Borderlands: A DCI Ryan Mystery by Lj Ross

Author:Lj Ross
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2019-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

There was a rainbow over the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, and as the soldier stood by the banks of the river looking up at it, he wondered if it was a sign. A rucksack with all his worldly possessions lay by his feet and, as the office workers began to stream out of the smart, renovated old buildings lining the Quayside, he wondered whether the time had come to bid the world a fond farewell.

He was tired, you see. So tired of waking up each day with a hungry belly and without hope for the future, relying on the charity and disdain of others. So tired of going to sleep at night, wondering if he would even wake up at all.

Once, he’d been a man to be reckoned with but, thanks to the fire, partial blindness had left him unable to use a screen for long periods of time, in an age where computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones and every other kind of phone were king. Ongoing weakness in his hands, arms and legs left him unable to do many types of manual labour without special provision, which some workplaces were unwilling to arrange—not if they could hire somebody else, who needed no such provision. It made it hard for him to type, too, and e-mails at the twenty-four-hour internet café were achieved with slow concentration; not the fast, speed-typing that many office places looked for.

Most of all, there was the crippling PTSD that could strike at any time, reducing him to a shaking, vomiting mess of a man that made others feel uncomfortable to be around.

And still, he tried.

He went along to the internet café every day and searched the database for a job he might be able to do, steeling himself to find an inbox full of rejections from his previous day’s efforts. Sometimes, he went along to the People’s Kitchen, to remind himself that there were still good people in the world. Other times, he came here, to the river.

And wondered whether it was time to call it a day.

Just then, he felt a nudge against his leg and looked down to find the dog sitting beside him, tail wagging against the pavement as it stared up at him with its dumb, trusting face.

The soldier sighed, and bent down to ruffle its ears.

“What do you call him?”

He turned in surprise to find an old woman standing beside him. She appeared to be out walking a chocolate Labrador that was at least half her size, and looked as though it might make a bolt for the nearest Greggs at any moment.

“This here’s Charlie,” she said, patting the dog’s head with a bony hand. “What did you say your dog’s called?”

He hadn’t.

The soldier looked down at the dog and smiled.

“Naseem,” he whispered. “This is my dog, Naseem.”

* * *

Ryan and Phillips found Sergeant Major Gwen Davies in the gymnasium, where she was completing a long run on the treadmill. When she spotted them in the doorway, she stopped the running cycle and turned off the music that was blasting from speakers around the room.

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