Bloodfire (Blood Destiny) (17 page)

By the time I reached Perkins, it was
almost half past five and I could see the eponymous owner, Perkins himself, up
at the glass door and flipping the little yellow sign from Open to Closed.
 
Good.
 
That meant I’d have peace and quiet to
quiz him.
 
I stepped up to the glass
plate and rapped sharply.
 
He
gestured at the sign and his watch, shrugging expressively.
 
I ignored this and rapped again.

He opened the door a couple of inches and
poked his head out.
 
“We’re shut.”

“I need to talk to you.”

“And I need to go home and see my wife and
kids.”
 
He tried shutting the door
but I stuck my foot in the way.

“Please, Mr Perkins.
 
It’s important.”

He sighed and appeared to consider the
matter.
 
It was not as if I was
really going to give him the choice though.
 
“Fine.
 
But only for five minutes.”
 
He opened the door and let me in, then
locked it behind me.

Perkins stood in the entrance, hand on his
hips, and waggled his eyebrows questioningly.
 
He was a small man, human of course,
with a bald patch and slightly greying hair.
 
He wore a red apron that proclaimed the
words ‘We’re proud to work at Perkins!’

I opened my palms out, in a gesture of
non-confrontation.
 
“Can we sit
down?
 
I’d like to ask you a few
questions about the robbery a few days ago.”

He sighed expansively.
 
“Why?
 
Has the cult decided to become
vigilantes now?”
 

At least he wasn’t accusing us of breaking
and entering.
 
“No, but I think
there might have been other similar break-ins in the area and I want to help
out.”
 
I put on a pretty smile.
 
“Please, Mr Perkins?
 
I really do want to help.”

He looked at me assessingly but I could
see that he’d already given in.
 
“It’s probably more than the police are going to do, I suppose,” he
grumbled.
 
“Here, come this way.”

He took me into a little backroom where
there was a small table and a couple of chairs.
 
Along one side of the wall there was a
sink, a little fridge and a kettle.
 
“I suppose you’ll be wanting tea, too?”

“How about coffee?”
 
I asked, pushing my luck.

“Fine,” he muttered, and set about getting
two cups, flicking the switch on the kettle to on.
 
Before too long, it was spitting steam
so he poured the hot water onto a scoop of instant granules.
 
I was a bit of a coffee purist and
usually hated instant but I didn’t think any further comments regarding his
choice of brew would be useful at this point.
 
I declined milk and sugar and he passed
me the cup, sitting down at the table with me.

“So what exactly is it you want to know?”

I asked him how they got in.

“Broke the glass at the back.”
 
He pointed to a boarded up window behind
me.
 
“Figured it must have been kids
‘cos it’s so small.”

I nodded briefly, thinking that it could
have been any thing of any size that could shift its shape to suit itself.

“Was anything other than the coal and the
screwdriver taken?”

“Nothing,” he answered.
 
“Darn’dest thing as well, considering
the till was right there.
 
I’d not
bothered emptying it that day because there wasn’t much money in there, other
than the float and a few odds and ends, but they didn’t even try to open
it.”
 
He shrugged and took a sip.

I mulled that over.
 
“Were there any traces of anything
else?
 
Anything at all?”

He took his time answering.
 
“Only the slime.”

“The slime?”
 
My life would have been a lot easier if
Nick had mentioned slime when I’d talked to him before.

“Aye, smelly dark stuff.
 
It was smeared along the shelf where the
coals had been.
 
There were a few
drops of it on the floor too.”

“I don’t suppose you kept any of it?” I
asked hopefully.

He looked at me like I was crazy.
 
I supposed I probably was.
 
“No,” he answered slowly.
 
“That police bloke, Nick whatsisface
Jones, took some.
 
Said he’d send it
away for testing or something.
 
I
don’t expect he really will, though.”

Perkins’ faith in the ineptitude of the
police force was clearly unshakeable.

“He took the CCTV video as well.”

I sat up.
 
CCTV?
 
That was interesting.
 
And helpful.
 
Although it did mean I’d now have to go
and see Nick after all.
 
I gulped
down the rest of my coffee.
 
“Mr
Perkins, thank you so much for your time.”
 
I stuck out my hand and he took it.

“You’re welcome.
 
You culty people might be odd but at
least you’re polite.”

I smiled at him slightly.
 
“If I find out anything, I’ll let you
know.”

“It’s hardly even worth me filing the
insurance claim, girl, so I don’t really know why you’re bothering.”

“It’s the principle of the matter, Mr
Perkins.
 
We cannot allow incidents
of this nature to take root in Trevathorn.
 
It’s a slippery slope, this kind of thing you know.”
 
God help me, now I was starting to sound
like Julia.
 
It worked though,
because he grinned warmly at me before showing me out the front door and
locking it firmly behind me again.

It was barely a hop, skip and a jump to
the police station so I wandered over without any further delay. I could handle
one horny copper.
 
 
Once, inside I asked the duty sergeant to
let me through to speak to Nick.
 
He
wasn’t overly thrilled about it but called him up on the intercom to check
first and then buzzed me through.

“Mack!”
 
Nick stretched out his arms to greet
me.
 
“To what do I owe this
wonderful pleasure?”

