Snakes and Losers: A DCI Marlowe novel by Alfie Robins

Author:Alfie Robins [Robins, Alfie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kings Town Publishing
Published: 2014-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

‘So, where did you find Anderson’s ex-wife?’ asked the DCI as he approached Tanya’s desk.

‘It wasn’t easy I can tell you,’ replied Tanya who was fighting a losing battle with the plastic wrapping on her pre-packed sandwich. ‘Why do they have to make these so bloody difficult?’ Holding the plastic between her teeth she ripped the wrapper wide nearly spilling the contents across the desk.

‘It’s never easy with piss-heads and junkies, never where you expect them to be. When you do find them they’re either drunk or stoned and it takes a month of Sundays to get any sense out of them.’

‘We trailed all over the city checking the homeless hostels, any place where we thought she might be hanging out but nobody had seen her in days. It was one of Jonno’s snouts who gave us the heads up where to find her. Turned out she was dossing down in a manky squat, back of a closed down shop along Anlaby Road. What a bloody dump, no running water, toilets clogged up, not flushing and shi..’

‘Ok, steady up, Tanya, I’ve just had my lunch.’

Tanya smiled and took a bite of her own lunch and carried on. ‘Talk about a mess, and I’m talking about her now. The state of her, all skin and bone with a face full of scabs, looked like she hadn’t had a good dinner in weeks. Jonno reckoned she was turning tricks to keep alive. God knows who’d pay good money to go with her.’

‘Takes all sorts, it’s surprising what blokes will pay for when they’ve had a skinful.’

‘Anyway, it turns out his sister is worth a bob or two. She lives the best part of the year in the sunshine, Menorca, Majorca or somewhere, but she keeps a posh caravan at Hornsea for the few months a year when she comes home. That cost me a tenner by the way.’ The last comment washed straight over the DCI.

Marlowe stood quiet, thinking. Tanya could almost see the cogs working in his head. ‘Right, I’m going for a fag. Have a word with Trev and get a couple of uniforms sorted and we’ll take a trip out to the seaside. Let’s just hope we find Anderson before Murphy gets his hands on him.’

It was an exceptionally busy day for the city’s police force. There couldn’t have been a worse time to request uniform back-up. Officers had been seconded from all sub-stations in the area, to oversee an unofficial protest march through the city centre by Council employees, protesting over cuts to pension and redundancy payments. Sergeant Cleeves stood resting on his elbows on the high level desk, writing in the duty log as Tanya approached and made her request.

‘Tanya, no, I haven’t got any spare bods for a jaunt out to the coast.’ Cleeves said shaking his head without even looking up.

‘Come on, sarge, don’t be like that, the DCI said…’

Cleeves looked up. ‘I don’t care what the PI said or didn’t say, I can’t spare anyone.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.