Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [122]
Chapter 104
Mann was in Miriam’s Cantina bar when he saw Victoria’s number light up as his phone rattled on the bar top. He didn’t answer it. The barman looked over at him.
‘Is Miriam around?’
The barman shook his head. ‘Do you want me to call her? She’s just upstairs. She’ll want to see you. She asked me to call her if you came in.’
Mann shook his head. ‘That’s okay.’
Mann heard the clash of a symbol from his message alert. He had voicemail. He picked it up and looked at the screen. He hated the fact that he wanted her, that when he listened to her voice his heart leapt. He had done nothing but try and not think about her and achieved the opposite. Now, he heard the frightened girl in her voice, whatever else she had lied about in her life, she wasn’t lying now. He knew she was in big trouble.
Chapter 105
Victoria dreaded the lift door opening. She pulled a small handgun from her bag and loaded it. The lift came to a stop. She stepped onto the landing and looked across at the Delhi Grill. She saw PJ staring back at her; his face sad, angry; he was shaking his head. She tried the door, it was locked. It was then she heard the whistles and the feet running up the stairwell and she knew they were coming for her.
Victoria made a run for it. She pulled open the door to the next flight of stairs and listened. The shrill whistles had reached a deafening shriek, feet were like thunder on the stairs. There was nowhere else to go but upwards. Victoria sprinted up the twelve flights of stairs; her throat rasping and sore with the exertion. Her lungs screaming. She came to the end of the landings. She stood panting staring wide-eyed at the approaching mob. Only the stairwell to the roof remained. She had nowhere else to go.
Chapter 106
Mann hadn’t even got a few paces inside the Mansions when he knew something major had kicked off. David came towards him. ‘You need a hand, brother? You’re Shrimp’s colleague, right?’
‘Have you seen a smartly dressed Chinese woman, mid-thirties come in?’
David nodded. ‘Victoria Chan? They were waiting for her.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘You come to help her?’
‘Yes. She needs a fair chance. She’s been set up.’
‘She is about to be killed. They’ve got her on the roof. Come on, I’ll take you.’ David shouted to his friends to come with them.
By the time Mann reached the lifts, the Africans were thirty strong, armed with sticks and batons. Some took the lifts, some the stairs. Mann came out onto the top landing and listened. He heard the whistles coming from the roof.
When Mann stepped onto the roof with David and the other Africans, it was dusk. In the half light he saw Lilly carrying the urumi. The eagles would soon be going back to roost, for now they cruised the evening sky and watched. Mann looked around him. He stepped cautiously out armed with only a baton. He had his weapons inside his jacket and his gun in his holster but he wasn’t planning on using them. He looked at them now: they were a wild bunch of bloodthirsty kids, but they were still kids.
Lilly was in front. She had the urumi in her hand. She looked full of panic. Victoria was talking to her.
‘We can work this out. Don’t believe them, Lilly. I would never lie to you. I always intended to take you with me.’ She looked at them: around seventy scrawny kids, frenzied with excitement. They were inching Victoria back towards the parapet.
‘Kill her. Kill her,’ they chanted.
Lilly drew the urumi up into the air but she couldn’t do it. She brought it down either side of Victoria but was careful not to touch her. Victoria screamed and scrabbled to get away but she was pushed up onto the ledge. Below her the busy Nathan Road traffic hooted up.
‘Please…I promise, I will take care of you,’ she begged.
‘This is our home. You’re going to knock it down. You don’t care about any of us,’ Lilly said.
‘Kill her. Kill her,’ the Outcasts chanted, more insistently now than ever.
‘Stop now.’
The Outcasts turned at the sound of Mann’s voice.
‘Stop now and come away from the edge.’
The children turned