Breaking the Circle by S. M. Hall Read Free Book Online Page B

Gerard were inside? She stepped back, looking up at the windows on the upper floor; they were grimy and she couldn’t make
out anything or anybody inside. When a dog barked she jumped and shivered, remembering Gunner’s slashing jaws. It would be sensible to turn away, but that wasn’t in her nature.
Footsteps sounded, a figure loomed behind the wire fence. Through the gaps she saw a pair of boots; they were red and shiny – definitely not Gerard’s.
    A loud grating noise sounded as the fencing was pulled aside. A girl in a pinstriped jacket and very short skirt opened the gate and closed it behind her. She didn’t seem surprised to find
Maya standing there.
    ‘You want stuff?’ she asked.
    ‘Is Kay in?’
    The girl’s eyes swept over Maya. ‘You are her friend?’
    ‘Yes,’ Maya answered. ‘I’m a good friend.’
    The girl eyed her suspiciously. ‘You do not look like a friend.’ She glanced back at the house and shrugged. ‘Kay is gone, there was a big fight. Gerard is angry.’
    ‘Do you know where I can find her?’
    The girl glanced over her shoulder. ‘Maybe the warehouse at the canal.’
    A dog barked again, closer this time. Maya’s heart pounded; that gate wouldn’t withstand a Gunner attack. She felt in her pocket, pulled out a ten pound note and held it out to the
girl.
    ‘What canal, where?’
    The girl grabbed the note and gave her directions. Maya sped away, aware of Gunner barking, aware of the clock ticking.

Jumping down onto the towpath, Maya walked in the direction the girl had described, past carefully-tended houseboats festooned with flowering plants, grass clipped neatly at
the water’s edge, the backs of smart, newly-renovated flats – on to a point where the water became brackish and green. Here she stood in front of shabby warehouses built of crumbling
and blackened red brick with wide doors and peeling paint. A truck stood outside one of them and there were deep tyre tracks in the mud. Signs hung above the doors – Bullock’s Body
Works, East End Electricals – and then she spotted the sign she was looking for – a simple O with a cross through it.
    The wide door was solid and padlocked. A smaller, narrow door, set into the big doors, was closed. Maya knocked, stood back and waited. Nothing, no answer, no sound came from inside. She turned
and looked across the water wondering what to do, then she heard a faint scraping sound behind her.
    ‘Kay? Kay?’ Maya said, moving closer.
    She saw the narrow, inset door judder and open a few centimetres. When she put her hand on the door to pull it open, another grabbed hers and she was yanked inside. The door slammed shut behind
her.
    It was murky inside, the only glimmer of light coming from a lantern set on a work bench.
    ‘Why are you here? What do you want?’ With relief Maya recognised Kay’s voice. ‘Did Gerard send you?’ she demanded.
    ‘No.’
    Kay stood in front of the lantern so Maya could only see her silhouette.
    ‘Why are you hiding here?’ Maya asked.
    Silence stretched out into the darkness, making a wall between them. Maya heard Kay sniff, then she spoke haltingly, breathing heavily in between words, as if the explanation were costing her
too much effort.
    ‘Yesterday I see Gerard with a new girl. I say he cheat on me. He is angry. Then he start shouting, he say I steal his drugs. He say he put the packet in your bag and I help you steal the
bag from vet’s. He say I have the drugs.’
    Maya leaned forward, peering into the dim void. ‘Well you do, don’t you?’
    Kay didn’t reply. She moved away and her face was suddenly illuminated in the glow of the lantern. Maya saw that her lip was bloody, one side of her face swollen, her right eye slightly
closed.
    ‘Did Gerard do that?’ she demanded.
    Kay gave a harsh, bitter laugh. She ran her fingers over her swollen face, wincing as she touched her split lip. ‘He ask me where I put the drugs but I do not tell him. I say I know
nothing.’