Still Bleeding (A Jack Nightingale Short Story)
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About this ebook
Supernatural detective Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate a case of stigmata. A young girl is bleeding from her hands and feet and claims to be talking to the Virgin Mary. But Nightingale soon realises that all is not as it seems - and the girl is in mortal danger.
Still Bleeding is about 14,000 words, about thirty pages, perfect if you have half an hour to spare.
Stephen Leather is one of the UK's most successful thriller writers, an ebook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country’s most successful ebook authors and his ebooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. In 2011 alone he sold more than 500,000 eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. Born in Manchester, he began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV.
Stephen Leather
Stephen Leather is one of the UK’s most successful thriller writers, an eBook and Sunday Times bestseller and author of the critically acclaimed Dan “Spider’ Shepherd series and the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective novels. Before becoming a novelist he was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mirror, the Glasgow Herald, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. He is one of the country’s most successful eBook authors and his eBooks have topped the Amazon Kindle charts in the UK and the US. He has sold more than a million eBooks and was voted by The Bookseller magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the UK publishing world. His bestsellers have been translated into fifteen languages. He has also written for television shows such as London’s Burning, The Knock and the BBC’s Murder in Mind series and two of his books, The Stretch and The Bombmaker, were filmed for TV. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com
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Still Bleeding (A Jack Nightingale Short Story) - Stephen Leather
STILL BLEEDING
By Stephen Leather
****
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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****
Jack Nightingale had never been a fan of Fridays. They always seemed to get in the way of a perfectly good weekend. Friday was always a bad day to start a case and finishing one on a Friday meant the bill wouldn’t go out until the following week. All in all, he found it hard to drum up any enthusiasm for Fridays. There were the odd exceptions. Bank Holiday Fridays were always a pleasant surprise, and every now and again New Years Eve and Christmas Day fell on a Friday. This particular Friday was different, though. As soon as he stepped into his office, his assistant Jenny McLean told him that he had a client waiting for him.
‘There was nothing in the diary,’ said Nightingale, hanging his raincoat by the door.
‘I never put anything in the diary because you never open it,’ said Jenny. ‘He’s a priest from the Vatican.’ She was wearing a blue dress that looked expensive and had tied her blonde hair back into a ponytail.
‘The Vatican?’
‘Yes, where the Pope lives.’
‘Italy?’
‘Well, strictly speaking it’s a separate independent city-state, but yes, that’s the one.’ She pointed at the door to the office. ‘He’s waiting for you in there.’
‘What does a priest want with a private eye?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe you could ask him.’ She shrugged. ‘Just a thought.’
‘You’re in a sarcastic mood today. Coffee?’
‘I’d love one.’
Nightingale grinned and shook his head. ‘I meant would you bring me one in. And one for the client.’
‘I hear and obey,’ she said.
‘How are we off for chocolate biscuits?’
‘Did you buy any?’
‘No.’
She smiled sweetly and turned back to her computer monitor. ‘Then we haven’t got any,’ she said.
She went over to their coffee maker as Nightingale headed into his office. A tall dark-haired man with piercing blue eyes was sitting on the chair opposite Nightingale’s desk. He was wearing a clerical collar and a floor-length black cassock. He stood up and offered his hand. ‘Jonah Connolly,’ he said. His accent was difficult to place but it certainly wasn’t Italian.
Nightingale shook hands. ‘You’re from the Vatican, my assistant tells me.’
Connolly smiled. ‘I am indeed.’ His hand disappeared inside his cassock and reappeared holding a slim black leather wallet.
‘But you don’t sound Italian.’
The priest gave him a business card and slid the wallet back inside his cassock. ‘Not everyone who works at the Vatican is Italian, Mr Nightingale.’
Nightingale studied the card. The name on it read ‘Jonah Connolly’ and underneath it was a Post Office Box number in Vatican City. And a phone number. A mobile.
‘Connolly? So you’re Irish?’
‘Do I sound Irish?’ asked the priest.
‘No,’ said Nightingale. There was a flatness about the man’s accent, not Irish and not English but not American either, somewhere in between. Nightingale walked around his desk and sat down.
‘There you go then,’ said Connolly as he sat and smoothed the cassock around his legs.
Nightingale tapped the