A State Of Sin Amsterdam Occult Series Book Two, Mark Hobson [notion reading list txt] 📗

peripheral vision made Pieter look over to his left, and with a feeling of horror he saw a second stream of people pouring around the corner of the building where it jutted out towards the frozen boating lake. He could see them quite clearly in the moonlight, dashing over the edge of the water, their feet crunching through the thin ice near the shore. They must have found another way out on that side.

As he ran, he watched the running figures switch direction and come charging up the grass embankment. They were trying to cut him off, to reach the car park before he had a chance to get to his car, and at the speed they were moving they would win the race. Again he was amazed and baffled at their speed, their uncanny ability to know where he was.

Pieter raised his gun again, aiming in the general direction of this second group, and fired three rapid shots. All three missed their targets because of his unsteady arm, but it was enough to make them duck and cringe back for a few seconds, which was all he needed. Then Pieter was at his car, yanking open the door and diving into the driver’s seat, and then slamming it shut.

Not a moment too soon. The two groups of patients reached his car together and threw themselves at the doors and windows, banging with their fists against the bodywork and glass. One man even jumped on the front of the car and pressed his pale face against the windscreen, gazing in with his eyeless face, his mouth stretched open wide.

Pieter turned the ignition and gunned the engine, then throwing it into gear, he stamped down on the accelerator and the car screeched away, fish-tailing through the slippery snow.

Most of those crowding around his car pulled clear or were pushed away by the car itself. All except the man on the bonnet, who clung stubbornly on even as Pieter skidded across the car park. Pieter looked at him through the glass and he could hear somebody shouting at the top of their voice, before he realized it was his own voice he could hear, yelling and babbling. He was on the point of losing all reasoning, had never felt such perfect fear in his life, and he wondered if the nightmare would ever end.

The terror fuelled his anger and he snapped the steering wheel hard towards the exit leading on to the main road. The sudden jolt made the man outside lose his grip, and then he was sliding away over the front of the bonnet.

Pieter had one last glimpse of his face as he disappeared from view. There was a double bump as the front and rear tyres ran right over the man. Then he was clear, the car shooting out of the car park, wheels spinning to gain a purchase on the snow.

Pieter was still shouting, and tears were coursing down his face, and he was thumping the steering wheel in triumph.

Chapter 14

Mr Trinh

You shouldn’t have come here,” Lotte told Julian Visser.

He stood shivering in the hallway to her apartment, with small heaps of snow on the hood and shoulders of his overcoat, a puddle of water already forming around his feet. Through the open doorway behind him, thick white flakes came tumbling out of the black sky, covering the courtyard.

“I had nowhere else to go,” Visser replied apologetically. “We had no choice but to abandon the clinic after the girl started poking around. The place will be swarming with police by now, the same with my home.”

Lotte stared at him for a moment, letting him shiver in the cold blast of air blowing in.

“But you were supposed to get out of the city after dumping the girl. Get on a flight out of Schiphol, any flight. That was the arrangement.”

“The airport is shut because of the weather,” Visser mumbled weakly, shrugging and looking all wet and pathetic.

Lotte sighed. “Very well. You’re here now, so you’d better come in.” She stood to one side and he went through into the passage, shrugging off his coat and hanging it on a rack as he went. She closed the front door with a thud.

“Thank you. I’m sorry about this, but things happened so quickly that I didn’t know what to do for the best.”

Lotte smiled warmly and shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it. Look, why don’t you run yourself a hot bath while I find you a change of clothes and fix you a drink.”

Visser smiled back, the tenseness visibly leaving him. His beady little eyes ran back and forth over her face, and then dipped quickly to the top of her shirt where it was unbuttoned. When he looked back up, her smile had gone, replaced by a blank expression and a straight little mouth.

“Ah right, yes, of course.” Visser disappeared down the hallway.

Once he had gone Lotte turned and went back into her study, where she had been talking with her uncle before the knock on the door had interrupted them.

Johan Roost looked up as she entered. He was sitting at the table. He’d spread out some old newspapers and was cleaning the AX338 Sniper Rifle, rubbing the barrel with an oily rag.

He saw from Lotte’s expression that something was wrong and he paused briefly with his task.

“The idiot!” Lotte said harshly. “What the hell is he thinking coming here?”

Johan grunted, and went back to his task.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Just that I did warn you he was the weak link. That if things became difficult, then it wouldn’t take much for him to crack.”

“But nothing bad has happened. Everything is going exactly as I anticipated… well mostly. And anyway, wasn’t it Tobias who you had concerns about?”

She was venting her frustration on her Uncle, which was unfair she knew, but she did it nonetheless.

“Him as well. The more people who are involved, the more chances there are for something to go wrong.”

“A bit of