Chapters (7)

‘Look out the window. The dark between the stars is vast and getting vaster. Light is a myth.’

The door hatch opened and the officer raised a hand without looking and the hatch closed.

‘You carried on working so it didn’t look odd, you and Paddy just walking out at the same time,’ Lynch said.

‘Exactamundo.’

‘So, what now?’203

‘I work till the morning and then I’m gone.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Anyway, just thought we’d have one last drink. Give me a bell when you get out, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. Merry Christmas, lad.’ He knocked their cups together. ‘See you on the other side.’

Before locking the door between them, the officer said something else, something about evil, but Lynch couldn’t hear. His world had stopped spinning. He sat alone in that timeless purgatory, crucifix in fist, watching snow flow silently out of the night.

0

Perfect dark. Then windscreen wipers clearing an arc through snow and morning light entering white and brittle. The driver’s breathing was laboured, his profile horribly deformed. Before him on the dashboard lay the detective’s warrant card. He held the steering wheel with both hands and looked out across the road at the high perimeter wall and the staff car park. Soon prison officers were filing out through full-height turnstiles and into the flurrying dawn snow. He focused on a specific officer accompanied by three others. They smoked and talked and then hugged and shook hands and parted ways. The officer got in a red BMW driven by a woman and the car pulled out into the road. Tail lights glowing pink on the whitened ground. He started the engine and followed.

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About the Author

Steven Maxwell is a PhD Creative Writing candidate and winner of the prestigious PhD Research Scholarship at Lancaster University. He lives in Wirral.

Copyright

Pushkin Press
71–75 Shelton Street
London WC2H 9JQ

The right of Steven Maxwell to be identified as the author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988

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ISBN 13: 978-1-78227-765-1
eISBN 13: 978-1-78227-766-8