“I need a favour, Nick.”

He shot me a sly smile.
 
“For you, anything.”

I gritted my teeth.
 
“I’d like to see the CCTV you took from
Perkins, and any report you managed to get from the lab about the slime.”

His smile disappeared.
 
“What do you want that for?”

“Trying to keep the streets of Trevathorn
safe, Nick.”
 
I commented lightly.

He looked me for a long time, trying to
judge how serious I was being.
 
Eventually he spoke up.
 
“I
wouldn’t do this for just anyone, you know.”

I nodded, serious, but hopeful.

“The slime is still with the lab.
 
How did you know about that
anyway?”
 

I just shrugged and smiled demurely.

“Fine, whatever,
don’t
tell me.
 
And if the sarge finds out
I showed you the CCTV, I could lose my job.”

“Nick
,
 
I
…”

He interrupted me.
 
“Now, hold on.
 
I didn’t say
no
yet, did I?
 
I’ll show you it if you
do something for me first.”

“What do you want?”
 

“Have dinner with me.
 
Tonight.”
 
There was a gleam in his eyes that
slightly unnerved me.

“Nick, I’m sorry, but I’m just so busy at
the moment…” I tried batting my eyelashes as Betsy had done at Corrigan at
lunch although I had the distinct feeling that I looked like a fly had just
flown into my eyeball instead.

“That’s my price,” he answered, and looked
at me hopefully.

Fuck it.
 
“Fine.
 
I’ll have dinner with you.
 
But not tonight – can we make it
next week, instead?”

“Okay, dinner next week but a drink in the
Bull tonight after we’re done,” he countered.

I knew I wasn’t going to win this
one.
 
“Okay.
 
You’re on.”

“Come with me, then.”

I followed him down the corridor into a
small room that was already set up with an ancient TV monitor and DVD player.
 
He gestured to a chair and I sat
down.
 
He sat next to me, stretching
an arm behind the back of my chair, and clicked on the remote.
 
The screen flickered to life and I could
see the shop front of Perkins, the camera angled down to cover most of the
shelves and the till.

“Around 2.30am, this happened,” said Nick
in a slightly bored voice.

A huge shadow loomed over the shop
floor.
 
It seemed to twist one way,
then another.
 
All of a sudden, the
picture flicked to white snow.

“What?
 
Bring it back!”

“That’s all there is,” he said with smug
look on the face.

“You tricked me!”
 
I thumped him on his arm.

“I did nothing of the sort.
 
You asked to see the CCTV footage and I
showed you the CCTV footage.”
 
He
grinned at me.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I muttered.

He looked down at his watch.
 
“And would you look at that?
 
It appears my shift is over, and you owe
me a drink.”

I rolled my eyes at him, irritated.
 
“Fine, let’s go.”

“Ever the gracious lady, Mack.”
 
He took me by the arm.
 
I grimaced, but let him lead me back
down the corridor.
 
He shrugged on a
coat, said goodbye to the duty sergeant and we left.

The only other person in the Hanging Bull
when we arrived was the barman.
 
I
ordered a beer as I was definitely going to need something alcoholic to avoid strangling
Nick for making me do this.
 
He
pulled me over to a small table along the wall.
 
“We can go into Penzance for our meal
next week, if you like,” he murmured.

“I’m sure that Trevathorn will do.
 
We can go to the local café.”
 
I retorted.

“Trevathorn works for me,” he said with a
smile.
 
“But the café food makes me
ill so we’ll have to go to my place.
 
I’ll cook.” He winked at me.
 
Oh good God.

I was about to answer him when a shadow
fell across the table.
 
I looked up
and my heart suddenly sank into the pit of my stomach.
 
It was Corrigan.
 
He’d changed since earlier and was now wearing
a dark turtleneck and a pair of jeans that stretched snugly over his
thighs.
 
I swallowed.

“Well, well, well,” he said.
 
“You’re just breaking hearts everywhere
you go, aren’t you?”

Nick scowled at him and looked at me.
 
“Who’s this, Mack?”

“I’m her employer,” said Corrigan, pulling
up a stool and sitting down.
 
The
stool was too small for his body and he looked faintly ridiculous.
 
I was still scared though.

“Where’s John?” asked Nick.

“He’s gone away on business,” Corrigan
said, keeping his eyes trained on me with a terrifying focus.
 
“So, Mackenzie, does Tom know that you
are out here meeting another man?”

Nick jerked.
 
“Tom?
 
Mack, you said that you and he had nothing
going on.”

I looked between the two of them.
 
Hiding the truth from the Brethren alpha
was definitely the preferable option.
 
I sighed, hating myself a lot - and Corrigan more.
 
“I’m sorry, Nick.
 
I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

He jumped back.
 
“And dinner next week?
 
Were you going to come along and
continue to lie to me?”

“Nick, I’m sorry, I…”

“Fuck off.”
 
He stood up, kicking his chair behind
him, and walked out.
 
The barman,
polishing a glass a few feet away, raised an eyebrow at me.
 
Corrigan stared stonily at him and he
immediately coughed and muttered something about fetching a fresh keg from the
back room, before darting away faster than I would have thought possible for a
man of his size.