A Plague Of Crows: The Second Detective Thomas Hutton Thriller Read Free

wood, removed the scalp in situ , and then left them to it. Exposed brain. Almost an experiment to see how they'd go. The most obvious way would have been that they'd've bled to death. But as I said, he'd done a good job, made sure that wouldn't happen.'
    'Why didn't they do something? Topple the chairs over, crawl through the wood. Something…'
    'He cemented them into place.'
    'Fuck.'
    'Cemented them into place and left them there. I suppose he took the chance that they could be found and rescued, but as it was, they were found by birds. Glistening live brains proved to be too much of an attraction.'
    'But they wouldn't feel the brain getting eaten, right?'
    'Probably not. They were facing each other. They would have been able to watch as it happened to the other two, and they'd know it was happening to them. Who knows what part of the body went first.'
    'Well, they could watch if their eyes didn't go first. I presume that was the crows too.'
    Taylor nods. I hold his gaze for a moment and then look down at my coffee. Suddenly don't feel so much like drinking. I'd already given up on going back to the fresh air and the solitude of the side of a Scottish mountain, but now that reality strikes firmly home. Back on the job, and at a hundred miles an hour.
    'So I'm cleared by Sutcliffe,' I say.
    He shakes his head.
    'No. You need to go back and see her first thing tomorrow morning.'
    'What?'
    'And you need to talk to her. I don't care what you say, just be… normal.'
    I continue to stare across the table. This is bullying, right? This is new millennium Britain, and he's bullying me into coming back to work when I'm not ready. I could sue him. Right now. I could make a phone call and have a lawyer wedged a foot-and-a-half up Taylor's arsehole before he leaves the café.
    'Whatever,' is all I can manage.
    *
    We don't talk for a while sitting on the train on the way back up to Glasgow. My tent is still up and waiting for me at the bottom of Ben Vorlich, in the lee of some trees. Some part of me still thinks I'll be going back there, but the further the train gets from Helensburgh, the closer we get to Glasgow and on our way to Cambuslang, the more I know that I won't be going back.
    Not sure what happens to tents that are just left lying. Maybe someone will report me missing and there'll be hundreds of people searching for me for months. It'll be on the news, and I'll be watching it, thinking, miserable fucker, you deserve to be lost .
    I should probably call someone about the tent.
    The warm afternoon passes by. At all the stations there are women in summer clothes.
    'So you've been hill walking?' says Taylor after a while.
    'Aye.'
    I answer without looking round. Watching the world go by, like a kid on his way home with his dad. Black Crow Blues has started playing in my head.
    'Where were you staying?'
    'In a tent.'
    'You've been living in a tent for four months?'
    'Aye.'
    'Jesus. Thought you'd smell worse.'
    'Had a shower today at the gym.'
    'What've you been eating?'
    'Rabbits and shit.'
    'You've been catching rabbits?'
    Look round at last. Shrug.
    'You've been catching rabbits?' he says again.
    'Aye.'
    'Eating them raw, cooking them?'
    'Cooking them.'
    'Jesus, Hutton.'
    He shakes his head and looks out the window.
    'What does rabbit taste like?' he asks eventually.
    'Don't know. Rabbit.'
    'Thought it was supposed to taste like chicken.'
    'Doesn't taste like chicken.'
    He glances at me again, and then we both look out of the window as the warm summer's day passes by. All we can see are the banks of the railway line.
    'Are you sure they were rabbits?' he says.

3
     

    I have three MP3s on the go. One for studio Bob, one for live Bob, one for bootleg and miscellaneous Bob. (Bootleg and miscellaneous Bob is naturally largely live too, although it does include some of Bob's songs performed by other artists. I know, I wasn't sure about that either. It felt like I was debasing the MP3, or that I should have a completely separate