The Amen Cadence by J. J. Salkeld Read Free Book Online

but….’
     
    Pepper crossed the floor fast, with Henry two steps behind. She had just raised her hand to knock on Young’s closed door when it opened fast and a fat man, in a suit that had last fitted him many meals before, almost fell out.
    ‘Good,’ said Pepper as she walked in, ‘I’m glad we’re not interrupting anything.’
    ‘Only me bringing new jobs to the city, that’s all.’
    ‘You? Jobs? The only jobs you’d bring are the ones that come with a crime reference number attached.’
    Young was sitting, shirtsleeves rolled up, and he glanced at Henry, playing offended.
    ‘You hear that, DC Armstrong. That’s libel, that is.’
    ‘It’s slander,’ said Pepper. ‘Or it would be, if it it wasn’t true. And it’s your work, if you can call it that, we’ve come to talk to you about.’
     
    Pepper sat down, unbidden, and Henry followed suit, even though it felt slightly wrong. But he would have looked a proper prat if he’d remained standing.
    ‘You were seen, love’, she said, looking hard at Young.
    Young smiled, slowly. ‘Go on, I’ll bite. Where was I seen? Coming out of some supermodel’s hotel suite at 4am again, was it?’
    Pepper told him the address, and the time.
    ‘Sorry, love, but you’ve lost me completely there. That’s not one of my properties, one of my rentals, and I certainly wouldn’t live round there. It’s where poor people live, is that.’
    ‘We would have dreamed of living in a nice suburban road like that, when we were kids.’
    ‘Aye, well we’re not kids now, are we, love? I know you live in the bloody past, but I don’t. I’m all about the future, me.’
    ‘No, it was you, Dai. Not a doubt in my mind. Picking the door locks, that’s what you were doing when you were spotted. Then you went inside, and you just waited in the dark. Waited to beat down an old lady like the sick bastard you are.’
     
    Young’s smile didn’t so much fade as go straight out.
    ‘Bollocks. If you had any sort of evidence, anything at all, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’d have sent the goon squad in here, the piss and vinegar boys, and they’d be waving their guns about and shouting. I wouldn’t blame them, neither, because I’ve got a stapler in my desk drawer here, and it’s got a full magazine, like.’
    ‘We know it was you, Dai.’
     
    Young looked straight and hard and Henry, who forced himself to meet Dai’s gaze.
    ‘You believe this load of total bollocks, do you, lad?’
    ‘Well, I….’
    ‘Thought not. She’s just obsessed, your boss. Christ, it was only the other week that she was trying to say that I’d threatened her boy, or some shit like that. And we all know that could have been anyone, like.’
    ‘But it was you.’ Pepper’s voice was quiet, but firm.
    ‘Where’s your evidence? And I’ll tell you what, Pepper. If I did want to hurt your lad, maybe do the sort of damage that could never be undone, then I’d not give a warning. I’d just bide my time, and then I’d make sure it looked like an accident. Just one of those things, like. And no-one would ever know, just you and me, love. But that’s all as would need to know, isn’t it? The boy would be crippled, or blind, or brain-damaged, and only we’d know why it had really happened. There’s fate, love, and then there’s me.’
     
    Henry was so surprised that he couldn’t speak, just for a moment, and by the time his mouth started to form a word it was already too late. Somehow Pepper had launched herself from a sitting position straight across the desk, and her hands grasped for Young’s face. Afterwards Henry couldn’t remember for certain, because his head was hurting so much, but he was almost sure that Young was smiling, or maybe grimacing, as Pepper’s outstretched hands reached out for his face.
     
    Young’s chair shot backwards, then toppled sideways, and by the time Henry was out of his own chair and kicking Young’s out of his way Dai already had his