The Devil Among Us, Ramsay Sinclair [black books to read .txt] 📗

It’s a shame.” Her face fell, and a pang of guilt struck me. She deserved a nice night out, with nothing to worry about. I vowed to give her one after all of this was straightened out.

Even McCall didn’t refute what could have been. “You should go before it gets any later, but be careful, both of you, and remember what you’re dealing with here.” The concern was evident in the softness of her voice. Usually, she’d sound stern and wouldn’t take any nonsense from me.

“Noted. Got everything?” I secretly crossed my fingers that we had.

Abbey nodded, doing the last rounds and grabbing totally unnecessary stuff she wouldn’t even need. I had to put my foot down and pull her by the arm out the front door.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” McCall yelled out, leaving Abbey chuckling.

The lock clicked as I pulled the door shut, leaving us in a blanket of fog, the sort in which you could barely see more than a yard in front of you. A dusting of goosebumps covered our arms, and whispers of fog evaporated into the darkened atmosphere. We were glad to have had the foresight to bring coats. With my heavy footsteps and Abbey’s heels clicking on the uneven pavement, the echoes were much louder than our ragged breathing.

“How are you feeling?” I wondered as we linked arms. Because she was much smaller than I, she dragged me down slightly with each step.

Her teeth chattered in the chill and she replied truthfully. “Nervous. But I’ll be fine.”

“Correction.” I grazed her cheek with my lips, which was hard to do whilst walking. “We’ll be fine. All we have to do is to be ourselves. We want to blend in and not make it obvious that we know their secret,” I explained for the hundredth time over. It was an obsessive thing I did when anxious. “DCI Reid was talking about meeting you before, so that’s how we’ll start, with a round of introductions. Once we get them alone somehow, we can dig deeper.”

I looked behind me to ensure nobody was around to hear. Since witnessing what was stored on that tape, we’d all been increasingly paranoid. Abbey did the same.

“Stop doing that, it frightens me.” She squeezed my arm. “And then?”

“Sorry, I can’t help it.” It felt like people were either following or watching us from afar. “All we’ve got to do is get DCI Reid drunk and comfortable. Make easy conversation, keep them drinking--”

“And smooze his wife,” Abbey interjected.

“You’ve got it.” We rounded the street corner and passed the park in which a few teenagers were hanging out and smoking stubs of leftover cigarettes; ones that people of a legal age had thrown on the floor. It was all a wee bit disgusting. “Maybe we should do this more often.”

“Do what?” she pouted.

“Go undercover together. Like Sherlock Holmes and John Watson,” I said, trying to take my mind off DCI Reid for a couple of minutes. “It’s kind of exciting, especially when you’re dressed in red like that.”

“Oi.” Abbey playfully whacked me. “Keep your eyes on the target for tonight. You’re nervous too.” Her almost cat-like eyes scrutinised me.

“Yeah,” I exhaled, finding it hard to lie to her face. “How could you tell?”

“I think it was the compliment that gave it away.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled too. “Thank you for agreeing to help tonight. Especially since McCall couldn’t be there instead. I haven’t ever done something like this without her.”

Abbey slipped her small hand in mine and squeezed gently this time. “Whatever’s going on at the station has to be put to a stop. I’ve seen the damage it’s doing firsthand to our friends. You’re an honest man, and I know you feel betrayed, even though you won't admit it aloud.”

Finding it easier to answer in silence than reply with a physical answer, the melodic notes of brass band music echoed from a few streets away. It announced our destination before it even came into sight. A few dozen smartly dressed officers and their partners came into sight, cutting through the fog. They headed in the same direction for the gala, a bunch of whom I barely recognised in such expensive suits. We were used to seeing them in crumpled, aged suits or proper uniforms.

For every new face I saw, suspicion riddled my mind and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was they’d been threatened too. If they’d been involved in DCI Reid’s corruption.

A few of them greeted me, with polite sir’s or hullo’s, to which Abbey glimmered with pride. Such an effort made by the force had never been witnessed in all the many years of our station. We’d switched out the dim bars and pints of beer for posh wine and music, for one night only.

Chalkboard signs pointed towards the decked up hall, with hand-drawn arrows showing us in the right direction, even though the hordes of people surging into the community hall was a giveaway. Instead of kids and teens hanging around by the park, there were sergeants and constables alike, all dressed to the nines. Therefore, the hoodlums of the bay had made sure to stay as far away from here as possible.

“Do I look alright? My hair’s not ruined, is it?” Abbey fretted fearfully as we joined the crowd, ducking underneath a balloon arch which already seemed to be deflating.

“Not at all,” I convinced her before I marvelled at the building. If the outside was impressive, the inside was elaborate by any means. It had been transformed from a dusty, old sports hall into a place for dancing.

Silk curtains hung down each wall, covering up the windows and grotty paint to create a cascade effect of fabric. It was atmospherically pitch black in there, apart from a few matching golden spotlights, table lights and stage lights too. Our station’s blue colour scheme was also prevalent in every aspect of the decorations, from the tablecloths and the stage backdrop. The brass band stood tall, playing from