The Magpie Trap: A Novel by AJ Kirby Read Free Book Online Page A

populated by only the most hardened drinkers
or those with nothing better to do. Danny had the entire lounge room to
himself, and the only other sign of life was the muted sound of a dominoes game
echoing through from the back room.  
    But
Danny wanted it like that. He had purposely chosen the pub as he knew that he
would be able to achieve peace and quiet in there. He had always known the
Adelphi as a proper drinker’s establishment, thankfully free from the
peripherals to which other pubs had succumbed. Here, Danny had thought, there
was no music, no quiz machine, and no other
people to distract him from the prime occupation of pouring drinks down his
throat.
    But
when he had entered his old haunt, Danny had been confronted by the fact that,
along with so many of his old Leeds favourites , the Adelphi had changed. It had made the giant
leap from staid, deserted, old man’s pub perhaps in need of a lick-of-paint, to
a contemporarily-styled watering hole, complete with stylish autumnal interior
décor. The change had been brought about by the pub’s close proximity to the
head office of a major supermarket chain, and the demand of its workers to have
a stylish, local pub to hand for the end of the working day. The Adelphi had
become just another ingredient in the wholesale redevelopment of the riverside
area of Leeds .
    Suspiciously,
the bored barman kept glancing over at this young man, who could not keep
still, whose legs were like those of a demented riverdancer. For the barman,
there was only one answer - Danny was on drugs. He must be on drugs. He watched Danny constantly re-aligned his mobile
phone and cigarettes so that they lay at perfect right angles on the table.
Danny shot a warning stare back at him.
    Don’t give me hassle today, said Danny’s eyes. I’ve already had enough goddamn hassle today than I know how to deal
with.
    ‘Fucking
Terry Martell,’ he muttered as another pang of guilt wracked his body.
    Every
time the door swung open, Danny’s eyes leapt to it, as though he was expecting
Key-Ring and his baseball bat to follow him even down here. As if Key-Ring
would even have been caught dead in a place like the Adelphi; once upon a time,
perhaps, but not now. Key-Ring would have probably hated everything about the
place, like he probably hated the city centre and everything that it stood for
in Leeds ’ brave new world. Hell, he was probably still
reeling from the fact that women were allowed in pubs these days and that they
didn’t have to just stick to Babychams.
    Danny
gave his mobile phone another accusatory look. Sometimes he felt as though the
phone deliberately baited him by dropping calls that he really needed to take. Sometimes he thought that the phone simply
pretended that he’d had no text messages, just to rile him up. Danny loved it
when his phone was busy; it made him feel wanted. But when it wasn’t? Well,
that made him feel as though something terrible had happened - perhaps the end
of the world or something – and he was the only one that didn’t know it. To be
fair though, on an afternoon session at the Adelphi, or pretty much anywhere
when you’ve had a couple of early drinky-poos, the rest of the world at large
can seem like some kind of alternative reality. And while Danny was in one of
those moods, he wouldn’t even bat an eyelid if the world was to end.
    Suddenly,
the door crashed open again and a second young man announced his entrance by
taking over the pub, acting like electric shock treatment to its flagging
afternoon atmosphere.
    ‘Afternoon
all,’ he called to the pub at large. ‘Lovely day for it!’
    A
few weary eyes turned and looked him up and down, wanting to be displeased with
the result; wanting to hate the man’s brash demeanour . He was a tall, wiry individual, who in some
lights could be described as attractive. Scratch that: in every light that
young man would have looked attractive. He was wearing a well-tailored
sharp-looking suit and aviator