Read Online Justice for the Damned by Ben Cheetham - Free Book Online

your dad.’
    The line twitched between Reece’s eyes again. His dad had taught him a lot of things, but that saying wasn’t one of them. As an image of his dad sitting alone coughing up the lining of his lungs filled his mind, the words sounded more like a warning than a recommendation. He washed the image away with a swig of beer. ‘There’s something I want to ask you. Have you ever heard any rumours about someone abducting prostitutes in the city?’
    Doug raised an eyebrow. ‘When you say “someone”, you mean a serial killer. Right?’
    ‘Possibly, I don’t really know.’
    ‘And let me guess where you heard this rumour. One of your whore’s workmates has gone missing and she’s convinced they’ve been abducted. Right?’
    Reece’s fingers tightened on the beer bottle at the word ‘whore’, but he kept his voice carefully emotionless. ‘Right.’
    ‘So now your whore wants you to look into the other whore’s disappearance.’
    Stop fucking calling Staci a whore! The words pushed at Reece’s lips. He nodded, afraid that if he opened his mouth they’d come bellowing out.
    ‘But you’re not going to waste your time on this bullshit,’ went on Doug. ‘Because you know your whore’s friend isn’t really missing, she’s just found somewhere else to turn tricks.’
    ‘Don’t—’ Reece started to snap, but checked himself.
    ‘Don’t what? Don’t call your girlfriend a whore. Why not? That’s what she is, isn’t it?’
    Reece turned away from Doug’s all too perceptive eyes. The bottle trembled under his vice-like grip.
    Jabbing a finger against the table for emphasis, Doug said, ‘Always call people what they are. That way there’s no confusion.’
    ‘I’m not confused.’
    ‘Then you must know that just as you’ll always be a cop, your girlfriend will always be a junkie whore.’
    That was too much for Reece. He jerked his face towards Doug, eyes blazing. ‘The fuck she will be!’
    Doug spread his hands. ‘Easy, big man. I know it’s hard to hear the truth, but I’m just trying to save you a lot of heartache later on.’
    ‘You don’t know Staci. All she wants is to get out of that life and get her daughter back. And I’m going to do whatever I can to help her. Do you hear me?’
    ‘I hear you. And who knows, maybe I’m wrong, maybe she can change.’ And maybe pigs can fly , Doug’s eyes seemed to add.
    Reece shoved his chair back and stood. ‘I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    ‘No you won’t. Remember, you’re taking your dad for his chemo.’
    Reece rolled his eyes towards the ceiling, reflecting sardonically that the evening’s events had at least driven that particular unpleasant thought out of his head, even if it had only been replaced with other almost equally unpleasant thoughts.
    ‘Tell him good luck from me,’ continued Doug.
    The thought of what tomorrow held weighing in his stomach like a heavy stone, Reece returned to his car. As he started the engine, Doug tapped the window. Reece lowered it and Doug proffered him a scrap of beermat. There was a name written on it. Vernon Tisdale. ‘He’s a journalist at the South Yorkshire Chronicle ,’ explained Doug. ‘At least he used to be. I don’t know what he’s up to nowadays. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s six feet under. He was a real porker. Must have weighed well over twenty stone last time I saw him. Anyway, a few years before your time, he came to us with a list of missing prostitutes he believed had been murdered.’
    Reece’s eyebrows lifted. ‘So it’s more than just a rumour then.’
    ‘Only in the overactive imagination of Tisdale and the whores he’d been speaking to. It didn’t take us long to realise his list was a load of bollocks.’
    ‘Bollocks in what way?’
    ‘Well, for starters, several of the so-called victims had died from natural causes and drug overdoses. And for seconds, others on the list had simply moved out of the area. So you see, that’s why I