Blood Sister: A thrilling and gritty crime drama Read Online Free Page A

get home and let Babs know that her youngest had escaped from her cage and was out in the wild, with no zookeepers to look after her. That meant it would be a long night, just like all the others, until Tiffany either came home juiced-up and stoned or was brought back by the cops (with a ‘final’ warning). Or she wouldn’t come home at all until the next day and then claim she’d been kipping at ‘friends’. Sometimes, Jen wondered if the tabloids weren’t right and kids like her sister didn’t need banging up, or a wake up dose of National Service.
    They decided to wrap the night up with a drink and then head home. As they stood together outside a pub, smoking and deciding whether it looked like their kind of place, a hand appeared on Jen’s shoulder. Then the other hand appeared on Bex’s. Startled, both turned around to find the tasty bloke in the blue suit standing, up close and personal, behind them.
    ‘Hello, girls. Your evening looks like it could do with a shot in the arm from a top geezer – and believe me, ladies, I really am a top geezer.’
     
    Tiffany loitered in the forecourt of a jam-packed Leicester Square tube for ten minutes until she was sure that Jen and Bex had given up on coming after her. Then she walked up the steps to get on with her real business that evening. She’d only tagged along with her sis to cop some spending money from her mum and give herself an excuse to go up West. Now the coast was clear it was time to drop any pretence of what she was doing here. Although she’d promised the geezer in the Bad Moon that she knew the place she was picking up from, the truth was that she only had the haziest idea. She weaved through the streets of Soho and saw a lot of boozers, but none of them were the right one. In the end, frustrated, she decided to do what any lost teenager should do – she asked a cop who was standing with another Bill, getting ready for a long night.
    ‘The Pied Piper?’ He looked at her with a mixture of amusement, disgust and alarm. ‘Now then, what would a respectable young lady like you want in the Pied Piper?’
    Tiffany had a sinking feeling that asking a boy in blue had been a big-time mistake. ‘I’m meeting someone there.’
    The cop gave her a long look. ‘You know what kind of an establishment that is, don’t you?’
    Establishment? She didn’t like the word; it made the place she was meant to go to sound like boring school. But she brazened it out and nodded.
    The officer looked at his colleague who shrugged his shoulders. He turned back to the respectable young lady. ‘Next left, halfway down the street.’
    Tiffany scuttled away as quickly as she could. When she reached the pub, she stood outside and checked it out for a few moments. It seemed normal enough and it was difficult to see what the cop had a problem with. She walked up to the door, but her way was barred by a bow-tied bouncer. ‘Sorry love, over twenty-ones only.’
    ‘Oh flamin’ hell, not you ’n’ all . . . I’m twenty-six.’
    The bouncer started laughing. ‘Seriously love, I don’t care, but the council and Old Bill do.’
    ‘Please,’ Tiff pleaded, knowing if she didn’t get this job done she’d probably end up pushing up daisies.
    The bouncer raised his hands and looked Tiffany up and down. ‘You do know what kind of pub this is, don’t you?’
    Tiff was getting totally ticked off with everyone treating her like a six-year-old. What did she have to do to prove she was a big girl now? Flash her bleeding knockers?
    ‘Yeah.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m not stupid.’
    ‘Whatever, I don’t really think you’re dressed for it anyway. I’m doing you a favour by barring you.’
    Tiffany couldn’t believe it. She was in trouble and she knew it. If the guy in the Bad Moon discovered she couldn’t even get into this pub, never mind pick anything up for him, her career would be over before it started. But she was curious too. The pub sounded like a bad