Substantial Threat by Nick Oldham Read Free Book Online

doubtfully and sipped the hot drink while studying her face carefully, but surreptitiously. There was something familiar about her. He had an exceptional mind when it came to recalling names and faces, rarely forgetting either, but his recall of her was slightly skewed and out of all context. He frowned. ‘I know your face, but I’m struggling to place you,’ he admitted.
    â€˜Sounds like a chat-up line.’
    â€˜If I wasn’t investigating a murder, it would be,’ he said. Then he made the connection in his mind: murder . . . body . . . death . . . ‘I’ve got it,’ he said with a hint of triumph. A sudden death, two, no, three years ago . . . a suicide. The deceased had taken a shed-load of pills and not been discovered for about a week or so and had started to rot nicely, thank you. Henry had gone to the death as a matter of routine, but there had been nothing for the CID. Nothing suspicious in it. Henry had happened to be at the scene when the body remover arrived. ‘You’re an undertaker,’ he declared.
    â€˜I’ve had enough of this shit now,’ Ray Cragg said bluntly. ‘You can go.’
    â€˜You mean it?’ JJ said in disbelief.
    â€˜Oh, c’mon, Ray,’ Marty whined. ‘You’re not gonna let him go, are you? Let’s break a few fuckin’ fingers at least. Twat deserves it.’
    Ray scowled at Marty. ‘Yes, you can go, JJ,’ but then he pointed to the open window. ‘But you’ve got to go that way. I want to see you climb down the wall. You must be just like Spiderman.’
    â€˜Eh?’ JJ said suspiciously.
    â€˜You heard. I said you can go, but you’ve got to climb out of the window, just like you were doing when we came in.’
    â€˜You’re joking.’
    â€˜Never joke. If you want to go, that’s the way you’re going to have to do it, otherwise I’ll let Marty and Crazy give you a few digs and a few broken bones.’
    The Adam’s apple in JJ’s scrawny throat rose and fell. He pushed himself slowly to his feet, stubbing out the butt of the hand-rolled cigarette in the overfilled ashtray. With a terrible sense of foreboding he approached the window, cautiously eyeing the three men, seeing if there was any possible way out past Marty and Crazy. There wasn’t. They had the door blocked. No chance of doing a runner. Even Carrie had stopped her sobbing and moaning and was watching transfixed from behind her bloody fingers.
    â€˜Go on, don’t dilly-dally,’ Ray urged him. ‘Giving me a display of your climbing prowess is the only way you’re going to leave this room.’
    JJ hesitated, then swung his right leg over the window and sat astride it.
    â€˜Go,’ said Ray. ‘I want to see you climb down.’
    JJ eased his left leg over and lowered his toes down to the ledge.
    Suddenly Ray crossed the room and faced JJ. ‘Actually no one skims from me. Two hundred quid or two grand, it doesn’t matter. Principle’s the same. You stole from me, committed theft.’
    On the last word, Ray’s right hand shot out palm first, but landed softly on JJ’s chest. JJ clung on to the window frame. His eyes pleaded with Ray’s, but got nothing back in return, just ice.
    â€˜Fuck . . . Ray . . . Don’t!’
    A look of utter contempt twisted on to Ray’s face. Then he pushed and said, ‘Fly, you bastard.’
    JJ could not hold on. His fingers lost their grip and he was out in mid-air in freefall. He knew there was nothing he could do, just wait for the impact and maybe hope to survive it somehow. There was a whooshing sensation past his ears as he hurtled down. It lasted only momentarily and then he hit the ground. But there was nothing. No pain. No feeling. No blackness.
    Ray had leaned out of the window to watch the fall. To him, JJ seemed to be in the air for a long, long time, it was as if everything had slowed