Unholy Ghost by James Green Read Free Book Online

the French police. Still, he’d already decided that whatever McBride had got him mixed up in wasn’t going to be easy or straightforward but, as it was the coppers who had lifted him, it shouldn’t be life-threatening, not at the moment. Not good, but definitely not so bad, and he looked out of the window as the car headed to the airport.
    â€˜You are not desirable.’ Jimmy looked at the man speaking. He didn’t need to wear any badges for Jimmy to see he had the senior rank. It was partly the way he spoke and partly the way he carried himself, but mostly it was the way the others called him ‘chief’. ‘You’re not a desirable person, Mr Costello.’
    Jimmy’s mind went back to another copper in Santander, an inspector, a good-looking blonde with long legs and soft skin. She had found him desirable, but she was dead.
    â€˜No, I’m not at all desirable.’
    Jimmy sat in front of a plastic-topped office table. The ranking man stood beside the table looking down at him. Another officer stood behind him by the door and one was by the window flossing his teeth. The cops at the door and window were the ones who had picked him up in the Citroen.
    The room was modern and anonymous like everything you got in airports, clean and impersonal, somewhere to pass through. Outside the afternoon sun was shining but the blinds were closed and the light was on. The man by the table bent a little so as to be closer.
    â€˜I want you to understand that when you leave it would be best to stay gone.’
    His English was good enough but heavily accented.
    â€˜Better.’
    The man by the table pulled himself back upright and looked puzzled.
    â€˜â€œBetter?” What do you mean, “better”?’
    â€˜Better I stay gone. You shouldn’t say best. You need at least three options to use best. Stay or go is only two. Better I stay gone.’
    The ranker looked at the other two and said something in French. Neither answered but the one with the floss shrugged his shoulders for both.
    Jimmy wondered why he was winding up this bloke. It wouldn’t help yet he still went ahead and did it. Why was that?
    The senior man went to the door and opened it and stood to one side.
    â€˜The message is delivered. You are not wanted in France. Best you stay gone.’
    Jimmy didn’t move. He’d been given his cue to get up and leave. But he stayed in his chair.
    â€˜An undesirable alien, is that what you mean? Am I being deported as an undesirable alien?’ The man waiting at the door said nothing. ‘Only you never took my passport. Usually they take away your passport if you’re getting deported, or so I’m told. I’ve never been deported myself so I’m not certain about it.’ The way the man looked at him changed. Jimmy stood up. He’d pushed it as far as it would go. ‘Is this official? Am I barred from re-entry?’
    The man still didn’t answer.
    Jimmy went to the door. The man from the car who was standing there picked up his holdall and held it out. Jimmy took it.
    â€˜Thanks.’
    He went through the door then turned back to the senior man.
    â€˜I take it this isn’t official then, that I’m not being deported, that I can come back if I …’
    But the man in charge wasn’t there any more. He’d gone back into the room and the door had closed.
    Jimmy walked down the corridor where over an hour ago he had arrived with his escorts. The one they called chief had kept him waiting to make a point – I can have you picked up, I can keep you as long as I like, I can do what I like with you. It was a good point, well made and well taken, but what had actually happened? Bugger all except telling him to leave. Why all that effort to finish up doing almost bugger all? And why no explanation, no paperwork, nothing except ‘sod off’?
    It wasn’t right, it wasn’t the way the police