Severed (2007) by Simon Kernick

Author:Simon Kernick [Kernick, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 03 Thriller/Mistery
ISBN: 9780552164344
Publisher: Transworld Publishers Limited
Published: 2011-05-11T23:00:00+00:00

25

When Lucas drops me off at Holloway Road tube station, he reaches under his seat and pulls out a cylindrical device about a foot long with a handle running its entire length. I recognize it instantly from my days serving in Northern Ireland. It’s an Enforcer, a heavy bludgeoning device used by the police to break the locks on doors. Something of an anachronism in these days of hi-tech gadgetry, but still one of the most highly effective means of gaining entry to a locked house.

‘A present,’ he says as he rummages around in the back of the car. ‘It might come in useful.’ He finds the holdall I was given earlier and drops the Enforcer inside before handing it to me.

‘Thanks, mate,’ I tell him. ‘It’s appreciated.’

We shake hands, and he says he’ll call me later. I remind him once again that he’s got to tell the truth to the cops, whatever it means for me. He tells me that he will, and then he’s gone. It’s just turned quarter past six.

At this time in the evening there’s no point grabbing a taxi. The traffic’s too heavy, and I’ve got to cross the centre of town. So I take the Piccadilly Line down to King’s Cross and then the Circle Line to Paddington. The journey takes me just under half an hour, and because I don’t know the area that well I buy a pocket A to Z from one of the news stands in Paddington station. The address I want is in the Little Venice area, over the other side of the Westway flyover.

Once again, my plan is simple: get in, get answers. Use the element of surprise to catch my quarry off guard, then force him to talk. And if he isn’t there, I wait. You could say that this kind of direct approach hasn’t worked for me before, and you’d have a point, but unarmed and still completely ignorant of the reason I’ve been targeted, I figure I have no choice. Marco is a trusted member of the gang, otherwise he wouldn’t have been sent to pick up the case, which means he’ll know what’s going on and who’s behind it. After the discovery of the finger at Ferrie’s place, I’m also very curious to know what it is the case actually contains.

As I walk through the fading sunshine, my thoughts drift back to Leah. I’ve tried to keep her out of my mind these past few hours, but now that I’ve got time to myself, it’s proving impossible. I go back through our three weeks together, from start to finish. Our first meeting in the supermarket, the lovemaking that night. The picnic on Hampstead Heath the next day. Each and every date we shared. And in what I still can’t help feeling is an act of betrayal, I look for signs: anything unnatural in her behaviour during that time; a mistake in her back story; a moment of evasiveness. But there’s nothing. It was two people falling in love.

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