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By Root 312 0

No wonder his girlfriend had dumped him, fed up of dating a pizza'. Well, when he was sergeant...

The window wound down, and an old man struggled to stick his head out. 'I was attacked!' he said. 'Kidnapped! One of your lot, he said he was, Kreiner of the Yard...'

'Kreiner?' Flannen looked at Sparrow knowingly. 'We wish to question Mr Kreiner in relation to another offence, sir. While I go to question the lad's mother, perhaps you'd be so kind, Constable Sparrow, as to take the gentleman's statement.'

'Right, Sarge," sighed Sparrow, wearily.

He paid only half a mind to the old man's ramblings, watching instead Flannen as he tried the front door, then moved round the back, disappearing from sight. A couple of moments later he dashed back round the corner.

'Sparrow! Get yourself round here now!'

'Excuse me, sir,' he said, interrupting the tirade of complaints, and jogged over.

The woman had been slung through the windows. Sparrow was glad he hadn't had any breakfast yet. Flannen was looking pale and sweaty.

'I'll radio for backup, Sarge,' said Sparrow.

Flannen nodded. 'You do that, lad. Meantime, we're going in.'

'Sarge?'

'We'll watch out for each other, all right?'

The call put in, Sparrow followed his sarge inside.

The house was gloomy, and smelled of burnt roast dinners. A passage led to the hallway. It looked as if a bomb had gone off in the middle of a massacre. There were four bodies lying there, bodies like he'd never seen before. His throat was so dry he couldn't even croak to Flannen that he was going to be sick.

Flannen had waited for him while he crouched over a plant pot, and, when he felt his stomach was up to exploring the rest of the house, Sparrow followed his sergeant up the stairs.

The rooms were all empty, it seemed, the murderer long gone, but then he heard Flannen yell at someone in a room at the end of the landing. 'Hold it!

Stay right where you are!'

He rushed to join him. A man was lying on a table in the dark. 'What is it?'

the man said. He had a posh voice, high-pitched and alarmed. 'What are you doing? Please don't shout, my head is-'

Sparrow tried the light switch but there was no bulb in place. He turned on his torch, shone it in the man's face.

'Who are you? Police?' The man seemed confused, off his face. Sparrow heard sirens, felt relief trickle through him. He crossed to the heavy curtains and pulled them open.

As light poured into the room, the man started screaming, screaming like a raving maniac, his pinched-up face all blue and bruised, wild-eyed and staring.

'Get the backup here, pronto,' Flannen snapped. 'I'll keep an eye on this one.'

Sparrow left the room, his legs shaking as he walked down the landing.

The man was still babbling in between his screams, but Flannen was shouting him down.

'What do you mean they're all over us, what are, what are you talking about? Don't try that with me, mate, the only things you'll have all over you are the arrows on your prison suit. Oh, you're going down for what you've done, you are, my son. All the way down.'

Table of Contents

By Michael Collier

1.1

THE TAINT

2.2

2.3

2.4

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

5.1

5.2

5.3

5.4

5.5

6.1

6.2

6.3

6.4

6.5

6.6

6.66

Epilogue