Nothing but Meat: A dark, heart-stopping British crime thriller Read Free Page A

She tried to draw the stiffness from her body by
stretching and touching her toes. Her tendons and muscles loosened up and the
freedom of movement felt good. She carefully peeled the dressings from her face
in the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. The bruises had blossomed
overnight and were now heavy and purple around her eyes, and her lips were
swollen and crusted with dried blood. She blew her nose and the tissue came
away thick with dark red but she could now breathe clearly though her nose and
she relished the experience. She stood naked in front of the mirror and looked
at the bruises that illustrated her aches and pains. She angled her body left
and right wincing occasionally with the effort. Dark, tender patches of damaged
skin mercilessly tattooed her arms and shoulders and back but she spent little
time considering them. She was free from stab wounds and for that she was
thankful. Her thoughts went out to Barratt and as she examined her body, she
pressed the flesh of her belly and gasped, her muscles ached terribly but the
pain was solely internal; there was no bruising or swelling, her stomach felt
flat and painfully tight as if she had spent an hour doing sit-ups.
    The hurt Martin had inflicted on her was only painful,
thankfully there was no lasting damage and no evidence of punishment. The
results of her quick examination caused a feeling of relief to wash over her
but the feeling was chased down by one of shame and her heart felt heavy with
the dark weight of unhappiness. She was in pain but she was alive, she knew
last night could have been so much worse but yet she felt little joy.
    She looked past the mirror and out of the bedroom window, she
could see the rooftops and the clear morning sky and suddenly craved fresh air;
she needed to cheer up and decided to walk into town for breakfast.
    She hated feeling down, and while she showered, she used her
years of experience to occupy her mind and distract herself, making it easier
to bury the dark feelings of guilt and shame somewhere inside her.
    She fixed her hair by simply tying it back and then tried to
do something with her battered face but there was little she could do and
simply chose not to care how she looked. She dressed in a flowing skirt and
strappy shoes; simple clothes that made her feel more like a woman and less
like a punch bag.
    Simone stepped out into the day and breathed deeply, looked
to the sky and closed her eyes to the sun as it gently kissed her face. She
loved summer mornings, the day was cool but the sun was warm on her skin and
she could feel it healing her wounds. She shielded her eyes with sunglasses and
began the short walk into town. She felt the heat of the sun on the back of her
arms and legs, and considered for the umpteenth time how amazing it was that
the sun was a hundred million miles away and yet still had the power to burn
her skin, even kill with its heat. That searing hot ball of fire gave life to
the planet and without it there would only be darkness, nothing but the
freezing black vacuum of space. Cold and dead, she thought, like her soul, a
corrupted storage locker where she wrapped her bleakest emotions in a blanket
of secrecy and buried them deep down.
    She pushed the bad thoughts away and reoccupied her mind;
there was going to be a solar eclipse in the next few days and an event like
that would give her the perfect excuse to find her camera, blow the dust off the
lens and get back into photography.
    She strolled along the high street and picked out some hair
products in Boots, and as she passed the lipstick counter on her way to the
till and stole a glimpse of herself in a small, distorted mirror - I won’t be
needing lipstick for a while, she thought as she tongued the stitches in her lip.
    Simone wandered into a small independent coffee shop that was
a personal favourite of hers and ordered a cappuccino and a blueberry muffin.
The shop was fairly quiet and as she turned to find a table someone behind