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Book: Black & Blue: BookShots (Detective Harriet Blue Series) by James Patterson
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Authors: James Patterson
Tags: Suspense, Thrillers, Crime, Mystery, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Crime Fiction, Serial Killers, Thrillers & Suspense
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small child in a wild pack of other kids, pulling and grabbing and yanking an adult mother to the ground, stabbing her in a hurried rush, blood soaking their tiny clothes. I imagined him cornering her son, a boy his age maybe, holding the knife to the kid’s throat. Why had they done it? Tox had a mean look to him, particularly with the bruised nose and double black eyes, the leather jacket that reeked of smoke. But I knew there was no ‘killer look’. I’d known baby-faced pre-teen boys in school blazers and caps who’d assaulted girls so viciously they’d broken their victims’ spirit for life.
Maybe it was all just a rumour and Tox was innocent. But if it was, why didn’t he do anything to change the black mark against his name?
I was just starting to imagine him as a kind and gentle man wrapped in the shell of a dangerous one when he put his whisky glass down, got up and strode across the room with violent intent. I watched him take a pool cue from the rack, snap it over his knee and roll the heavy end in his fist like a batter coming up to the plate.
‘All right, buddy,’ he said, ‘let’s go.’
His target was a heavier, taller man who’d been playing a game of pool by the back doors of the bar. The heavy man and Tox lunged at each other.
CHAPTER 31
I WAS UP and across the bar before I’d really taken stock of the situation. My sheer bewilderment at the fight, and my own fatigue, had me diving into danger without a plan. I ran over and grabbed at Tox, but one of the heavy man’s mates pulled me off him and threw me into the edge of the pool table. That hurt. My fists came up immediately, and I gave the guy a couple of warning punches to the jaw. But that only made him madder. He swung a heavy fist at my head. I ducked, surged up with an uppercut that crunched teeth and bone, and knocked him out on his feet. Before he could fall forward onto me, I shoved him back. He fell into a table full of glasses where two old men were seated. They hardly moved.
The room was suddenly full of people. I felt a hand on the back of my head, grabbed and twisted it, heard a man scream. I kicked his knee out and he flopped to the floor. I looked up just in time to see another fist swinging at me. It glanced off my brow. I ducked too late and shot the guy with a sucker punch to the gut that folded him in half.
Tox was holding his own against the guy he’d targeted originally. It looked as though it was all about to be over when five uniformed officers burst into the room, one of them leading a huge German shepherd on a leash.
‘On the ground! On the ground!’
I flattened against the stinking carpet. The dog was standing right over me, barking in my face, slobbering in my hair. I realised I’d left my police-issue phone on the counter by the window when I’d run in to assist in the fight. As I lay being cuffed I saw a homeless man shuffle along to the window, pick up the phone and continue shuffling.
We were dragged to a police van, which had been parked hastily on the street outside the pub. It was really raining now. Tox and I were shoved into the back of the van while the other fighters were herded up against the wall of the pub for a lecture about public brawls.
The lead patrol officer stood in the doorway and wrestled the keys into the lock on the van door.
‘We’re cops,’ I said. ‘We’re both cops.’
‘We know,’ he replied, and slammed the door.
CHAPTER 32
WE SAT IN silence for a long time while the Kings Cross patrol cops drove us out of the city. Tox seemed genuinely unconcerned with our situation. He leaned back against the wall of the vehicle, watching me calmly as I worked through several levels of blinding rage.
‘What the hell brought that on?’ I asked eventually.
‘We were in the academy together. Think he left the force a few years ago. He spotted me when we walked in. Started giving me the stink-eye. I thought he probably wanted a fight. So. You know.’ He shrugged.
‘My
Maybe it was all just a rumour and Tox was innocent. But if it was, why didn’t he do anything to change the black mark against his name?
I was just starting to imagine him as a kind and gentle man wrapped in the shell of a dangerous one when he put his whisky glass down, got up and strode across the room with violent intent. I watched him take a pool cue from the rack, snap it over his knee and roll the heavy end in his fist like a batter coming up to the plate.
‘All right, buddy,’ he said, ‘let’s go.’
His target was a heavier, taller man who’d been playing a game of pool by the back doors of the bar. The heavy man and Tox lunged at each other.
CHAPTER 31
I WAS UP and across the bar before I’d really taken stock of the situation. My sheer bewilderment at the fight, and my own fatigue, had me diving into danger without a plan. I ran over and grabbed at Tox, but one of the heavy man’s mates pulled me off him and threw me into the edge of the pool table. That hurt. My fists came up immediately, and I gave the guy a couple of warning punches to the jaw. But that only made him madder. He swung a heavy fist at my head. I ducked, surged up with an uppercut that crunched teeth and bone, and knocked him out on his feet. Before he could fall forward onto me, I shoved him back. He fell into a table full of glasses where two old men were seated. They hardly moved.
The room was suddenly full of people. I felt a hand on the back of my head, grabbed and twisted it, heard a man scream. I kicked his knee out and he flopped to the floor. I looked up just in time to see another fist swinging at me. It glanced off my brow. I ducked too late and shot the guy with a sucker punch to the gut that folded him in half.
Tox was holding his own against the guy he’d targeted originally. It looked as though it was all about to be over when five uniformed officers burst into the room, one of them leading a huge German shepherd on a leash.
‘On the ground! On the ground!’
I flattened against the stinking carpet. The dog was standing right over me, barking in my face, slobbering in my hair. I realised I’d left my police-issue phone on the counter by the window when I’d run in to assist in the fight. As I lay being cuffed I saw a homeless man shuffle along to the window, pick up the phone and continue shuffling.
We were dragged to a police van, which had been parked hastily on the street outside the pub. It was really raining now. Tox and I were shoved into the back of the van while the other fighters were herded up against the wall of the pub for a lecture about public brawls.
The lead patrol officer stood in the doorway and wrestled the keys into the lock on the van door.
‘We’re cops,’ I said. ‘We’re both cops.’
‘We know,’ he replied, and slammed the door.
CHAPTER 32
WE SAT IN silence for a long time while the Kings Cross patrol cops drove us out of the city. Tox seemed genuinely unconcerned with our situation. He leaned back against the wall of the vehicle, watching me calmly as I worked through several levels of blinding rage.
‘What the hell brought that on?’ I asked eventually.
‘We were in the academy together. Think he left the force a few years ago. He spotted me when we walked in. Started giving me the stink-eye. I thought he probably wanted a fight. So. You know.’ He shrugged.
‘My
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