Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson

Author:Peter Robinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: William Morrow

ON THE second visit, Tadić stood over Zelda. “You know why you’re here?” he asked.

“No,” said Zelda. “I don’t even know where here is.”

Tadić laughed, a hoarse, phlegmy sound. “That doesn’t matter. Do you know who I am?”

Again, Zelda shook her head.

“My name is Petar Tadić. Does that help?”

Again, Zelda said, “No. I’m hungry and thirsty. Can I have—”

With surprising speed, Tadić gave her a backhander that sent her head sideways into the cast-iron radiator. She could taste blood and her head was ringing, starting to throb with pain. She thought she could feel blood oozing into her hair and over her ear.

“Does that help your memory?”

She was about to say no again, but realised what would happen if she did, so she kept quiet. Tadić was a man who liked the sound of his own voice, she remembered.

“Let me tell you, then,” he said, squatting in front of her. “You’re the bitch who murdered my brother.” He put his face so close to hers that she could smell curry on his breath. It almost made her sick. “Eh, my beauty? Am I right?” He caressed the side of her face where he had just hit her. “Am I right?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Zelda said. “I haven’t—”

But before she could say any more, he hit her again, in the same place. Her head reeled, and she tasted burning bile in her throat. Luckily, this time her head didn’t crash into the radiator.

“It’s no use denying it,” Tadić said. “I saw you on the hotel CCTV. The sexy red dress. Yes? Oh, I saw you. My men are very good. They talk to Foley’s girlfriend, Faye Butler. She tells them plenty before she dies. They find restaurant where you saw her with Foley and Hawkins. They find taxi driver who drove you back to your hotel after you kill Goran. They find out your name and where you live from hotel. But not quite, because you give no street and number, do you? Just house name Windlee Farm and that village. Lyndgarth. But we find it. And now we have you. What do you think of that? Good detective work, yes?”

Zelda vomited down the front of her T-shirt.

Tadić jumped back up so fast he almost fell over, but he couldn’t escape getting a few flecks on his polished leather Italian shoes.

His partner lurched towards Zelda, but Tadić held him back. “No,” he said. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket, cleaned off his shoes and tossed it in a corner.

“Kill her now, boss,” the man said. “Let me kill her.”

“No. That is too easy.” Tadić towered over Zelda. “Why did you kill him?” he asked. “Why did you kill Goran?”

Zelda tried to control her breathing, raised her head, and looked him in the eye. “You and your brother abducted me outside an orphanage in Chișinău many years ago.”

“I don’t remember you. Or Chișinău. Is that why you killed my brother?”

“Yes,” Zelda spat.

Tadić kicked her again, this time in the stomach.

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