The Blue Ring by A. J. Quinnell Read Free Book Online Page B

"No."
    He
shrugged, picked up the tray and walked towards the door.
    "No,"
she called loudly. "Don't go! Please give it to me."
    He
turned with his hand on the doorhandle and said, "I will give it to you if
you give me a kiss."
    Again
she shook her head as though in bewilderment, then said, "No...But I need
it...I need it badly...I'm feeling very ill."
    Abruptly
he turned the handle of the door and went out, saying over his shoulder,
"I'll be back in an hour. Think about it."
    An hour
later she kissed him. He held her close with his hands behind her head, his
tongue probed into her mouth. She felt nothing. Her mind was concentrated on
the tray on the bedside table. The tray with the syringe.
    Afterwards
she lay down on the bed while he let himself out. She felt the warmth spreading
over her, felt the knots in her belly unravelling, felt the tension in her arms
and legs ease away. He came back eight hours later, carrying the tray. For the
past two hours she had been looking at her silver watch every two or three minutes.
    Those
two hours had seemed like two years of her young life. This time to get the
injection she had to kiss him and let him caress her breasts and bottom over
the tracksuit. The third time she had to let him caress her whole body under
the tracksuit. The fourth time he came clad only in a dressing-gown and told
her that to get the injection she would have to let him make love to her. She
refused and he went away with the tray, leaving her pounding on the metal door
and screaming abuse at him in her native Danish. He came back two hours later
and she let him make love to her. Lying naked on her back she felt nothing. Her
eyes never left the tray a metre away from her head.
    And so
it went on. Within a week she was performing acts of degradation that she had
never known existed. A few days later he was accompanied by another man, a
tall, thin, dark-skinned man with a black moustache. They used her body
separately and together. Sometimes it was painful. After two hours the
dark-skinned man got dressed and left. Carlo gave her the injection and then
lay naked on the bed, smoking a cigarette, watching her as the pain and
humiliation ebbed away with the effects of the drug.
    Conversationally
he said, "Tomorrow you are moving to a different city."
    "Where?"
she asked dully.
    "It
doesn't matter," he answered. "It's a different country." He
smiled at her. "A nice country."
    She
took this into her drugged mind and then asked anxiously,
    "Will
you be coming with me?"
    He
shook his head. "No, my job is done now."
    Anxiety
registered in her mind. She pointed at the syringe. "What about
that?"
    He
smiled again. "Don't worry about that. Someone will be there to give it to
you."
    She
tried to think through the haze of her brain. "Will I have to do those
things before they give it to me?"
    "Yes,"
he said nonchalantly. "But as time passes you won't mind so much."
    She
turned away, knowing that she was now a slave.

Chapter 13
    The sun
was setting over the fishing harbour. Jens Jensen sat on the small balcony of
the apartment and took pleasure in watching the coming and going of the boats.
He loved the sea and its traffic, and his ambition was to own a house or
apartment in one of the small towns north or south of Copenhagen, which fronted
onto a harbour.
    He
reflected on the last forty-eight hours since Michael had come into his life
and marvelled at the composure and confidence of the young man. Jens had been a
policeman throughout his working life and had seen and done a great deal. He
had worked in the CID, the Vice department and the Drugs department. He was
twice Michael's age and yet, since the moment they had got on the plane at
Copenhagen's Kastrup airport, he had deferred to Michael as the leader of this
particular operation. His first surprise had been at Charles-deGaulle airport
in Paris, where they had a two hour wait for the connection to Marseille.
Michael told him that they would not stay in the transit lounge