A Time For Justice Read Online Free Page B

boldly down
without an invitation. Hinksman thought he recognised her and when
she introduced herself it clicked.
    ‘ Hello, luv,’ she said in broad Lancashire. ‘Me name’s Jane.
Did y’like me act?’
    ‘ Ahh,’ he said, remembering. He lied, ‘Yes, very
much.’
    He’d seen her prance onto the small stage, thought she had
flat feet and no rhythm and had turned back to his drink without
watching her remove any items of clothing.
    He looked closely at her now. Thirty going on forty, with
crow’s feet around her heavily made-up eyes, a multitude of broken
capillaries on her cheeks that no amount of foundation would
conceal and a slight double chin. No doubt she’d once been
good-looking, he mused, but time and her profession had taken their
toll.
    ‘ Drink?’ he asked.
    She smiled. Hinksman wished she hadn’t. Her teeth were crooked
and discoloured.
    ‘ Luv one. Champers?’
    ‘ You can have white wine,’ he said.
    She shrugged happily and beckoned a waiter.
    When the drinks came she said, ‘Thirsty work’, put the glass
to her lips and swigged three-quarters of it in one. Hinksman
winced. She’s so goddamned vulgar, he thought. What the
hell, I need some stress relief
    ‘ You a Yank?’ she asked.
    ‘ What of it?’
    ‘ Y’all alone in town?’ she leered in her best, mock-American
accent. He nodded.
    She tilted her head. ‘Well?’
    He nodded again. The deal had been struck.
    ‘ Forty quid,’ she said, businesslike.
    He nearly choked on his drink. He wondered how much Danny
Carver’s whore had cost - God rest what was left of his splattered
soul. A little more than forty pounds sterling. Even so, Hinksman
quibbled. She was probably riddled with disease.
    ‘ I wouldn’t pay that for a good-lookin’ broad. Twenty-five.
Take it or leave it.’
    Unoffended, she bargained.
    ‘ Thirty-five.’
    ‘ Twenty-five. ‘
    Seeing it was his one-and-only offer she accepted it with good
grace. ‘OK - but up front.’
    ‘ And anything I want.’
    ‘ So long as I don’t get hurt. I’m not into that.’
    ‘ Deal ... waiter! A bottle of champagne to take
out.’
    In the taxi Hinksman handed Jane a slim wad of five-pound
notes. She stuffed them away in one practised movement, then moved
a hand to his lap. As she unzipped him, and bent her head to the
task, he suddenly yanked her upright by her hair.
    ‘ Wait,’ he said.
    ‘ Ow, that fuckin’ ‘urt,’ she wailed, rubbing her head. He
glanced sideways at her and smiled.
    She shivered. She didn’t like the look in his eyes at
that moment . She thought he had the eyes of a
madman. Suddenly she had serious doubts about the wisdom of this
transaction.
     
     
    ‘ This couldn’t have come at a better time,’ Karen Wilde said
to the Chief Constable. ‘The way we handle it is very
important.’
    She was being very matter-of-fact, despite having removed her
blouse and bra. She eased her skirt down her thighs and folded it
neatly over the back of a chair, brushing a hair off. She stepped
out of her knickers and stood there naked but for stockings and a
suspender belt - totally impractical and uncomfortable, but the
Chiefs favourite. As she unpinned her blonde hair and shook it out
of the constricting school-marm bun, she went on, ‘If we play it
right - media-wise and result-wise - this could be your final
stepping stone to the Inspectorate.’
    ‘ Maybe,’ said Dave August.
    ‘ You’ve got to take control of this, make it yours, grasp the
nettle.’
    ‘ Maybe,’ he gasped.
    He was lying completely naked on the single bed in the
en-suite room which adjoined his first-floor office at
headquarters. It was a room specifically designed to be used by the
Chief should he or she need to work long hours or stay the night.
Previous Chiefs rarely used it, preferring the detached police
house which was in walking distance within the headquarters’
grounds. However, August had never even furnished the house. It
might have encouraged his wife and kids to stay