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Back Rabbit Hole Save as PDF
Chapters (73)
  1. Rabbit Hole
  2. Also by Mark Billingham
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. Preface
  8. PART ONE
  9. ONE
  10. TWO
  11. THREE
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. SEVEN
  16. EIGHT
  17. NINE
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. THIRTY-TWO
  41. THIRTY-THREE
  42. PART TWO
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. FIFTY
  60. FIFTY-ONE
  61. FIFTY-TWO
  62. FIFTY-THREE
  63. FIFTY-FOUR
  64. FIFTY-FIVE
  65. FIFTY-SIX
  66. FIFTY-SEVEN
  67. FIFTY-EIGHT
  68. PART THREE
  69. FIFTY-NINE
  70. SIXTY
  71. EPILOGUE
  72. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  73. Back Cover

I wasn’t remotely surprised that none of the people who get paid to sort out stuff like this were in much of a hurry. They’ve seen it all before, that’s the truth. What I’m saying is, I couldn’t just hang about waiting for one of that lot to get their arse in gear and put a stop to it. Besides, I’d broken up plenty of rucks in my time, so it wasn’t a big deal. I’ve been trained for it, haven’t I?

Bloody hell, Al . . . get a grip. Getting the facts straight is important, right? Something else I’ve been trained for.

The first body. The first of the bodies.

It was obvious pretty quickly after I’d steamed in that I wasn’t really making a lot of difference, that I wasn’t going to be able to do much physically. To be fair though, I didn’t have my equipment – baton, pepper spray, taser, what have you – so I wasn’t going to give myself a hard time about it. In the end, the only thing I could do was climb on to one of the few chairs that was still the right way up, take a breath and scream louder than anyone else until I had their attention.

Well, most of them at least, though a few were still muttering.

‘I’m going to give you one chance to break this up before things get serious, all right?’ I left a little pause then, for what I’d said to sink in, because I’ve always thought that’s effective. Makes them think a bit. ‘So, do yourselves a favour and stop playing silly buggers.’ A good hard look after that, at each and every one of them. ‘Do you understand what I’m saying? I’m not messing around, here. This is a public order offence and I am a police officer . . .’

And I have to say, that did the trick, though watching some of them put the furniture back where it belonged while the others drifted back out into the corridor, I can’t say I felt particularly proud of myself. Like, I wasn’t exactly happy about it. I knew even then that, later on, crying myself to sleep, I’d be thinking about why they’d done what I wanted.

Not because I’d made anyone see sense or frightened them.

Not because I had any kind of authority.

Truth was, they just couldn’t be bothered fighting any more because they were all too busy laughing.

PART ONE

PART ONE

SUDDEN OR SUSPICIOUS

ONE

ONE