Eoin Miller 01 - Faithless Street by Jay Stringer Read Free Book Online Page A

then, “I dow see your name anywhere?”
    “So that’s how you’re going to be?”
    Owen shrugged, “No choice.”
    “Oh, aliens controlling your brain
again?”
    Owen softened, handed Fuller a bag and
said, here, on the house. Then he opened up a little more, “I’m in a corner
here, I owe Claire Gaines seven grand.”
    “Seven grand?”
    “And If I dow have it by the end of the
week, she’s gonna rip my dick off, she says.”
    “Seven grand?”
    “Did you hear the part about my dick?”
    “Yeah but I’m ignoring that, it’s a mental
image I don’t want. Shit, seven grand? Why’d you borrow that?”
    “I didn’t.   Remember the thing I used to run at college? You give me a
fiver at the weekend and I’ll bring you back 30 from the bookies?”
    “Sure, I used to like that.”
    “Way it worked, there was this guy I
followed, good tipster. I’d win 50, keep twenty and give you thirty.”
    “Sure.”
    “Well I been working on that, only then
it was, you give me 100 and I’ll bring you 400, like, or you give me 500 and-”
He shrugged, “I’ve been pretty good at it.”
    “So what happed?”
    “Gaines came to me, said she wanted to
raise some money quick, wanted to invest in something without her family
knowing, to prove she was better than her sister or something.”
    “She has a sister?”
    “Yeah, older. Anyway, she gave me a
grand, said she wanted to see four back, I said that was cool. I been following
this tipster on twitter, see? And he’s better than the old guy, never fails. So
I laid all the money out, but not one of the fucking bets came in.”
    “So that covers one grand.”
    “No, see, she said I’d guaranteed her
four, so she expected that back. Then she said, if I was making her four then I
was making myself at least two, so she added that in because she says I must’ve
ripped her off, and that if I don’t stump up she’ll do some ripping off of her
own.”
    Fuller laughed, “Oh shit, you’re in it.
Look, you sell, Ill go chill with Alex.” Then he left Owen to it in the
bathroom, saying under his breath, “It’s just one of those parties.”
    The kind where they played MC Hammer
remixes all night to sound hip and ironic, but really just ended up enjoying
the music and dancing.
    Fuller nodded at Tony on his way past,
before he got to the games room. Tony looked spaced, he wasn’t going to
respond, but then he grabbed Fuller by the arm and said, “Serious, what’s that
noise?”
    Fuller cocked his head and listed,
humoring the space cadet, but then he heard it. Radio squawk, chatter through
static. For the first time he noticed the strobing blue light coming in above
he front door, through the pane of frosted glass.
    Cops.
    Looks like Adele Wright may have been a
little more trouble than everyone thought. Fuller handed Owen’s free sample to
Tony, then emptied his stash out of his pockets and into the coats that were
hung up in the hallway. He zipped up his coat and quietly let himself out the
front door, nodding to all the officers that were lined up outside, ready to
bust in. They stared at him for a second, caught off guard, then rugby tackled
him to the ground while the rest of them ran on into the house shouting,
“police.” From inside, Fuller could hear the cops banging on the bathroom door,
and heard the toilet flushing.
    Lee Owen was going to have to find
another way to come up with seven grand.

 
 

About The Author

 
    Jay Stringer was born in Walsall, West Midlands,
in 1980. He would like everyone to know he's not dead yet. He's worked as a zoo
keeper, a bookseller, a video editor and a call centre lackey.
    His work is a mixture of crime, mystery and
social fiction, and Jay coined the term "social pulp" to describe the
mix. He likes to write about the difference between the 'haves' and the 'have
nots,' and to show that violence and crime are sharp and brutal acts that are
done for a reason, and by those who have reason to do them.
    His first novel,