Until Death by Knight Ali

Author:Knight, Ali [Knight, Ali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2013-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

37

Georgie left the gym first and drove back to the docks. Stuck in a long queue on the Highway in Wapping, she pushed in the cigarette lighter and waited for it to pop back out. She touched the end of her finger with it. Less than a second later she had drawn it away, the pain of the burn lingering unpleasantly. Georgie spent the rest of the journey thinking about what women would suffer for the sake of their children.

In the evening Georgie wanted to go to the climbing wall and Ryan gave her a lift part of the way. They chatted about Dad and other family, about a neighbour trying to build an extension who was having problems with a busybody in the planning department of the council, according to Ryan. Georgie instinctively took the council’s side, but decided it was best not to tell Ryan that. She wanted their journey to be pleasant and relaxed, Kiss FM was blaring, and it was good to have a catch-up with her brother.

They were stationary at the lights when Ryan made an announcement. ‘We’ve got something for you – me and Uncle Ed.’

She was confused. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘A phone message. Want me to play it for you?’

He was looking triumphant and sly, the two commonest Bell traits. She became alarmed. ‘You didn’t do what I told you not to the other night, did you?’

‘Yeah. It works a treat. If you have the number you can get in to their message service – if they’ve never put in a security code or changed the factory default. He hadn’t, probably because he rarely uses it, like most people nowadays—’

‘Who’s he?’

‘Your shipping guy.’

Georgie was horrified. ‘You broke into the message service of Christos Malamatos? How did you find his number?’

‘You left your bag by the fire when you stomped out. You’re always so moody these days, G, we all think it. So Uncle Ed looked through your papers. Malamatos sounds Greek. Is he?’

‘For fuck’s sake – I told you not to do that. What were you doing rooting round in my bag?’

‘Oh, come on,’ added Ryan. ‘We’re trying to help. Do you want to hear the message or not?’

‘No, I bloody well don’t. It’s illegal.’

‘That’s not true though, G, is it? I know you want to get on, you don’t want to be stepped on all your life, just like we don’t.’

She knew he meant the rest of the Bells. Everyone doing what they could to live a little better, dream a little bigger. She had the same blood running through her veins. It was what she wanted, too. Ryan was waving his phone in front of her face, teasing her with it.

She switched off the radio. ‘Play it.’

He pressed a button and put it on speaker. The automatically generated computer voice said, ‘A message was left on Saturday, 19th October at 6.35 a.m. The caller withheld their number.’ Then a bunch of noises and a man’s voice, slow and deliberate. ‘1824 is no.

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