City of Halves Read Free Page B

it’s il legal. Although to be honest I’ve never really thought about it like that.’
    â€˜Are you incapable of giving a straight answer?’
    He said nothing. Instead, he opened the door for her in a quaint show of manners. ‘After you.’

    Outside the door was a long balcony like a gallery, one of four running all the way around the interior walls of the building, flights of ancient wooden stairs connecting them. Doors led off at regular intervals. Did he carry me all the way up here? Lily frowned, burying her chin in her coat collar as she followed him down the switchback stairs.
    They passed the body of the animal. Lily walked over and studied it: the two massive heads, the powerful jaws. She shivered. Regan was standing behind her, watching. She turned away from the body.
    Through the alley they passed the little stationery shop and the coffee place. A man in his twenties with a neat goatee, wearing a tight white T-shirt, a black apron and a baker-boy cap, stood outside smoking.
    â€˜Hi, Tom. There’s a job for Felix in there, if you see him.’ Regan gestured to the alleyway with a nod of his head.
    Tom’s eyes widened. ‘In there?’
    â€˜I know,’ Regan agreed.
    â€˜Okay, I’ll tell him,’ said Tom, and opened the door to the coffee shop, disappearing inside.
    Regan pulled up the wide hood of his coat, obscuring his face, and headed out of the alley. The coat looked handmade, antique. He strode out from the hip, totally relaxed. They walked through the busy streets without speaking until they reached Queen Victoria Street. Lily looked at the people passing them, hurrying through the cold with coffees, sneaking a cigarette outside the office fire door. It was a perfectly ordinary weekday, people still slow and grumpy after the Christmas break, facing the new year with heads down, hands in pockets.
    â€˜None of them would believe you,’ he said, as if reading her mind. ‘Attacked by a two-headed dog? Here in the City? Right.’
    â€˜Stop trying to freak me out.’
    â€˜If I wanted to hurt you, surely I’d just have left you to the dogge?’ He gestured across the street with a nod of his head, just as the pedestrian crossing turned green and began to bleep. They crossed and walked towards Blackfriars. The station was still under renovation, and scaffolding and workmen were everywhere. A thousand questions crowded Lily’s mind as she almost winced at the brightness of their fluorescent orange overalls. She felt strung out. Her clothes were stiffening with blood – her blood. Lily glanced down. Inside her dark coat, against her black clothes, no one could see. But she knew it was there.
    They passed a pub, men standing outside, smoking. Ahead of them was Blackfriars Road, the road built over the River Fleet. Suddenly, Regan jogged forward a few paces. At the bus stop, the tramp Lily had seen earlier was still sitting, can in one hand, bag of bread crusts clutched in the other. His head was tippedback, his mouth open as he slumped against the back of the shelter. He didn’t appear to be breathing.
    â€˜Gamble.’ Regan shook his shoulder. ‘Gamble!’
    Gamble opened one bleary eye. ‘Whadder you want?’ he said grumpily.
    â€˜To check you’re alive?’
    â€˜Don’t know why you bother. No one else cares.’
    â€˜I don’t know why I do either,’ Regan said, annoyed. Then his expression cleared. ‘I need to ask you something.’ He pulled Lily forward. ‘This is Lily. She just met her first bandogge in my courtyard.’
    The tramp squinted up at her. ‘Won’t be the last,’ he said prophetically, pulling a mouldy piece of bread from the bag and putting it in his mouth.
    â€˜What?’ Lily exclaimed, looking over her shoulder at Regan, who was still watching Gamble.
    â€˜Have you seen anything in the last couple of days?’
    â€˜Nuffing I got any