Least of Evils Read Online Free

work.
    â€˜You’ve ruined your evening for fuck all. That’s all I’ve got to tell you.’
    â€˜Oh, you can tell us much more than that, if you wish to, Eddie. The question is whether you choose to do so or not.’
    â€˜I choose not to, bitch. I’ve already told you that. Are you thick or summat?’
    Lucy smiled again, less friendly but still tolerant of his youthful defiance. She sat on the chair beside the bed and leaned towards the man within it, making him acutely conscious of her scent and her splendid bosom. Barton found both disconcerting, but he said determinedly, ‘I’ve sod all to say to the likes of you.’
    DC Murphy brought another chair and sat down close to his sergeant. ‘You would be well advised to watch your tongue and be more helpful, lad.’
    Barton transferred his attention reluctantly from the pneumatic DS Peach to the fresh face which was only a little older than his own. ‘Or what, pig?’
    â€˜Or we might arrest you as you leave here and take you down to the station for further questioning.’
    â€˜And why would you do that, punk?’
    â€˜On the grounds of wasting police time, Mr Barton. On the grounds of refusing to assist the police in the investigation of a serious crime.’
    Eddie wasn’t certain whether they could do that, but he didn’t want to risk it. He sank back on his pillow and gazed straight ahead of him across the ward. ‘I don’t know nothing.’
    â€˜Ah, so you know something. That’s what we thought; that’s why we’re here.’ Lucy Peach drew his attention back immediately. Eddie didn’t understand double negatives, but he was obscurely aware that he’d made a mistake. He looked into those wide and lustrous female eyes and said, ‘I can see why they call you Peach, darling! You’re a ripe peach, aren’t you? I wouldn’t mind stroking your—’
    â€˜Who put those bullets into you, Eddie?’
    â€˜Get lost, bitch. I ain’t no grass.’
    Murphy leaned across and touched the slight mound in the blankets which showed where Barton’s right thigh was bandaged, producing an immediate gasp and wince from the patient. ‘Nurse! Nurse, I want you to see this.’
    But apparently there was no nurse within earshot. Barton wished that he had been more appreciative and less surly about the medical care he had received earlier in the day. He tried to sound convincing as he said, ‘I’ll have you for police brutality for that, you bastard!’
    Lucy smiled. ‘For enquiring diligently after your health, Eddie? Perhaps you shouldn’t twist around so much in your bed, if it’s painful for you.’ Then in a quite different, more businesslike voice, she said, ‘Stop pissing us about, Mr Barton. How did you acquire the injuries for which you have been treated here?’
    â€˜I don’t know. I don’t remember. That happens, when you’re in shock, doesn’t it?’
    â€˜Sometimes it does – when people have been almost killed in road accidents, for instance. But not when they’ve received flesh wounds in the upper left arm and in the thigh.’
    â€˜Well, I don’t remember.’
    â€˜You got a good kicking as well as bullets, didn’t you? From a man who battered you unconscious and then left you to die. A broken rib as well as gunshot wounds. If I were you, I’d want some sort of revenge on a callous sod like that.’
    Barton did, and for a moment he was tempted. But the episode had left him with a deep fear which was more powerful. His face set into a sullen mask. ‘I didn’t see nothing. I hadn’t done nothing. I don’t know who he was or why he did it.’
    DC Murphy let his arms float over the bed for a moment, as if he proposed further examination of the patient’s injuries. Then he folded his arms and said, ‘You were found outside Thorley