Moonlight Bones (A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller Book 9) by N.C. Lewis

Author:N.C. Lewis [Lewis, N.C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2026-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 103

The bus ride to the suburbs would take a very pleasant forty-five minutes. Time enough to reflect on the crazy turn of events that had changed and stained Louise's life. Time enough to let her paranoid thoughts fester on the next steps of her plan. She felt a tremor of hunger. A good sign. Perhaps she would finish that sandwich on the ride out.

A grunt came from behind, followed by the clearing of a phlegm-filled throat. Louise turned, her nerves trembling with the same anxiety as when the thunder grumbled.

"Your name?"

The question came from an elderly woman with fishy breath, a shrill voice, and stark green eyes. She wore a blue headscarf that matched the colour of her rinsed hair. It was the same woman whom, moments before, Louise had sensed watching her.

The woman coughed, deep and throaty, rattling with phlegm. "And your address. I must have your name and your address."

"Pardon?" Dread crawled along Louise's neck, dragging with it a cloak of misery. "What did you say?"

"Your name and address, Miss?"

"What for?"

"The police." The woman took a cheese and onion sandwich from her handbag and nibbled. "Thought you'd slip away without being seen, eh?"

"No…no…err…no."

Blue Rinse's eyes glistened. Two bright pools in a sea of doughy wrinkles. She took a big bite out of the sandwich. "You look shook up, lass. I always shake them up."

"Eh!"

The woman's lips lifted into a crazy grin. "Got your heart knocking, right?" She cackled, showing all her teeth and bits of bread in-between. "Is it beating fast?"

Louise got it and tried to keep a sunny disposition. They were like this in Newcastle. Always pulling each other's leg. "I've nothing to hide." Louise kept her lips lifted in a friendly smile. "Well, at least not crime-wise." She forced a vigorous laugh. "And, yes, my heart ticked up a beat. Good joke. Nice one!"

Blue Rinse nodded as though satisfied, her eyes shining with a trickster's gleam. "Saw you hurrying to the bus stop, looking behind as you went. Like a thief; like you'd hoyed some lass's handbag." She finished her sandwich and her gaze fell to the Kurt Geiger. "That's expensive, is that. Designer. I couldn't resist having fun at a lass who carries one of those and has to catch a bus. You should have seen your face when I mentioned the police. You sure you ain't up to mischief?"

The woman laughed again, her throat rattling with phlegm. Then she began to cough. Hard and deep and from the bottom of her lungs. She doubled over, hacking, gasping, sucking in breaths. Choking.

Louise moved to Blue Rinse's side and placed a protective arm on her shoulder. An image of the flashing lights of an ambulance tumbled through her mind. The policeman's suspicious face and prying questions soon followed. What was Louise's full name? What was her home address? What was she doing in Newcastle?

Louise scrabbled for her phone to call for help when Blue Rinse stopped coughing, a devious gleam shining in her green eyes. She puckered her lips.

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