Read Online No Good Reason by Cari Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

stuck.”
    “The zip?”
    “No, the sleeve.”
    Meg touched Sanne’s forehead, checking for warmth. “You, my darling, are not making much sense. Did you bump your head?”
    “No, but I sort of bumped my arm.”
    “You bumped it?”
    “On the rocks.” She had the grace to look guilty. “It was more of a flaying, really, if you’re being picky.”
    “Ah.” Meg nodded in sympathy. Raw skin and dry fabric did not make for a happy marriage. “Come on, then. Let’s find a nice secluded cubicle and a bucket of warm water.”
    Sanne stood up, with more caution this time. “Can’t refuse an offer like that, can I?”

    *

    “Ow,” Sanne said, with a certain amount of understatement. She had never been one for making a fuss, and she had a commendable pain threshold, but the warm water burned like acid on her wounds. She swallowed repeatedly, trying to breathe through her nose, and when those tactics failed she closed her eyes and thought of nothing. Nothing, just blackness and silence. It was an old childhood trick, honed in the hours she used to spend hiding beneath her bed. It buried the sound of yelling, or crying, or flesh pounding into flesh, or a fist pounding against her mum, and it still worked. By the time Meg’s hand cupped her cheek, the coat was gone, and Meg had positioned her arm on a dry sheet.
    “You okay there?” Meg asked carefully, as if rousing someone from hypnosis.
    “Yep, I’m fine.”
    Meg tapped the mattress, and Sanne swung her legs onto the bed. The pillow beneath her head felt luxuriously soft. She eyed the tweezers laid out on a tray beside a collection of dressings, but was too weary to care about what came next.
    “Do your worst.”
    “Might sting a bit. Sure you don’t want anything stronger than paracetamol?”
    “I’m sure. Codeine wipes me out.” Sanne spoke with more confidence than she felt. Half of the Dark Peak appeared to be embedded in her upper arm, and Meg was not renowned for her bedside manner.
    “Probably because you don’t drink.” Meg dug into Sanne’s arm without further ado and snared her first piece of grit. “Ooh, that’s a big one.”
    Her wholly inappropriate enthusiasm made Sanne smile, even through her clenched teeth.
    “Feels like the worst skinned knee in the world.”
    “Wait till I add antiseptic to it,” Meg said. “I’ll kiss it better, though, if that’ll help.”
    Sanne’s toes curled as another chunk came free. “Wouldn’t that violate some sort of doctor-patient rule?”
    Meg grinned. “I’ve kissed you in far naughtier places than your elbow, Detective.”
    “Jesus, Meg!” Using her good arm to cover her burning face, Sanne silently thanked the old woman next door for choosing that moment to tell the entire department that she needed a wee. “You’ll get me sacked. You’ll get yourself sacked.”
    “Probably.” Meg didn’t sound at all troubled by the notion. “Not for kissing you, you berk, but I do still have a tendency to swear at patients.”
    “I thought you’d agreed to work on that.”
    “Yeah. It’s hard, though, sometimes. Some wanker will sneak in under my defences, and out it comes.”
    As Sanne lowered her arm, a smell of sweet copper hit her, and she noticed the woman’s blood still caked beneath her fingernails. “Lot of wankers out there,” she said quietly.
    Meg hesitated, the tweezers poised in mid-grab. “Yes, there are.” She patted the back of Sanne’s hand and resumed her task. “Let’s get you patched up so you can go and catch this one, eh?”

Chapter Five

    When a uniformed officer met Sanne in the police HQ car park and handed her her car keys, she could almost have kissed him. There were spare clothes in the boot of her car, which meant she wouldn’t have to walk through HQ in the ill-fitting pair of scrubs Meg had found for her. Her running gear and the soggy coat were currently folded up in one of her evidence bags.
    “Nelson asked me to pick your car up from the