Read Online Lastnight by Stephen Leather - Free Book Online Page A

tears. ‘I keep thinking how scared she was, how she was probably calling out for me, and I wasn’t there. When she needed me, I wasn’t there.’ She stood up and walked over to the window and stared over the river as she dabbed at her eyes.
    ‘The police checked her mobile and none of the people she called went to see a film with her. And they checked CCTV footage of all the cinemas within ten miles and there was no sign of her.’
    Zoe whirled around. ‘She lied to me, is that what you’re saying?’
    ‘No, of course not. Maybe there was a change of plan. Maybe she was intercepted before she got to the cinema.’
    ‘Or maybe she lied to me and was off screwing some guy, that’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?’
    Nightingale shook his head. ‘No, of course not.’ He shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. ‘It’s just that no one seems to know how she ended up in a bedsit in Shepherd’s Bush.’
    ‘The police say that the bedsit was empty, no one was living there.’
    ‘That’s right. It had been empty for two months or so. Which is why it doesn’t make sense that Abbie would go there.’
    ‘Presumably someone forced her to go.’ Zoe dabbed her eyes again.
    ‘That’s what it looks like.’
    ‘Except that Abbie would never have gone with strangers. She was street smart. And I mean that literally, Jack. She was homeless for a long time and it’s as dangerous as hell out there, specially for a young girl. Her bastard of a boyfriend had her on the game. She was getting into cars with strangers so she had to weigh men up in seconds. She was a good judge of character; she had to be. Her life depended on it.’
    ‘But she made a bad choice when it came to a boyfriend.’
    ‘She needed protection.’
    ‘He used her, Zoe. She made a bad choice right there.’
    Zoe shook her head. ‘He was a bastard and he used her, but he didn’t kill her. Abbie could take care of herself.’ She forced a smile. ‘She always had a knife, can you believe that?’
    ‘A knife?’
    ‘A flick-knife. You know, you press a button and the blade flicks out. I told her, if the cops were to catch her with it, she’d go to prison, but she didn’t care. She always had it in her bag.’
    ‘You think she would have used it if she was attacked?’
    ‘I’m sure of it,’ said Zoe. ‘She pulled it out a few times when she was on the street.’ She tilted her head on one side. ‘You’re wondering why she didn’t use it when she was attacked.’
    ‘I’m assuming she didn’t get the chance,’ said Nightingale.
    ‘The police said she was stunned. Whoever killed her, hit her on the head.’ She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes again. ‘They said she was alive when she was skinned.’ She shuddered.
    ‘She wouldn’t have felt anything,’ said Nightingale, hoping that was the truth.
    ‘That’s what the police said, but they don’t really know, do they? She might have felt every cut.’ She shuddered. ‘It’s a sick world. I can’t understand why the police haven’t arrested anybody.’
    ‘It takes time,’ said Nightingale. ‘If the police are lucky then the killers get caught in the act, but if not it comes down to police work. Asking questions, drawing up timelines and then checking and cross-checking.’
    ‘But they’ve killed five people. How can they do that in this day and age?’ She wiped her eyes and then blew her nose on the tissue before crumpling it up and throwing it in a bin by the side of her sofa. She looked up at Nightingale. ‘It had to be someone she knew. Someone she trusted. She wouldn’t let a stranger get close to her.’
    ‘But you’ve no idea who she was going to go to the film with?’
    ‘Like I said, I don’t think I even asked,’ said Zoe. ‘She left here about six and said she’d be back at eleven. When it got to two o’clock in the morning I called the police but they said she was an adult and had to be missing for twenty-four hours before they could do anything. The