Ripped (79 page)

It
was
like
the
trick
children
used
at
Halloween
to
frighten.
'We'd
better
go
in
and
check.'

'Don't
be
fucking
stupid,'
he
whispered.

Some
things
about
the
noise
were
uncertain,
among
these,
whether
it
was
a
cry
of
fear
or
pain
or
anger,
or
whether
whoever
had
made
it
was
still
in
there.

'Somebody
might
be
hurt.'

She
moved
along
to
the
dark
entrance
and
went
inside
assuming
that
he
would
follow.
She
must
have
realised
that
he
was
not
at
her
back
for
he
saw
the
indistinct
shape
behind
the
torch
and
was
dazzled
by
its
light
on
his
face.
As
they
stood,
they
heard
feet
on
the
stairs
inside
stumbling
upwards.

'There
you
are,'
he
whispered
.
'He's
gone.'
He
raised
his
voice.
'And
get
that
bloody
light
out
of
my
eyes.'

For
some
reason,
he
kept
the
light
of
his
own
torch
out
of
her
face.

'I'm
going
to
have
a
look,'
his
partner
said.
'Somebody
might
be
hurt
in
there.'

'Why
are
you
so
fucking
stubborn?'
His
voice
whispered
anger.
'You
heard
–
some
old
cunt
fell
over
and
got
a
fright.
Now
he's
taken
off.'

'Maybe,
and
maybe
somebody's
hurt
in
there.
Whoever
ran away
might
have
left
somebody.'
Left
somebody
hurt?
Christ,
left
somebody
waiting
?

'Are
you
coming?'
she
asked.
She
was
stubborn.

'You
waste
your
fucking
time,
not
me.'

She
went
into
the
close
and
he
was
left
alone.
He
listened
to
the
knock
of
her
feet
on
the
stone
floor
of
the
passage.
Faintly
then,
heard
its
note
change
on
to
wood
as
she
entered
the
flat
behind
the
boarded
window.
All
of
that
seemed
to
take
a
long
time
through
which
he
waited
in
a
curious
blankness
of
attention,
though
all
the
while
straining
eyes
and
ears;
and
then
his
partner was
coming
back
and
he
heard
her
talking
in
the
dark,
not
to
him,
and
he
knew
how
bad
it
was.
A
voice
crackled
answers
and
'We've
to
wait
here,'
she
told
him.
'Till
they
come.'
Her
voice
was
stressed
and
thin,
but
there
was
something
else
there
also
as
if
her
shock was
waiting
its
time
to
turn
to
exhilaration.
'It's
four
killed
now.'

'I'd
better
look.'

'If
you
like.
I
don't
suppose
it'll
make
any
difference.'

But
he
stepped
round
her.
There
was
only
one
flat
on
the
ground
floor.
Its
entrance
had
been
locked
and
boarded
and
broken
in
more
than
once.
There
was
nothing
to
stop
him
going
in.
Since
there
was
no
hall,
the
room
was
immediately
beyond
the
smashed
door
and
he
saw
the
body
at
once
where
it
lay
parallel
to
the
far
wall.
One
arm
was
stretched
towards
him
with
the
palm
up.
The
lid
on
the
nearer
eye
had
been
cut
away;
on
the
other
eye,
the
little
flap
hung
back
like
a
tiny
scar
pressed
against
the
temple.
A
wide
red
stare
watched
him
edge
closer.
The
belly
had
been
cut
open
and
the
sickening
spillage
gathered
up
and
thrown
across
the
left
shoulder.

There
was
the
smell.

The
light
trembled
on
an
ugly
mess
between
the
legs.
This
time
some
part
of
it
had
been
cut
off
him.

There
was
the
stir
of
rats
disturbed
at
feeding.
It
had
not
been
the
murderer's
steps
they
had
heard,
but
someone
who
had
stumbled
on
this
and
fled.

He
recognised
the
dead
man –
a
derelict
called
Old
Danny
who
appeared
in
the
district
and
vanished
again
according
to
some
calendar
of
his
own.
In
the
spring,
he
had
seen
him
one
of
a
group
of
three
on
a
bench
near
the
social
security
office
in
Riverside
Avenue.
A
woman
and
two
men,
lost
drunks
with
the
faces
of
idiot
children.
Later
the
bench
had
a
scattering
of
beer
cans
under
it,
and
the
old
man
had
it
to
himself,
eyes
shut,
flat
on
his
back,
with
his
knees
up
so
that
it
was
only
as
you
came
closer
you
could
see
he
had
the
fingers
of
one
hand
inside
his
fly
rubbing
himself.
In
that
public
place,
the
look
on
his
face
was
naked
in
its
privacy.
Not
on
duty,
you
walked
past,
the
sun
was
shining,
it
was
the
first
day
of
the
good
weather
that
had
lasted
all
summer
long
and
you walked
by
a
French
restaurant
and
a
dress
shop
and
three
girls
were
joking
as
they
came
down
the
steps
of
the
library
and
one
of
them,
in
pale
brown
cotton
skirt
and
jacket,
was
the
most
beautiful
girl
you
had
ever
seen.
You
would
never
forget
her,
and
she
passed
you
without
a
glance,
the
golden
girl,
walking
with
her
friends
towards
the
bench
on
the
corner
.