Redlaw - 01 by James Lovegrove Read Free Book Online Page B

tapped her head, with its shock of choppily cropped blonde hair. “All up here. Because I’ve been going through that file over and over lately, and wondering just what’s got into you, why you’ve become so damn erratic.”
    “Erratic?”
    “Don’t make out like you’ve no idea what I’m talking about. It won’t wash. Especially not while you keep fingering your ribs like that and wincing.”
    “Bruised not broken, I think.”
    “Glad to hear it.” She steepled her fingers. “Once upon a time there was a man who worked for me called John Redlaw who could be relied on to act with complete probity and do whatever he needed to to ensure ’Lesses stay where they belong and humans don’t get molested. I don’t see that John Redlaw standing before me right now.”
    “Who do you see?” He was feigning indifference, but not very well.
    “I see, for starters, a man who’s been cited seven times for failing to follow up on reports of Sunless attacks.”
    “People lie about getting bitten, make up stories. Waste our time.”
    “Nonetheless we have a duty of care. Every single claim must be investigated fully and with due diligence.”
    “Even when it’s just attention seekers taking the mick? Or wonky-headed Goths messing around with fake fangs and suction pumps? Or nutters who just bite people for the sake of biting?”
    “Even then. You have to prove it conclusively, with hard evidence to back your findings up. Not take one look and judge.”
    “One look’s usually all it takes.”
    “I know that, you know that, but we still have to go through the process.”
    “Go through the motions, you mean.”
    “Whatever.” Macarthur’s Scottish burr, faint after years in the south, still rolled the odd “r,” especially when she was in an irritable mood. “Whatever” became “whateverrr,” and Redlaw’s surname was almost growled: Rrredlaw . “The point is, we have to be seen to be doing our job. Otherwise people get anxious, more anxious than they already are. We’re the thin blue line between ordinary folk and a phenomenon they don’t understand but fear greatly. We’re a shield, and we need to seem impeccably sturdy. They depend on us.”
    “So I should pretend it matters when some old biddy’s cat goes missing and she thinks Tibbles has been snatched by a vampire? Okay, I get you. Message received. I’ll try harder in future.”
    Macarthur chose to ignore the drollery. “As long as you pretend convincingly, that’s fine. Then there’s the matter of the charges of assault that have been brought against you by civilians on no fewer than five occasions. Including a new one just today.”
    “Don’t tell me. The Stokers from last night.” Redlaw rolled his eyes heavenward. “They had it coming.”
    “You put two of them in hospital, John.”
    “They should count themselves lucky that’s all I did.”
    “One of them will never walk again unaided.”
    “I’m fed up with ruddy Stokers. Giving their gang a fancy name and making out as if they’re some kind of grass-roots activist movement—it doesn’t legitimise what they do. Unless you have a government mandate to deal with the Sunless, you’re just criminals, meaning I have not just the authority but an obligation to stop you.”
    “Nicely put. I’m sure you told them that, too.”
    “They didn’t strike me as the type to listen to sermons.”
    “According to their testimony, they’d unearthed a rogue ’Less. Doubtless, after you’d finished with them, you dusted it yourself.”
    “I didn’t, as a matter of fact.”
    Macarthur tweaked one eyebrow high. “Why ever not?”
    “In all the confusion, he disappeared,” Redlaw said.
    “Not like you to let one slip through your fingers.”
    “You said it yourself—I’m knocking on a bit. When I was younger, four thugs wouldn’t have taken me nearly so long to polish off.”
    The Commodore looked sceptical, but decided not to pursue that particular angle any further.