Read Online Run Girl: Ingrid Skyberg FBI Thrillers Prequel Novella by Eva Hudson - Free Book Online Page B

and white check tablecloth. “I was once in the army. Did active duty in Iraq, among other places.” He took off his jacket and hung it carefully over the back of the chair opposite Oxley. “I’ve had a great deal of experience with reticent witnesses.” He unbuttoned his cuffs.
    Ingrid thought she heard the boy whimper. She silently watched Angelis start to roll up his left sleeve, inch by inch, revealing an elaborate tattoo of a woman in a flowing thigh length dress, a quiver of arrows slung over her back, a hunting dog at her feet. Some kind of ancient Greek Goddess, Ingrid supposed. Given Angelis’ expensive taste in suits, precisely coiffured hair and upperclass accent, the tattoo was entirely unexpected. She really didn’t know what to make of him at all.
    “In my experience,” Angelis said, “they soon discover the error of their ways and see the light.” He grabbed the boy under the arms and dragged him out of his chair. “Usually shortly before everything goes black.”
    Ingrid stepped a little closer. She was rewarded with another warning glance from Angelis.
    With one hand still under the boy’s arm, Angelis pushed his face very close to Oxley’s. “Where is your American friend?”
    “I don’t know.” Oxley stared at the bucket full of water, a look of terror in his eyes.
    “You’re prepared to put yourself through all of this to protect some girl you barely know? I’m not sure whether I should applaud your loyalty or despise your stupidity.”
    Angelis grabbed the boy’s neck and pushed his head toward the bucket. Ingrid grabbed Angelis’ other arm. He forcefully shook her off.
    “Please! I don’t know!” Oxley cried.
    Angelis shoved Oxley’s face into the water. The boy’s arms started to flail uselessly at his sides.
    “For God’s sake!” Ingrid put a hand on Angelis’ shoulder.
    A few moments later Angelis loosened his grip and the boy reared backward, coughing and spluttering. “Please… don’t hurt me,” he finally managed to say. “How can I tell you something I don’t know?”
    Angelis tightened his hold again and applied downward pressure. Oxley’s face was just an inch or two from the surface of the water. “Tell me everything you do know!” Angelis pushed him closer, a quarter inch at a time.
    Ingrid hesitated. She wanted to stop Angelis, yet at the same time was eager for Oxley to give up any information he might have. She laid a hand on Angelis’ arm. “No more.”
    “Don’t make me fight you as well as him,” Angelis warned and pushed down Oxley’s head another half inch until his nose and mouth were again submerged. Angelis maintained that position for five, ten, fifteen seconds, then finally loosened his hold.
    Oxley burst away from the water and sucked down breaths, coughing violently between each one.
    “I can do this all day,” Angelis told him. “Can you?”
    “Please… I really don’t know much.”
    Angelis pushed him back down onto the chair. “I’m listening.”
    “Sophie told me she was coming to London. She asked me to do her a favor.” He wiped a sleeve across his damp face. “She said I should disappear for a few days. Not tell anyone where I was going. Not use my phone. Not talk to anyone about her.”
    “Did you ask why?”
    Oxley shook his head. “I wanted to help her. I like her. She’s my friend.”
    “Didn’t what she was asking you to do seem a little odd? Weren’t you at least curious?”
    “If a friend asks for a favor, you don’t start questioning them. You just do it.”
    “She’s your friend, yet she comes all this way and doesn’t want to see you. Seems to me she’s abused your trust.”
    “You don’t understand. What we’ve got between us is… special.”
    “Did she come here to meet someone else?”
    “She didn’t say. But I suppose it’s possible.”
    “Do you know where she was planning on meeting them?” Ingrid finally felt able to join the conversation. She was still shaken after watching