Taken for Dead (Kate Maguire) by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

Recent tip-offs suggested high-quality rocks were being cooked up in almost industrial quantities in a house on Rathpeacon Road and a flat over a shop in Bóthar Chúrsa an Uisce.
    Katie’s detectives had discovered that there was a new and highly organized gang behind this new drug operation. What interested her was that they appeared to be Belgians, rather than the usual suspects from Lithuania or Romania or Somalia.
    ‘So far as we can find out, the fellow behind it calls himself Necker, and he comes from Antwerp,’ said Detective Brannigan. ‘I checked with the cops there, though, and they laughed at me. They didn’t know of any drug dealer by that name, and Necker just means “devil” in their language.’
    ‘I don’t care if he calls himself Santa Claus,’ said Katie. ‘Let’s find him and stop him before half the young people in the city get addicted – the half that aren’t addicted already.’
    ***
    She went home early that evening – or what was early for her. It had started to rain by the time she parked outside her house in Cobh, a fine chilly rain that was almost a mist. In spite of that, she still had to take Barney for his walk, although she didn’t go as far as she usually did, only up the hill to Rushbrooke Lawn Tennis Club and back.
    Barney pattered on ahead of her, as always, but since John had left he had taken to turning around now and again, as if to reassure her that he would look after her now that she was alone.
    ‘Go on, boy,’ she told him. ‘I’m okay.’
    In reality, though, she didn’t know if she was okay or not. She was still asking herself if she had made the right decision, staying in Cork when she could have gone with John to San Francisco and taken up the job that he had arranged for her with Pinkerton’s detective agency. But here she was, walking through the wet streets in her black hooded raincoat, tired and hungry and, worst of all, lonely.
    She had only just returned home and was hanging up her raincoat when the doorbell chimed. When she went to open it, she found David Kane from next door standing in the porch. He was holding a bottle of Prosecco in one hand and a bunch of orange roses in the other.
    ‘Oh,’ said Katie, and looked at him blankly.
    ‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten!’ he smiled. ‘Drinks, seven-thirty? Am I too early?’
    ‘Oh my God, it totally slipped my mind,’ said Katie. ‘It’s just been one of those days. Well, every day is one of those days. But come on in.’
    As David stepped into the hallway, Barney came sniffing excitedly around his legs and wagging his tail.
    ‘Barney – get down!’ she said. ‘Behave yourself!’
    ‘He can probably smell the other dogs on me,’ said David. ‘I had my first two patients today – a German shepherd and a shih tzu. Well, a budgerigar too, but the poor old budgie had advanced polyoma so I had to put it down.’
    Katie held the front door open and peered outside.
    ‘You couldn’t persuade your wife to come?’
    ‘Sorcha? No, I’m afraid not. She said she wasn’t in the mood for it. She’s had a very hard day hanging up curtains and arranging furniture. She said she wanted an early bath and bed.’
    David took the Prosecco and the roses into the kitchen and laid them on the table.
    ‘You have some champagne glasses? I admit it’s not real champagne, but we might as well pretend.’
    ‘Of course, yes,’ said Katie, and took two flutes from the cupboard over the sink. ‘They’re not very classy, I’m afraid. My husband got them free with petrol. My late husband, Paul.’
    ‘They’ll do fine. Better than drinking champagne out of a coffee mug. I did that the day I passed my MVB.’
    He paused, and then added, in a mock-Italian accent, ‘ Medicina Veterinaria Baccalaureate ,’ in case she didn’t know what MVB stood for, although she did.
    Katie went to the larder and took out a packet of peanuts and some chilli-flavoured crisps. The last thing she felt like doing was