Dead Alone. Gay Longworth

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СКАЧАТЬ highly competitive ranks to become a household name. It was strange watching an old friend gain in fame. Of course, at thirty, it hadn’t come soon enough for Maggie. People asked Jessie whether Maggie had changed. The answer was no. She’d always been ambitious.

      They had reached the motorbike bay when Jessie heard the sound of a van backfiring. Twice. In quick succession. She turned abruptly towards the noise. Like a solitary clap in a crowded room, the sound silenced the world around them. For a second. And then people started to scream. A man ran across the road and climbed into a waiting car. From the narrow doorway and two fire-exits people spilled out into the street. Jessie threw her helmet at Maggie.

      ‘No, Jessie!’ shouted Maggie. But Jessie didn’t hear her. She ran straight into the sea of oncoming frightened faces. Ducking, side-stepping, shouldering against the outpour. She battled against the tide down the narrow staircase. At the bottom, a young man lay on the ground. He’d been shot. Twice. Two girls stood next to him screaming and jumping up and down intermittently. She threw her phone at one of them.

      ‘Call the police and ambulance service,’ barked Jessie. Her commanding voice silenced them as swiftly as the gunshot had set them off. ‘And someone turn that music off!’

      

      Only the man made a noise now. He wasn’t dead. But he was bleeding profusely.

      ‘What’s your name?’ asked Jessie.

      ‘Carl,’ he whimpered.

      ‘Carl,’ she said, ‘the ambulance is on the way. Meantime, I’ve got to try and stop this bleeding. You stay focused, concentrate on me.’

      Jessie ripped his trousers and T-shirt and examined the singed, bloody holes.

      ‘Perhaps you should think about a change of career,’ said Jessie. ‘Small-time dealing on someone else’s patch is a sure-fire way to get yourself killed.’ She smiled at him. ‘And I think that would be a waste. Good-looking boy like you.’ One bullet had embedded itself in his right thigh. The other had passed through his left flank. Jessie guessed he must have spun round from the impact of the first bullet and been hit by the second in the leg. Better aim and the boy would have died instantly.

      ‘Well, Carl, seems it was your lucky day,’ said Jessie.

      The boy continued to blink at her, mesmerised. The girls stepped forward to get a better look. Jessie pulled a couple of super-sized tampons from her bag, ripped the plastic off with her teeth, and inserted one gently into the bullet wound in the boy’s leg. It was soon plump with blood. Carl clenched his jaw and shuddered. Jessie inserted the second into the boy’s fleshy side.

      ‘Carl,’ said Jessie, ‘you still with me?’

      ‘Man,’ said one of the girls, ‘she just stuck a Lil-let in your leg.’

      Carl groaned and passed out.

      The sight of two uniformed officers careering down the stairs made the girls jump.

      ‘Step away from the body,’ shouted one of the officers.

      ‘Show your hands, slowly,’ shouted the other.

      Jessie turned around. ‘Everyone calm down. Where is the ambulance?’

      ‘Move aside,’ ordered the police officer.

      Jessie did.

      They stared down at the gunshot wounds. ‘What the hell is this?’

      ‘Don’t worry, they’re sterile. Thought it best, given the length of time ambulances take to get to shootings in this part of town.’

      The coppers didn’t appreciate the snide comment. ‘And who are you – Florence Nightingale?’

      Jessie reached into the back pocket of her tight blue jeans and held up a leather wallet. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Driver from West End Central CID, and if you want to know who shot this man, he is five foot eight, medium build, mixed race, wearing a red Polo running top. He left in a dark blue Audi 80, number plate T33 X9R.’ Jessie looked over to the girls. ‘Sound familiar?’ she asked.

      Neither of them spoke.

      ‘Thought so,’ said Jessie, standing up.

      Two paramedics arrived. Jessie stepped away. The uniformed officers stared at her as she began to mount the stairs.

      ‘You know where to find me,’ she said to their fixed expressions.

      The paramedic looked up at her. ‘Thanks for bridging the gap,’ he said, folding out a stretcher.

      ‘My pleasure,’ said Jessie, and left.

      

      Out on the street, Maggie stood holding both helmets. She smiled at Jessie.

      ‘All right, Mad Max. You done with your lifesaving antics?’

      ‘Yes thank you, Anne Robinson, I am.’

      ‘Sure? No burning buildings to run into? No pile-ups to attend?’

      Jessie swung her leg across the leather seat of the chrome-and-black Virago and started the engine.

      ‘Finished?’ Jessie asked, backing out of the parking bay.

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Then get on.’

      Maggie smiled. ‘I love it when you get all masterful.’

      ‘Kebab?’ asked Jessie.

      ‘No,’ said Maggie. ‘I’m off to Istanbul, that means bikini and camera crew in close quarters, that means no kebab.’

      ‘I’m hungry,’ complained Jessie, revving the bike.

      ‘You’re weird. Now, take me home, Arnie. And don’t blast that music in your ears, it makes me nervous. You have precious cargo on board.’

      Dutifully placing her minidisk player back in her pocket, Jessie pressed the bike into gear. It heaved forward. Jessie turned out of the cul-de-sac and raced down Goldhawk Road just as police reinforcements arrived.

       CHAPTER 1

      West End Central was an old-fashioned, York stone building in the heart of Mayfair. Jessie had recently been assigned to the Detective Chief Inspector there, a man called Jones, a legendary police officer who had her hanging off his every softly spoken word. His Area Major Investigating Team were responsible for a large portion of Central London, and with around two hundred murders in London a year, they were kept reasonably busy.

      She loved this new posting. She loved being back in London after four years in the regionals doing exam after exam to gain the necessary qualifications to make her the youngest DI on the team. Though her brothers, parents and friends were proud, there were others who did not appreciate her achievement. Jessie draped her leather jacket over the back of her chair and sat at her СКАЧАТЬ