Read Online Lost City (An Eoin Miller Mystery Book 3) by Jay Stringer - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jay Stringer
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trusted you to deal with it, not put it on the local news.”
“What are you talking about?”
Tightness grabbed me around the throat. I somehow knew what she was going to say a few seconds before she said it, but the words still stung me.
“It burned down last night. You telling me that wasn’t you?”
“No, I got rid of the problem, not the building. What time did this happen?”
“Somewhere in the early hours. You not listened to the news?”
“No, I was, uh—”
She read my tone and cut in. “I don’t want to know who you were with, okay? Listen, if it wasn’t you, then who?”
We both sat in silence for a moment and then said at the same time. “Them.”
“They’re sending you a message,” I said. “Calling you out. They’ve got the stuff and now you’re on their clock, waiting for whatever they want.”
The nerves dropped away from her voice, and it was cold and mean. “Find them, Eoin. No messing. We won’t be fucked with like this.”
I’d gone to bed with two leads: Jellyfish and Maria. I’d woken up with a third: the fire. That was more information than I was used to starting out with. I decided to start with Jellyfish, for old times sake. Back when I’d first gotten into the business, I’d started practically every investigation by finding Jelly and asking him what he knew. Now I was looking into his death, and this time above all others his knowledge would have been incredibly useful. I had to smile at the irony. There were two places to start looking into Jelly’s life.
The sex he was having.
The money he was making.
I picked the former.
A couple of years before, I’d been hired to find a missing university student. A young man named Chris Perry. His parents had been worried when he’d dropped off the face of the earth, but they’d come to me rather than the cops because the father was high up in the force and already had too many enemies in uniform.
Chris hadn’t dropped far. I’d found him shacked up with Jelly, living a more-or-less happy life in a flat in Walsall. I’d talked the parents into leaving them to it. Chris seemed to know what he was doing, and Jelly—for all his flaws—was a good boyfriend. Or so I’d thought. There were a great many things I was being proven wrong about. Although I’d lost touch with Jellyfish since the job with Gaines had taken me up in the world, I’d kept tabs on Chris. In my line of work it pays to have information on the family members of the local Police Commissioner.
I walked over to the library. It was only a few streets away from the flat. Chris had been working there for the past year, after I’d arranged for a good word to be put in for him. He’d never finished university and spent most of his spare time writing plays and/or novels he planned to self-publish. Cutbacks had kept him from claiming benefits, and he’d struggled to hold down work. His father didn’t want to be seen as having hooked his son up with a job, and Chris didn’t want any favors anyway. Father and son had a rocky relationship. They were too alike and too far apart. So I’d made a show of helping out by having a word with some of our contacts at the local council. Enough of a show that his father knew he owed me. Soon afterwards, Chris had found himself with a job that he’d been totally underqualified for.
The library was a large red brick building on the corner of a junction on the edge of the city center, in a part of town that was slowly fading away. Libraries had become an endangered species, and this one was already out of both sight and mind. Being out of pocket couldn’t be far behind.
I found Chris on the first floor, leaning over a young blond guy and teaching him how to fill in an application form with an expression that said he was loving every minute of it. When he looked up and saw me, the smile dropped from his eyes. He said something quietly to the guy and then made his way over to me.
“What’s up?” He said.
It was
“What are you talking about?”
Tightness grabbed me around the throat. I somehow knew what she was going to say a few seconds before she said it, but the words still stung me.
“It burned down last night. You telling me that wasn’t you?”
“No, I got rid of the problem, not the building. What time did this happen?”
“Somewhere in the early hours. You not listened to the news?”
“No, I was, uh—”
She read my tone and cut in. “I don’t want to know who you were with, okay? Listen, if it wasn’t you, then who?”
We both sat in silence for a moment and then said at the same time. “Them.”
“They’re sending you a message,” I said. “Calling you out. They’ve got the stuff and now you’re on their clock, waiting for whatever they want.”
The nerves dropped away from her voice, and it was cold and mean. “Find them, Eoin. No messing. We won’t be fucked with like this.”
I’d gone to bed with two leads: Jellyfish and Maria. I’d woken up with a third: the fire. That was more information than I was used to starting out with. I decided to start with Jellyfish, for old times sake. Back when I’d first gotten into the business, I’d started practically every investigation by finding Jelly and asking him what he knew. Now I was looking into his death, and this time above all others his knowledge would have been incredibly useful. I had to smile at the irony. There were two places to start looking into Jelly’s life.
The sex he was having.
The money he was making.
I picked the former.
A couple of years before, I’d been hired to find a missing university student. A young man named Chris Perry. His parents had been worried when he’d dropped off the face of the earth, but they’d come to me rather than the cops because the father was high up in the force and already had too many enemies in uniform.
Chris hadn’t dropped far. I’d found him shacked up with Jelly, living a more-or-less happy life in a flat in Walsall. I’d talked the parents into leaving them to it. Chris seemed to know what he was doing, and Jelly—for all his flaws—was a good boyfriend. Or so I’d thought. There were a great many things I was being proven wrong about. Although I’d lost touch with Jellyfish since the job with Gaines had taken me up in the world, I’d kept tabs on Chris. In my line of work it pays to have information on the family members of the local Police Commissioner.
I walked over to the library. It was only a few streets away from the flat. Chris had been working there for the past year, after I’d arranged for a good word to be put in for him. He’d never finished university and spent most of his spare time writing plays and/or novels he planned to self-publish. Cutbacks had kept him from claiming benefits, and he’d struggled to hold down work. His father didn’t want to be seen as having hooked his son up with a job, and Chris didn’t want any favors anyway. Father and son had a rocky relationship. They were too alike and too far apart. So I’d made a show of helping out by having a word with some of our contacts at the local council. Enough of a show that his father knew he owed me. Soon afterwards, Chris had found himself with a job that he’d been totally underqualified for.
The library was a large red brick building on the corner of a junction on the edge of the city center, in a part of town that was slowly fading away. Libraries had become an endangered species, and this one was already out of both sight and mind. Being out of pocket couldn’t be far behind.
I found Chris on the first floor, leaning over a young blond guy and teaching him how to fill in an application form with an expression that said he was loving every minute of it. When he looked up and saw me, the smile dropped from his eyes. He said something quietly to the guy and then made his way over to me.
“What’s up?” He said.
It was
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