Young, Gifted and Deadly by William Stafford

Author:William Stafford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: crime, detective, murder, whodunit, police, occult, Satanism, school, monk, priory, humour, funny, comic, thriller, mystery, Black Country, satire, blood, pentagram, West Midlands
ISBN: 9781785385117
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2016-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

10.

At lunchtime, a fight broke out on the playing field. Kids poured from the dining hall and filled the embankment, bloodthirsty spectators in a Roman arena. The gladiators grappling on the grass were Logger and Callum. They swung their arms at each other, shoving and grabbing, while the crowd chanted, “Fight! Fight!” in case anyone was in any doubt about what was going on.

Stevens and Pattimore joined the exodus, catching up with and overtaking a couple of on-duty teachers who seemed in no particular hurry to break up the fray.

“Leave them a bit,” advised the Science teacher they had met earlier. “That Logan Lawrence deserves a good kicking.”

Pattimore pointed at the pugilistic pair. “Which one’s Logan Lawrence?”

The Science teacher winced; the crowd cheered. “That one who’s just landed on his nose.”

Pattimore bounded to the battling boys.

“Who’s the other one?” said Stevens with the air of a man about to place a bet on the victor. The Science teacher squinted through his spectacles.

“My word! I didn’t recognise him without his glasses. The boy giving Logger a pasting is Callum Phillips. Well, well! I never knew he had it in him.”

“Shit!” Stevens hurried to catch up with Pattimore.

Logger was back on his feet. He rushed the specky (temporarily spec-less) twat, ramming his head against Callum’s sternum. Callum staggered back and then brought up his knee under Logger’s jaw. The crowd roared in approval.

Pattimore jogged up. “Boys! Boys! That’s enough of that.”

Logger froze, distracted. Callum head-butted him on the forehead. Logger dropped onto his backside. Pattimore stood over him; by the time Stevens arrived, Callum had run away, through the bushes and out through the gap in the fence.

“Shit,” Stevens panted, leaning forward with his hands on his thighs. “You know who that was?”

“Who?” said Pattimore. He offered a hand to the boy on the ground. Logger scowled, declining assistance. Dogger and Bonk stepped forward, proffering his coat and bag; Logger glowered at them as well.

“Only Callum whatsit,” said Stevens, staring at the hedges.

“Shit,” said Pattimore.

“He fucking started it, sir,” said Logger, stating the case for his own defence.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Pattimore. He showed Logger his i.d. The boy paled. “You can tell me all about it indoors.”

He and Stevens frogmarched Logger up the concrete steps, through the crowd and into the main building. Someone recognised the supply teacher with the porn-star moustache and within seconds a new chant arose.

“Mis-ter Cunt! Mis-ter Cunt!”

Stevens couldn’t get inside fast enough.

***

Brough and Miller were invited to wait on the garden path while the crime scene investigation unit... investigated the scene of the crime. Brough paced, impatient, while Miller was more philosophical.

“They don’t want us getting under their feet,” she said. “In case we touch something.”

“I don’t know about you, Miller,” Brough sneered, “but I’m a trained professional. I wasn’t planning on running around the place like a two-year old.”

“No,” Miller muttered. “You’m just sulking like one.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Sir.”

Miller was spared a grilling by the emergence of the SOCO through the patio doors.

“Well?” Brough rounded on him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.