The Cutting Place by Jane Casey

Author:Jane Casey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2020-03-23T17:00:00+00:00

26

The evening had degenerated into the kind of chaos that meant a man racing out of the dining room into the Chiron Club’s hall didn’t attract all that much attention. It also meant, however, that Peter Ashington didn’t have a clear run to the outside world. He smacked straight into a vast, enormously drunk man who bearhugged him while laughing uproariously. As he fought to get free, I caught up with him and managed to grab hold of a flailing arm.

‘Wait. I need to talk to you.’

Fear lent him the strength he needed to swing the huge man around so he cannoned into me. I lost my grip on Ashington, knocked off balance. For a moment I thought I was going to fall, my heels finding no purchase on the highly polished marble floor as the big man roared, outraged. Ashington wriggled free like a salmon thrashing upstream, and slid towards the door.

Like the answer to a prayer, Georgia appeared on the other side of the hall and, for once, took in the situation at a glance. She dropped her tray and ran forward to intercept him.

‘Stop!’

Ashington shoved her, sending her flying as he made for the door through a throng of smokers returning from the steps outside. She fell against the wall with a thud that made me wince. The smokers stared at her with bland curiosity, none of them making a move to help her. That was someone else’s job, presumably.

‘Get ready, he’s running,’ I said for the benefit of the surveillance team.

Liv’s voice was calm and assured. ‘We’d worked that out. We can see him on the steps. I think he’s trying to decide which way to go. Josh and Chris are already in pursuit and all the local uniformed teams are coming to help. Oh – there he goes.’

‘Which way?’

‘He’s heading towards Blackfriars Bridge.’ She caught her breath. ‘That was close. Nearly got hit by a taxi. He’s fast.’

‘Too fast for us. And too strong. And too drunk to know what’s dangerous.’ I was crossing the hall to check on Georgia, aware that two grey-suited men were converging on her from the stairs and the main door and worried that she might give herself – and me – away as undercover police officers before I was ready for that. She was still crumpled in a heap where she had fallen. Genuine concern sharpened my voice. ‘Hey, Georgia? Are you all right?’

She stared at me with an unfocused gaze. ‘M’fine.’

‘I don’t think you are.’ I helped her to her feet and steadied her as she wobbled against me. ‘I think she might have hit her head when she fell.’

I said it for Liv’s benefit, but as if I was talking to the taller of the two grey-suited men.

‘Hurts.’ Georgia put a hand up to explore the back of her head and winced. ‘There’s a bump.’

‘She’ll be all right,’ the first grey suit said coldly. ‘Won’t you, love.’

‘I get Mr Hooper,’ the second said.

‘Get an ambulance,’ I said. ‘She needs an ambulance.

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