Hookers & Blowe

By Mhairi Simpson

Detective Constable Robert Blowe has put away more criminals than most of his colleagues combined, but in a world of plea bargains and witness protection, he's starting to wonder if there's a point. His fatigue on the job gets worse when the murder of a local drug lord has Blowe on the back-foot and searching for answers to questions that go back to his childhood—to the scene of his own father's killing. The murderer is no average criminal and seemingly always one step ahead. You can't touch it, let alone cuff it, and if you see it, it's probably after you. Blowe is the only person ever to survive an encounter with the shadowy killer. That was over thirty years ago—a distant memory. Until now. Blowe isn't one to hide from a challenge, however, and with the aid of a peculiar informant, a little faith, and a considerable amount of guts he prepares to face down his nemesis. If he doesn't stop it then no one will.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SkyTint
• Release date: Oct 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311103604

Book preview

HOOKERS & BLOWE

by

Mhairi Simpson

Copyright 2014 Mhairi Simpson

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

Copyright 2014 Mhairi Simpson

Cover design by Kevin Lester

Additional effects by Mhairi Simpson

Author’s Note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Second edition

This edition published by SkyTint in 2014

This story was previously published by Anachron Press in 2012.

For Hamish, who keeps playing

Liz, who keeps picking up the phone

and Leona, without whom I’d have more time to write the next one

Hookers & Blowe

Light floods into the cupboard as the door flies open, slamming against the wall. Robby Blowe jumps but doesn’t make a sound. He watches a hand reach in and wrap tightly around his arm. It hurts.

It hurts more when the hand pulls him out, bending his arm in a way it doesn’t want to bend. He hits his head on the inside of the cupboard as he slides out and he can’t stop a whimper. It falls out of his mouth like a stone.

"You shouldn’t hide from your daddy, Robby." Daddy’s eyes look strange. Robby wonders if this is really his daddy, or if his real daddy died already and this… thing took over his body. It's wishful thinking. This is his real Daddy. He knows him too well.

Daddy stands up and Robby screams as his shoulder twists. He daren’t look. He’s scared his arm isn’t there anymore. It hurts more than any other time. And Daddy is smiling. Robby turns cold all over, because he knows Daddy won’t stop this time. Robby won’t wake up in hospital. He won’t wake up at all.

He starts to cry.

Daddy starts to tell him off, but his voice rises and keeps rising.

Now Daddy’s screaming. His voice isn’t strong or soft or serious anymore. It’s shrill — a cut through Robby’s head — and he slaps his hands over his ears. That’s when he finds Daddy isn’t holding his arm anymore.

Robby slides backwards, nearly screaming again when he tries to use his left arm. After that he only uses his right arm and his feet, pushing himself away from his daddy. He looks taller from down here on the floor, even screaming so loud that his face is red and his eyes are watering. Or is he crying? Robby can’t tell. There's a bad smell, like burnt dinner, and it's making Robby's eyes water too.

Daddy’s arms are outstretched, his fists clenched, and now it looks like his chest bulging. His screams get louder, impossibly louder, and Robby’s hands can’t block the sound out. But he can’t shut his eyes either. He can’t stop watching Daddy scream. And when he finally tears his eyes away, he sees something else.

Someone else.

A tall man, made of shifting shadows, stands at the other end of the kitchen. He holds a stick, a bar of shadow, in his hand, and there’s a very thin line leading from the end of that shadow to Daddy’s chest. It’s a straight line, and it leads right to the centre of the bulge. Something sharp is poking out. Daddy’s chest bulges more and more and his screams get louder and louder until a big fishhook pulls right out, taking a ball of light with it, and Daddy falls to the floor.

Robby watches the hook fly back to the shadow man. The man catches the ball of light, takes it off the hook, and puts it in a bag hanging from his waist. Then he looks at Robby.

Robby knows he mustn't scream, but as the shadow man moves closer, he can feel the fear rising in his throat. He's going to scream, he knows it. He's going to throw up, too.

The shadow man readies his hook and Robby whimpers, pushing himself backwards towards the