Read Online Speak No Evil by Martyn Waites - Free Book Online Page B

to it.
    Wondered, with fear and trepidation, what home would be like when he got in.
    â€˜Hey, kid, what’s your name?’
    â€˜Pez.’
    â€˜That your real name?’
    The kid shrugged. ‘S’what everyone calls us, like.’
    Jesus, she thought, they were thick up here. She kept smiling at him. ‘Right, Pez. How’d you like to make a bit of money?’
    The boy’s eyes lit up. ‘Aye. Great.’
    â€˜Good man. The kid who died, Calvin. Was he a friend of yours?’
    â€˜Aye, ’e was. Me best mate, like.’
    â€˜Your best mate.’ Where had she heard that one before?
    â€˜Aye. He was. An’ I was with ‘im the night ’e died.’
    Bullseye. Tess Preston was still in her twenties, probably still had a lot to learn, and the best way to do that, she always said, was on the job. And that was what she lived, ate and breathed. The job.
    Theresa Preston-Hatt was her full name. She was the youngest of two daughters – her father, a colonel in the army, wanted sons. He never came to terms with the fact that he had ended up with two girls instead. Her sister was a qualified doctor and, to please her father, Tess enrolled at Sandhurst to train as an officer. Unfortunately she left during the first month. Her father never forgave her. Especially after she became a journalist. So she dropped the parts of her name she didn’t need any more, except when she ran out money or needed bailing out of something unpleasant, and became Tess Preston, ace reporter for the People’s Paper, the Daily Globe.
    She was fiercely ambitious. For the job itself, she told herself, the rewards. Not to show her father, her family how good she could be at something. That wasn’t the reason at all. No way. She was on the way up. Tess Preston was going all the way to the top.
    That’s what Calvin Bell represented to her. The next rung on the ladder. The only thing she knew about the victim was that he had been stabbed and the only thing she knew about the area was that Cheryl from Girls Aloud came from somewhere near. Looking round she could well believe it.
    But all she was interested in was her work. A big exposé of the crime-riddled inner cities and what it was doing to the kids. Correction: our kids. Because she had the readers at heart. And, if she was telling the truth, this mouth-breathing midget in front of her could be her way in to the story.
    â€˜You were there? Great. So, Pez …’ Tess Preston allowed herself a smile. She never forgot a name. Prided herself on the fact. And she knew how dazzling that smile could be to the opposite sex. Even kids, she didn’t care. She practised it in front of the mirror. Shame to waste it. ‘Why don’t you tell me all about it?’
    Pez frowned. ‘What about the money?’
    Sharper than he looked, thought Tess. But then he’d have to be. He couldn’t look any less sharp. ‘We’ll get that sorted, don’t you worry.’ She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket, thumbed her recorder on to record. She noticed Pez’s eyes being drawn to her chest. She stuck her breasts out a bit more to keep him beside her. ‘Just tell me what happened that night.’
    Pez, transfixed by her breasts, opened his mouth to speak.
    â€˜Who the fuck are you?’
    Tess turned round. There was another boy standing next to Pez. Slightly taller, harder-looking. Pug-faced with cropped hair and a dirty, torn school uniform. Angry.
    Time for a charm offensive, thought Tess. Keep the natives onside. ‘Hiya. My name’s Tess. Just chatting to your friend Pez here.’
    â€˜Haway, Pez, man, divvent talk to her. She’s a fuckin’ journalist, man. Haway.’
    â€˜Aw, but she’s nice …’
    The new boy started to walk away, tried to drag Pez with him. Pez looked conflicted but also looked used to doing what this other boy said. He turned to go.
    â€˜See