The Less Dead by Denise Mina

Author:Denise Mina [Mina, Denise]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2020-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

20

MARGO IS LEAVING. THEY’VE been together for two hours but it feels like a month. She can hardly wait to be alone and comb through everything.

Nikki gets a Post-it notepad and a tiny Ikea pencil out of the drawer and writes down her home address, an email and mobile number and her landline. She gives it to Margo and hands her the pencil and pad. Margo feels trapped, she’s got enough going on, but Nikki is staring at her, at the pad, at the pencil, so she writes. She puts her mobile number down but changes the last three digits. She gives a home address to the north of the city, in the opposite direction of her real address on the Southside. She gives an email address that’s just a jumble of letters and numbers.

Nikki takes it, reads it and smiles, she folds it very carefully. She puts it into the pocket of her jeans and pats it, smiling at Margo who feels like a duplicitous cow. Then Nikki says she’ll stay on at Lizzie’s to watch the end of the game but insists on escorting Margo down to the outside door to say goodbye there.

Margo would really rather say their goodbyes in the flat, where it’s private, in case Nikki cries again, but Nikki is indignant about that, she comes from a culture with different customs and says not escorting Margo down to the street would be very rude. Out in the hallway she puts on slippers and a blue dressing gown, both of which are too big for Lizzie. Margo wonders if the women are a couple.

They leave the flat and trip down to the mouth of the close, get to the outside door and Nikki opens it to the cold night.

‘I can’t thank you enough for coming to meet me, Nikki.’

Nikki hugs her awkwardly and lets go. She says maybe they can meet again, in a few weeks, now Margo’s got all her contact numbers and her home address. Margo says yes, lovely, and you’ve got mine.

They don’t know how to end their meeting. Margo steps out of the close and turns back to see the door shutting and Nikki watching through the narrow mesh window. Margo waves bye-bye and turns away. She is alone and relief sweeps over her.

She’s finally alone.

She glances back and sees Nikki still peering out at her through the narrow slit of glass, smiling. She nods and smiles too and Nikki waves but doesn’t leave. Margo turns away and performs looking for a taxi. She looks down to the river and the bridge but there’s nothing coming. She looks up, past the railway bridge, to the bright Trongate. Few cars, no taxis, but she sees movement in the dark under the bridge.

Two hundred yards away, in the shadows, a group of drunk men are walking towards her. Three men walk in a row but the fourth is an advance scout. He’s the smallest, the drunkest. They’re hanging back from him. He is unaware of this, out in front of the group, waving his arms and shouting.

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