Read Online Hostage to Murder by Val McDermid - Free Book Online Page B

into the syringe. Placing her hand over Sophie’s, she slid the barrel into her lover’s vagina as far as it would go, then depressed the plunger. There was a desperation in Sophie’s cries as she came almost simultaneously. When Lindsay dared look up, she saw tears tracking down Sophie’s cheeks. She knew her own eyes were pricking almost to overflowing.
    Their reasons, she knew, were dangerously different.
    Lindsay leaned against Sophie’s bent legs, her cheek against Sophie’s knee. As soon as was decently possible, she pulled away.
“I’m going to see if the guys need a drink,” she said. Anything to get out of there and find a moment to get her face in order.
    Now, two hours later, Lindsay was staring out of the living room window to the moonlit playing fields across the road and the tawdry glitter of the city lights beyond. She had shared a large malt with Fraser and Peter then seen them out. She’d made a cup of herbal tea for Sophie, whose body had overnight become a temple worshipping very different gods from before. She’d climbed into bed as she suspected she was expected to do and had faked sleep. Once she’d been certain that Sophie’s deep and regular breathing wasn’t feigned, she’d slipped out of bed, poured herself another Caol Ila and sat on the window seat wondering how much of her future lay within these walls, and how much within the walls of the Café Virginia.

Chapter 6
    A few miles away, Rory McLaren was also pondering Lindsay’s future, though not in quite the same terms as the subject of her plotting. She swigged greedily from a bottle of water and let herself slide down the wall she was leaning against until she was hunkered down level with Sandra. Sweat streaked their faces and bodies as they grinned inanely at each other in the chilling out space in the basement of Escape, their favourite dance club which occupied a former warehouse where Garnethill merged into Cowcaddens.
    They’d split a tab of ecstasy earlier in the evening, they’d danced like dervishes and now they were both starting the gradual descent to the point where sleep might be possible at some point in the not too distant future. But for now, they were content to let the gentle throb of the ambient track ease them down gently.
    â€œWhat’re you thinking?” Sandra said after a few minutes.
    â€œHow useful Lindsay’s going to be.”
    â€œThat would be in a work context?”
    Rory giggled softly. “I was thinking about work. But you never know...”
    Sandra groaned. “Stick to the work. Useful how?”
    â€œWell, take Keillor. I’ve got the tip, I’ve hardened it up pretty
well, but I need some solid evidence. But Keillor knows me so I’ve got no chance of scamming him. But he’s never seen Lindsay. Maybe between us we can figure out how to have him over and she can do the sharp end.”
    Sandra’s mouth curled up in a feline smile. “Oh yes, I like it. Nail the wee slug to the floor.”
    â€œI’ll talk to her about it in the morning.”
    â€œIt’s already the morning.”
    â€œOnly technically.” Rory hugged herself and scrunched her face up in an expression of amused cunning. “A couple of real buzzes like creepy Keillor and she’ll be so hooked. Which will be nice.”
    Sandra chugged on her own bottle of mineral water. “Uh oh.”
    â€œI mean it’ll be nice to have somebody around to work with. I never thought I’d miss the newsroom, and I don’t, not really. But it does get lonely sometimes. Everybody in the bar is a potential source, so I can’t afford to let them be my friends. So I spend most days not really talking to anybody unless you or Giles stops by. Lindsay . . . now, there’s somebody I can talk to. Nice woman. Very nice woman.”
    â€œShe’s also a happily married woman, Rory. Tell me you’re not going to