The Last Train by Scarrow Alex

Author:Scarrow, Alex [Scarrow, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Crime, thriller
Amazon: B097NK26GR
Goodreads: 58511839
Publisher: GrrBooks
Published: 2021-10-01T07:00:00+00:00

Boyd’s lunch ended up looking passably Mediterranean and he ate some of his almost-paella out in the back garden with Ozzie overseeing each mouthful. His plan was to have an old-man nap afterwards and then fill the latter end of the afternoon with some research on the Bosnian War. His landline rang again.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ he grumbled as he hurried back indoors.

He picked the phone up. ‘Yup?’

‘Is that William Boyd?’

‘Who’s asking?’

‘My name’s Ruth Cadwell. Are you William Boyd?’

‘Just Boyd,’ he said. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘You’re the guy who helped Lucas Pesic take down the hijacker?’ Ruth said.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Some pap must have dug out his phone number. ‘Look, I’m not doing interviews or –’

‘I’m calling on behalf of Lucas Pesic. He asked me to ring you. He wants to meet up with you.’

Boyd paused. He hadn’t been expecting that. They’d exchanged a manly handshake and a ‘take care’ as both of them parted company and were escorted to different ambulances by their paramedics and they hadn’t had any contact since.

‘Who are you in relation to him?’ Boyd asked.

‘I’m his PR manager,’ Ruth said. ‘As I’m sure you’re aware, he’s becoming a bit of a celebrity.’

Boyd laughed. And why not? It took a pair of stones to do what he’d done. ‘I’m glad for him,’ he replied. ‘He’s a ballsy guy.’

‘Yes. Yes, he is. But… I’m a bit worried about him, to be honest,’ said Ruth.

Ozzie started barking outside and Boyd wandered over to the doorway to peer down the hall. ‘What’s wrong with Lucas?’ he asked.

Through the dining-room window he could see Ozzie, pacing up and down the dividing fence between his garden and the Parrot Lady’s next door. Between the barks, Boyd could hear the bird calling Ozzie all sorts of rude names.

‘I think he may be suffering some kind of post-trauma backlash. This last week has been quite an intense experience for him, and I think he needs to decompress with someone.’

‘Family and friends are usually a good place to start, Ms Cadwell. Not some random bloke he met on a train.’

‘He has no family. He has literally no one. He’s an illegal and he’s had a pretty tough few years over here.’

Boyd recalled reading something along those lines in the papers. There’d been a picture of Lucas’s chubby round face making short work of a doughnut.

‘He asked me to ask you whether he could meet you somewhere for a pint and a chat. Just the two of you. No press, no PR. No one else.’

Boyd gave that a moment of consideration. The man had been pleasant and friendly before things had kicked off. A likeable chap. And Boyd had to admit there’d been several times over the last week when he’d felt it would have been helpful to process the experience with someone else who’d actually been there.

‘All right,’ he said. ‘I don’t see why not.’

‘Thank you. I’m managing his exposure to the press, but also I’m rapidly becoming his mother, I think. He’s in quite a fragile mental state right now and I think this will really help him.

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