PI Kate Brannigan Series Books 1-3: Dead Beat, Kick Back, Crack Down. Val McDermid

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СКАЧАТЬ the audience, I’d been mesmerized by Moira and when I looked back to where Maggie had been standing, I realized I’d been letting pleasure interfere with work. Maggie had gone. Furious with myself, I hurried down the side of the room and through a pass door at the side of the stage.

      I was in a narrow corridor. Two doors on the left were marked Ladies and Gents, and on my right were steps leading up to the stage. Round a corner, I found three more doors. No reply to my knock on the first. Same with the second. On the third attempt, I hit pay dirt. The door opened six inches and Maggie’s face appeared in the crack. Close up, she was a pretty woman. She had small, neat features and intelligent blue eyes with laughter lines at the corners. I put her in the mid thirties. ‘Can I help you?’ she asked pleasantly.

      I smiled. ‘You must be Maggie. Hi. I’d like to see Moira.’

      She frowned. ‘I’m sorry, have we met?’ Without waiting for a reply, she went on. ‘Look, she’s too tired. If it’s an autograph you want, I can get her to sign one for you.’

      I shook my head. ‘Thanks, but I need to see her. It’s a personal matter,’ I stated calmly.

      ‘Who is it?’ a voice from inside the room called out.

      ‘No one we know,’ Maggie remarked over her shoulder. She turned back to me and said, ‘Look, this is not a good time. She’s just done a show, and she needs to rest.’

      ‘What I have to say won’t take long. I don’t like to be difficult, but I’m not going till I’ve spoken to Moira.’ I spoke firmly, with more confidence than I actually felt. I was in no doubt that Maggie could have me thrown out of there so fast my feet wouldn’t touch the sticky carpets. However, to do that, she’d have to leave Moira. I couldn’t see Darsett Trades and Labour Club being the kind of place that had a house phone in the star dressing room.

      ‘What the hell’s going on?’ Moira demanded, pulling the door open and staring belligerently at me. It should have been a moment of triumph for me, to come face to face with my quarry like this, but any satisfaction was destroyed by the irritation in her voice. ‘Are you deaf or what? She told you, I’m too tired to talk to anybody.’

      ‘I’m sorry it’s a bad time, but I need to talk to you,’ I apologized. ‘It’s taken me a long time to find you, and it’s important for you that you listen to what I have to say.’ I tried a conciliatory smile which produced a scowl from Maggie, standing like a bulldog in front of Moira.

      Moira sighed and pulled her white bathrobe more tightly round her. ‘You’re damn right, it’s a bad time. I suppose you’d better come in. Let me tell you, sister, this better not be bad news.’

      I waited for Maggie to move reluctantly away from the door before I entered the tiny dressing room. There were two small formica topped tables in front of mirrors, a corner sink unit, three chairs and several hooks on the wall. Moira sat down in one chair facing a mirror and carried on removing her make-up. Maggie leaned against the wall, arms folded.

      I pulled a chair over beside Moira and sat down. ‘I don’t think it’s bad news, but that’s for you to decide. My name’s Kate Brannigan and I’m a private investigator.’ Moira flashed a quick look at me, fear in her eyes, then forced herself to look back in the mirror.

      ‘So what’s your interest in me?’ she challenged.

      ‘Jett asked me to find you,’ I told her, watching for her reaction. The hand with the make-up removal pad shook and she quickly lowered it to the table.

      ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said in a low voice.

      ‘He wants to work with you again. He bitterly regrets what happened all those years ago,’ I tried. My instincts told me that with Maggie in the room, I should steer well clear of the emotional arguments.

      Moira shrugged. ‘I haven’t a clue what you’re on about.’

      ‘I think you should go now,’ Maggie piped up.

      I ignored her. ‘Look, Moira, Jett is desperate to reach you. He says his work has gone down the tube since the two of you stopped writing songs together. As a fan, I have to agree with him. And I bet you do too. He just wants to meet you, to talk about the possibilities of making music together again. That’s all. No strings.’

      Moira laughed, a harsh bark. ‘Oh yeah? And what’s Kevin going to say about that? If you’ve been looking for me, you know what my life’s been like the last few years. I’d be too much of a skeleton in the cupboard for Mr Clean. Never mind what Jett will think.’

      ‘Jett knows all about it. And he didn’t tell me to stop looking just because you’d been on the game, or on smack. He wants to talk to you. He doesn’t care what’s happened in between,’ I argued as fiercely as I could.

      Moira ran a hand through her short curls. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said softly. ‘Too much water under the bridge.’

      ‘You heard her,’ Maggie interjected. ‘I really think you’d better go now before you upset her any more.’

      I shrugged. ‘If that’s what Moira wants, I’ll go. I told Jett he might be wasting his money, asking me to find you. I told him you might not want to be found. But he’s not going to be satisfied with that. And the next private eye he hires might not do things my way.’

      ‘Don’t you threaten us!’ Maggie exploded.

      ‘I’m not threatening you,’ I flashed back. ‘I’m simply trying to be straight with you. Jett wants to find you. Whatever that takes. You might do a runner after tonight, but you’ve got to leave traces. Someone else will track you down, just like I did. And next time, it could be Jett knocking on your door. Don’t you think it would be better to meet him on your terms, when you’re prepared for it, rather than have him catching you by surprise?’

      Moira’s head dropped into her hands. ‘You say he knows already?’ she mumbled.

      ‘He knows about everything except the singing.’ And I don’t think that’s going to give him the screaming habdabs, I thought wryly.

      Moira’s head came up and she stared at her face in the mirror. ‘I don’t know,’ she said doubtfully, lighting up a pungent Gauloise.

      Maggie crossed the room, all two paces of it, and put a protective arm round Moira. ‘You don’t need him any more,’ she declared. ‘Where was he when you really needed help? If he’d been so bloody keen to find you, why didn’t he do it when you left? He’s just being selfish. His career’s a disaster area, and he wants you to get him out of the shit. You don’t owe him anything, Moira.’

      ‘Oh, I see,’ I remarked. ‘There’s a statute of limitations on feeling guilty now, is there? Just because Jett didn’t act right away, then he can only be out for himself? Is that it?’

      Maggie glowered at me, but Moira actually smiled as she reached up to squeeze her lover’s hand. ‘He’s really not like that, Maggie. He’s one of the good guys. I didn’t expect him to come after me. I’d been doing his head in for so long he must have been glad of the peace.’

      ‘So what’s it to be?’ I asked. ‘Will you at least listen to what he’s got to say?’

      Moira took a deep drag on her cigarette. Maggie looked as СКАЧАТЬ