Lastnight Read Online Free Page A

coffee.
    ‘Chalmers needs help with a case,’ Nightingale explained. ‘Someone’s been butchering Goths.’
    ‘He’s paying you?’
    ‘He wants us to do it pro bono.’
    ‘See now, I think Bono’s a pretentious turd and U2’s music is very over-rated.’
    Nightingale grinned. ‘That’s what I said but Chalmers has no sense of humour.’ He sat down at his desk and swung his feet up.
    Jenny pulled up a chair and grimaced as she stared at the photographs
    ‘They were all hacked up pretty badly,’ said Nightingale. ‘Virtually skinned. I can get crime-scene pictures but trust me, you don’t want to see them. Three men, two women, so probably not sexual, despite what the gay activists are saying. But he leaves the faces alone, just mutilates the bodies. I say “he”, but we’re probably talking about multiple assailants.’
    ‘So it’s a hate crime. Someone who hates Goths or what they stand for.’
    ‘What do Goths stand for?’ asked Nightingale. ‘All I see is the black clothing and vampire make-up.’
    ‘It’s more about the music and the lifestyle than anything else,’ said Jenny. ‘Why would Chalmers want you involved?’
    ‘I’ve got you to thank for that,’ said Nightingale. ‘The new corporate website mentions the supernatural cases I’ve worked on.’
    ‘He thinks there’s a supernatural element to this?’
    ‘He thinks that Goths are freaks and that I’m more at home dealing with freaks than his men are.’
    Jenny shook her head in dismay. ‘He’s a moron.’
    ‘No argument from me. But the quickest way of getting him off my back is to give him a lead he can work on.’
    ‘A lead?’
    ‘His murder investigation team is clueless. He thinks if I go and talk to the Goths, I’ll pick up on something.’
    ‘Well, good luck with that,’ she said, and sipped her coffee.
    ‘To be honest, I’m not sure where to start,’ said Nightingale. ‘Any idea where Goths hang out? I’m guessing graveyards and abandoned churches, right?’
    Jenny laughed. ‘You’re such an idiot sometimes,’ she said. ‘Jack, Goths are just kids who like to hang out together and listen to the Cure and Depeche Mode or whatever the latest Goth band is. They wear black and eyeliner and generally just keep to themselves.’
    ‘How come you know so much about them?’
    ‘I used to hang out with a Goth couple when I was at university. They were a couple of softies but one night the boy got beaten up really badly. A group of skinheads just decided to give him a kicking. He was in hospital for two weeks. Almost lost his spleen.’
    ‘Bastards.’
    ‘Yes. Bastards. There are some sick people out there who like to hurt people who are different. Because of their colour, or their clothes, or their sexuality.’ She gestured at the photographs with her hand. ‘But this is more than a kicking, Jack. That’s not just anger, is it? That’s something much much worse.’
    ‘You’re telling me,’ said Nightingale. ‘Chalmers thinks the killings are ritualistic and that according to that wonderful website you set up, I’m a world authority on the subject.’
    ‘So you’re blaming my programming skills, is that it?’
    Nightingale grinned and shook his head. ‘Nah, he would have given this to me anyway,’ he said. ‘He can’t get his own people to go knocking on Satanic doors, but he knows that I can talk their language.’
    ‘Jack, are you listening to yourself? You’re going to be on the trail of a psychopathic killer. How’s that going to end well?’
    ‘Like I said, it’s probably going to be killers, not killer. There’s too much going on for it to be the work of one man.’
    Jenny folded her arms and pouted. ‘That doesn’t actually make me feel any better.’
    ‘Look, I’ll ask a few questions, come up with a motive and he’ll do the rest.’
    ‘And what if the killers find out that you’re on the case? You’re not thinking this through.’
    Nightingale waved at the photographs. ‘They