DEATHLOOP by G. Brailey Read Free Book Online Page B

black guy stood up as he pushed his way into the building, and was about to accost him, when Betty called over.
    “It’s all right, Patrick, it’s Mr Fortune!”
    Yes, and I only walk past you each morning thought Zack as Patrick sat down again, still scanning him for signs of recognition. Betty didn’t miss much. Zack liked her in a funny kind of way. She was a dragon of course, but you know where you are with dragons. Zack went up in the lift fielding looks from the suits that surrounded him. He went straight into Sam’s empty office and sat behind his desk.
    “Padre,” said Sam taken aback as he walked in ten minutes later, “what gives?”
    Zack looked at Sam and Sam knew enough about his old friend to realise that something was up, and big time. So Sam closed the door, pulled up a chair and looked for hints, praying it had nothing to do with the stupid regression thing yesterday, which Clarissa admitted had not gone well.
    “Brunswick Street, you know it?”
    “Is that the dingy little place that opens out into the square?”
    “That’s the one, I’d just turned into it on my way back to the flat when I heard a shout…”
    “A shout?”
    “I looked up and saw a girl on a roof. She was calling out to me, calling out my name.”
    “Who was she, this girl?”
    “That’s the thing, I’d never seen her before. She was a complete stranger.”
    “So how come she knew you?”
    “You tell me.”
    Sam looked at him. “What time was this?”
    “About six…”
    “And what did she want you to do?”
    “I don’t know, I still don’t know.”
    “So what was she doing up there?”
    “She was about to jump off, Sam… she was about to kill herself.”
    This silenced Sam for a few moments. It silenced both of them.
    “She said something like ‘Zachariah, here I am, catch me’, then she jumped, and landed right at my feet. I thought it was Susan, God, Sam, I thought it was Susan…”
    Sam responded to the catch in Zack’s voice by getting up and walking round the desk. He perched on the side of it now, patting his chubby hand on Zack’s arm, his usual show of solidarity.
    “How did she know me? How did she know my name?”
    “Well, she must have known you from somewhere, obviously…”
    “But I’d never seen her before, I just told you.”
    “An old girlfriend maybe…”
    “ Oh come on , I’m not that bad.”
    Sam looked like he wasn’t so sure.
    “And why ask me to catch her? The girl was intent on killing herself, did she want to flatten me as well?”
    Sam puffed out his cheeks and for the moment could think of nothing to say.
    “As soon as I turned into the street I heard her… actually, it was like she’d been waiting for me to turn up.”
    “Maybe she was calling to someone else, maybe you misheard her.”
    “There was no one else there… the street was completely deserted, until she jumped of course…”
    “Did the cops come?”
    “I’m sure they did, but I didn’t wait to find out. How did she know me, Sam? What did she want me to do?”
    “You need to go home and get your head down, mate, sleep helps with stuff like this.”
    Zack was expecting this. Sam’s remedy for everything was sleep. Zack stood up and started to pace, he glanced out of the window then back at Sam who was still perched on his desk, sidesaddle, like a tubby little parrot on a swing.
    “I heard what happened last night by the way, with Susan… difficult?”
    “Not as difficult as this.”
    “So what did you do afterwards,” said Sam, as though the thought had just occurred to him.
    “Afterwards?”
    “Have you been here since? I mean for two hours?”
    “No, but don’t ask me where I’ve been because I couldn’t tell you.”
    This seemed to confirm things for Sam. “Listen, mate, go back home and get some shut eye, things will look better when you wake up.”
    The door opened revealing Geoff bewildered by Zack’s sports garb and about to mention it.
    “Zack has had a bit of a shock,