gotta be someone cleaning things up, sorting things out.’

Leona said nothing.

‘Come on, just to get some fresh air.’

‘Not too far, okay? Just a quick look around.’

‘Sure,’ Dan nodded.

‘All right.’ She turned to Jacob. ‘You stay inside Jake, okay?’

‘Can’t I come?’

‘No. You stay inside and . . . I don’t know, play with your toys. We won’t be long.’

Leona decided Dan was right. They needed to find out, after yesterday’s sudden and violent release of chaos, if the worst was now over. And finding a policeman, or a fireman, in fact anybody in uniform, out on the street making a start on clearing things up, was the sort of reassurance she needed right now.

She headed down the hallway to the front door, Dan beside her, unbolted and opened it. She turned back round to Jacob.

‘You stay inside. Do you understand me?’

Jake nodded.

They stepped out on to the short path that led up Jill’s scruffy, rarely tended front garden to the gate, and the avenue beyond. It was sunny, pleasant, T-shirt ’n’ shorts warm.

‘It’s quiet,’ said Dan. They could hear some birds in a nearby tree, but there was no hum of traffic coming from Uxbridge Road; no car woofers pounding out a thudding bass line, or the distant warble of a police siren wafting over the rooftops.

Leona looked up and down. The kids last night had left something of a mess. Many of the parked cars, SUVs, 4x4s, had had one or more of their windows smashed. Glass granules littered the pavement all the way up and down on both sides. It looked like there’d been a hailstorm. She noticed discarded cans and bottles, dropped on the pavement and tossed into the front gardens.

‘What a mess they made.’

Dan shrugged, ‘Looks just like my mum’s street.’

They walked up the avenue towards the junction with Uxbridge Road. As they passed by her home, Leona fought an urge to glance up at her bedroom, worried that she might again see the outline of someone staring out of the window. She had convinced herself since that the fleeting dark form she thought she’d seen had been nothing more than a trick of the evening light and an over-active imagination.

Uxbridge Road was the main thoroughfare for Shepherd’s Bush. If there were going to be any police out, they’d be up there, where all the shops were; where the police station was.

As they reached the top, she looked up and down the main road.

‘Oh . . . my . . . God,’ she muttered.

On either side, every shop window was gone, and the goods spilled out on to the street; washing machines, TVs, clothes, newspapers and magazines, spread across from pavement to pavement. It seemed most of the damage and mess was focused around the many grocers, Halal mini-markets and takeaways. A hundred yards down, she could see the pale squat block that was the police station for Shepherd’s Bush.

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