Free Blood Sister: A thrilling and gritty crime drama by Dreda Say Mitchell Page A

riverside apartment is? You’re trouble, mate. I’ve got enough of that on the home front and don’t need any more.’
    Nuts sighed but his smile didn’t falter. ‘OK, it’s confession time. Just to show you I’m on the level: I arranged to get some hooky tickets for a gig for the guy in the club. He needed them and I knew where to get them. OK, strictly speaking, it’s probably not legit but if you want to call the Bill, I’ll say it’s a fair cop and take my punishment like a man. As for the motor.’ He raised his hand to show a set of keys that he’d put his finger through. ‘You don’t put a window through on a car when you’ve got these, do you? Of course I could have nicked them but then the broken window wouldn’t have been necessary. As for my flat, play your cards right and you’ll be seeing that soon enough. My bedroom ceiling has a very nice shade of primrose for a start. Now, what about Tuesday?’
    He had an answer for everything. But boys like him always did. ‘And there’s another thing. You told me you didn’t know this estate. How come you knew how to drive here without any directions once we got past Whitechapel, and know it’s a zoo?’
    He leaned into her face as he had at the club and whispered, ‘Now you’re getting desperate. You told me you lived in Mile End and I know my way there. Once you’re in Mile End, this estate sticks out like a baguette on a day-trip to Calais. Of course I knew how to find it then. Come on – give me a chance. I’m not going to weave a web of porkies, only to look a total prat a couple of weeks later, am I?’
    She hesitated before saying, ‘I’m sorry, Nuts. You’re a nice fella but I just want a proper life – a quiet one – and a guy like you is too much of a risk for me.’
    He drew back slightly. ‘I’ll be here on Tuesday, seven-thirty on the dot. Of course you don’t have to answer the door.’
    They were interrupted by shouting and screaming on the stairwell. Nuts was alarmed when two struggling figures emerged onto the landing.
    He turned back to Jen. ‘You’d better get inside your flat, treacle. Those two looby-loos look like a right pair.’
    Jen’s heart sank. ‘Those two looby-loos, as you put it, are my mum and sister.’
     
    Nuts decided to leave Jen to it. He passed by as Babs strong-armed Tiffany into the flat. Jen followed her family inside, and the front door banged behind them. Tiffany marched off to her bedroom slamming the door. Babs attempted to follow, then cursed under her breath, suspecting that Tiffany had done her old trick of jamming her bed up against the door. No way was she getting inside.
    ‘I’ll kick this door in if you don’t come out, my girl,’ she shouted, hammering on the door.
    ‘Leave it, Mum,’ Jen said, sighing as she triple-locked the front door. ‘Talk to her in the morning; it’s a waste of time now. Was she down the cemetery?’
    Her mother sounded exhausted, but still had some fight in her. ‘I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eagle eye on her for me?’
    Jen shrugged her shoulders. ‘She had a row with a bouncer and then flounced off. What do you want me to do?’ She didn’t finish by saying, ‘I told you so . . .’ But then she never did. Her mum was already hurting and she didn’t want her words to add any new wounds. Babs slumped into an armchair in the sitting room. Jen fetched a bottle of brandy from the sideboard, poured a stiff one into a glass and passed it over. ‘What was she up to in the cemetery?’
    Her mother took a large gulp. ‘She was hanging around with a girl.’
    Jen was amused. ‘A girl? Well, that’s something; at least she won’t be telling you she’s got a bun in the oven in a couple of months’ time.’
    Babs tutted furiously. ‘It’s not bloody funny. The girl was Stacey Ingram. I pretended I didn’t know who she was and Tiffany clammed up when I asked about her.’
    ‘Stacey Ingram?’ Jen didn’t see the funny side of