Lastnight by Stephen Leather Read Free Book Online Page B

ask?’
    ‘Thought I might try it. There’s a dress code, right?’
    Hannah shrugged carelessly. ‘You might want to lose the raincoat, but not everyone there is Goth or Emo.’
    Nightingale blew smoke down at the ground. ‘What’s the difference between a Goth and an Emo?’
    ‘That’s a good question,’ said Hannah.
    ‘Any chance of an answer?’
    The girl sighed. ‘I’m not one for labels. But I guess when you’re a Goth, you hate the world. When you’re an Emo, the world hates you.’
    ‘So you hate the world? Seriously?’
    Becky smiled thinly. ‘What’s not to hate?’ she asked.
    ‘But doesn’t being different make it worse?’
    ‘Everyone’s different,’ she said scornfully. She nodded down at his shoes. ‘What are they, Hush Puppies?’
    ‘Yeah. I hear they’re coming back into fashion.’
    She laughed. ‘They’re not,’ she said. ‘But you choose to wear them, they’re your style.’
    ‘I do a lot of walking and they’re comfortable,’ he said.
    Becky gestured at the chains hanging from her jeans. ‘And I feel comfortable like this,’ she said.
    ‘Why are you so interested in Goths?’ asked Hannah.
    ‘I’m working with the cops, trying to find out who’s behind the killings.’
    Becky looked across at him, her eyes narrowed. ‘Seriously?’
    He nodded. ‘Yeah. Seriously. I was just talking to the wife of one of the guys who died. Gabe Patterson. And I’m heading over to Battersea to talk to Abbie Green’s flatmate.’
    ‘I met her once,’ said Hannah.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Abbie Green.’
    ‘Really?’ said Nightingale.
    ‘Yeah, in the Crypt. She was with her girlfriend. What was her name?’
    ‘Zoe?’
    ‘Yeah, that’s it. Zoe.’ Hannah leaned over to look at Becky. ‘You remember Zoe? The blonde with the tits? She kept hitting on you?’
    Becky wrinkled her nose and shook her head.
    Hannah laughed at Nightingale. ‘She was out of her head, she usually is at the Crypt. Zoe was a bit older than Abbie.’ She grinned mischievously. ‘Not as old as you, obviously. Late twenties. Thirty, maybe, hard to tell with all the make-up. Seriously, she kept hitting on Becky even if she doesn’t remember. Wanted to take her back to the flat with her and Abbie.’
    ‘When was this?’
    ‘A few months ago. It was no big deal.’
    ‘She thought I was a lezza?’ asked Becky.
    ‘I don’t think she cared,’ said Hannah. She took a long pull on her cigarette and smiled at Nightingale as she blew a tight plume of smoke up into the air. ‘So why are you helping the cops? You some sort of Sheer-luck Holmes?’
    ‘All hands to the pumps,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘You need to catch the bastard, and quick,’ said Becky.
    ‘The cops are working on it,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘By bringing in a private dick?’ said Hannah scornfully. ‘What about DNA? CCTV? I mean, they listen in on all our phone calls and read all our emails, don’t they? How hard can it be to catch someone who’s killed, what, five people?’
    Nightingale nodded. ‘Yeah, five.’
    ‘You know what I don’t understand?’ asked Hannah. ‘How does the killer get them to go with him? I mean, we’ve just met you, right? If you said you wanted us to go with you so that you could show us some puppies we’d tell you what to do with yourself, right?’
    ‘I hope so,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘So how does the killer get five adults to go off with him so that he can cut them up into little pieces?’
    ‘Is that what he does?’ said Becky.
    ‘He uses a knife to mutilate them,’ said Nightingale. ‘He doesn’t cut them up, he just slices their skin.’
    ‘What sort of sick bastard does that?’ asked Becky.
    Nightingale shrugged. ‘We’ll know when we catch him. But we don’t think it’s just one guy. Two, maybe more.’
    ‘But that’s what makes it even more strange,’ said Hannah. ‘I’m not going to go off with two guys I don’t know, am I?’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘What do you mean?’ She took a