Tarkken by Annabelle Rex

Author:Annabelle Rex [Rex, Annabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Prospect and Raven
Published: 2020-06-17T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

THE TAXI DRIVER SPENT THE ENTIRE journey singing loudly - and tunelessly - along with the radio, so Tarkken and Marta had the chance to talk.

“Were those pictures any good?” he asked, an echo of the terror he felt when she leaned out to take them passing through him.

She pulled out her phone, flicking through it. Tarkken noticed that her case had a collage of pictures of Mouse on it.

“Humans are obsessed with cats,” he said. “I don’t understand it.”

“Don’t the Intergalactic Community have pets?” she asked, her eyes flicking up to meet his, her amusement illuminated by the light from her phone.

“Some of them. It’s not as common as it is amongst Humanity.”

“Aw, you’re missing out.”

“Why would I want a creature that looks at me like I’m an insect to share my living space?”

“Cuddles?”

“Does it actually like cuddles though? Or does it endure them under sufferance.”

“Mouse loves cuddles. Just on her terms. That’s the thing you have to understand with cats - everything has to be on their terms.”

Tarkken frowned. “So is she your pet, or are you hers?”

Marta laughed. “Maybe a bit of both.”

She was still looking through the photos, her thumb tracking across the screen as she moved from one to the next. He felt her surprise a fraction before she flicked back to take a second look at a photo, her fingers moving over the screen to zoom in.

“Take a look at that one,” she said, passing it to him. “Through the door. What does that look like to you?”

Tarkken examined the picture. The first thing he noted was the clear profile of Nick Gillespie standing in front of the door. He’d been pretty sure as soon as he’d heard the accent, remembering that lilting, musical way of speaking from his videos online, but seeing it in the photo was still a punch to the gut. He’d been less than three metres from a man who would kill him, given half a chance. He looked beyond Nick to the room behind him, only a fraction of it visible through the gap in the door but…

“That looks like a bedroom,” he said.

“That’s what I thought. He must be living down there. Perfect place, really, right in the city, underground. He could stay hidden there for years and no one would know.”

“So what is Deborah Fiennes for? Why would Ethan go there?”

Marta shrugged. “She might be where he got the bullets from. Lots of old money families like that like to hunt and shoot.”

It was a reasonable explanation, but they needed to be sure. He didn’t want to send the police down into the Starbright Lounge if there was a chance he was also spending some of his time at Deborah Fiennes’ place. When they went after him, Tarkken wanted to be sure they’d get him.

As the taxi drove through the still busy city streets, the driver butchering some ‘twenties bangers’, Tarkken tried to think through next steps, next options. But his eyes kept wandering back to Marta.

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