Chapters (73)
- Rabbit Hole
- Also by Mark Billingham
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Preface
- PART ONE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- PART TWO
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- PART THREE
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Back Cover
‘Oh,’ he said. The poor lad had obviously been told that all the patients were safely tucked up out of the way and clearly hadn’t got the foggiest what to do, confronted with me. He actually jumped a little and began looking around for help.
‘What do you reckon?’ I asked. ‘The HAT team going to call it?’
‘Sorry?’
‘It’s OK,’ I said. ‘I’m Job.’
He looked at me: nodding up at him, all business, in a ratty dressing gown and slippers. He said, ‘Yeah, course you are,’ then began waving over my head to try and attract the attention of someone in the nurses’ station.
I could happily have slapped him, but I knew I wouldn’t be doing myself any favours and I guessed I didn’t have long. I saw an officer stepping out of Kevin’s room, so I raised a hand and shouted past the uniform.
‘Tell Brian Holloway that Al says hello.’
My DCI. One of the decent ones. A good mate, as well.
The officer at the far end of the corridor glanced my way, ignored me, then stepped back into Kevin’s bedroom. I don’t really know what I was expecting, because Hendon isn’t my team’s area anyway, so I wasn’t likely to know any of this lot and there was next to no chance they would know any of mine. It was annoying, all the same.
I turned back to the uniform. ‘Holloway’s my guvnor,’ I said. ‘We’ve worked a lot of cases together.’
Now, the bloke had his arms spread and his size tens firmly planted, like he was expecting me to bolt past him at any moment. He still hadn’t got a clue what to do with me, that much was obvious, but before I could make things any harder for him Femi and George arrived to save his bacon, giving it ‘Come on, Alice’ and ‘Back to bed, there’s a good girl . . .’
I couldn’t help but smile at the look of relief on the woodentop’s face as I trotted back towards my bedroom like a very good girl. I wasn’t that bothered, because I already knew how things were going to pan out. The next steps on the investigation’s critical path.
I’d taken those steps myself plenty of times.
They’d be bringing in the big guns soon enough, and I’d be there when they did.