The Sin Bin Read Online Free

and got inside.
    'Hello again.'
    She looked, there's a phrase, shook. 'What
are you doing here?'
    'Don't worry, I'm no mentaller. I want
to talk to you about Caroline Urquhart and don't play coy, I know you treated
her when she came to the Royal.'
    'Get out of my car.'
    'Look, lady, I don't care what you
think of me but that girl and her baby need help, now either you're going to be
the one to help her or we're relying on someone else out there being a very
good Samaritan.'
    She fiddled with the keys in her hand.
She looked at me, in the eye, then averted her gaze back towards the hospital
car park. A sigh, 'I haven't seen her in weeks.'
    'How many?'
    'Two, three ... maybe a bit longer. She's
due, you realise.'
    'What, now ?'
    'Very soon. I have to admit, I've been
a bit worried, she gave us an address for a place down in Leith and I went
there, twice now, but it's boarded up. I don't think anyone is living there.'
    'Did she have any associates?'
    The nurse's top lip twitched uneasily,
she looked out the window again, 'There was a boy, erm, he was a bit ... rough.'
    'How do you mean?'
    'Rough, rough. He was tattooed from
head to toe and I think he had beaten her.'
    'Beaten?'
    'There was a black eye once and a few
cuts on her face.'
    'The baby?'
    'Healthy. I think the child was fine,
it was just male dominance issues.'
    'Backhanders.'
    She nodded.
    'This guy, you know anything about him?'
    'No. I don't think he had a job. I
think he was wary of Caroline coming to the hospital. I know he had told her
that he thought we suspected he beat her and ... look, I really can't tell you
any more.'
    I took out my notebook, 'Just let me
have the address and I'll be on my way.'
    ****
    I grew up in Leith. Parts of the
place, now, I hardly recognised. There was chrome and glass eyesores springing
up every week it seemed. When my brother and I were young enough to go bikes we
played boneshaker over the cobbles. I couldn't see any kids nowadays doing
that, unless you can get it on the Nintendo Wii.
    I found the address quickly. This part
of town, the developers had left well alone. Give them a few more months, there'll
be bulldozers in. Then the chrome and glass.
    The stairwell was covered in graffiti.
Tagging, mainly. You get your school of thought that this kinda thing ruins an
area; me, I say, how much worse can they make it? Scrubbing it off ' s only turd polishing.
    The landing smelled of piss. Even with
all the windows panned in, the piss was still rank enough to make me want to
chuck. I stuck my face behind my jacket and waded through the detritus of
aerosols, needles and White Lightning bottles. The address was the last in the
line. I wondered if it was really the end of the road?
    I could see why the nurse would think
nobody lived here. I pressed on the door's windowpane, there was no movement,
it wasn't opening up. I looked in the letter box, a blast of damp, but also, I
was sure, some movement.
    I banged on the door.
    Nothing.
    Tried again.
    A clang of, what was that, a door?
    I hollered in the letterbox, 'Caroline,
is that you? My name's Gus, Gus Dury, your father asked me to find you.'
    I put my ear to the slot.
    No movement anymore.
    I knew there was someone in there.
Toyed with the idea of putting my foot to the door when, suddenly, a whoosh of
stale air as the glass pane came through. I caught a set of wooden step ladders
in the mush.
    I fell back. My back smacked off the
concrete landing just as I saw a blur of shaved head loom over me and cosh me
across the face with a heavy pot.
    Next thing I saw was the dancing
canaries.
    ****
    'Hello, can you hear me? Hello ...
hello.'
    My head felt like Chewbacca had taken a
dump in there. I was still on my back as I opened my eyes to find a young girl
looming over me with dark panda eyes.
    'Can you hear me?'
    'Yeah. Just, maybe lower the volume.'
    'I'm sorry. Are you okay? Can you move?'
    I tried to steady myself, 'I think so.'
    'Would you like to come inside?'
    I got to my feet and my