Eva reached the throng outside Whitechapel station and stopped for a second. She had options but time was not on her side. The area was packed with people streaming in and out of the station. Her car was parked nearby. Pavel would definitely head for her car if he couldn’t find her soon, so the Alfa Romeo was definitely off the agenda. All she wanted was time enough to think, and to look inside his mysterious little book. Pavel was sick in the head. He’d become obsessed... after this she would never see him again.
“Eva!” she heard her name called somewhere in the distance and knew that he was coming. It was time for a diversion. Pavel was tall enough to see over most crowds, so, Eva ran towards the tube station, and then stopped just short of the entrance. Instead of going inside, she pressed close along to the wall and walked along by the shops and takeaway windows. She did not dare look back. Eva moved on for another few minutes, until she came to a broad set of windows full of TV screens, washing machines and sound systems. There was a walkway set deep into the windows – an old fashioned shop. Eva took a moment’s respite in the walkway and looked out to the sunny street and saw tall Pavel pace past without seeing her. Eva turned and walked inside the shop. The door chimed and she saw a young sales assistant look up.
“Just browsing,” said Eva, to keep him away. The young man nodded. Eva walked to the back of the shop where she would be most hidden from the street. She pretended to look at the TVs while she fiddled with her smartphone. First she typed in her cousin’s name into a search engine, then added more search terms: Prague university English department. A string of click-through options came up. Most of them were no good. A few were entirely in Czech. She clicked on one of these while hiding near the oversize TV screens. A Czech newspaper article appeared with a photograph of her cousin looking serious and aloof. At the top of the screen was a ‘translate’ button. Eva clicked it, and a second later the text turned into English. The headline said enough.
“Disgraced Professor Resigns from University”
Eva scanned the article. It said Pavel had been an English teacher. A good one. But then he started to turn his lectures into arguments where no learning took place. Later Pavel had resorted to threatening students who didn’t like his views. The threats were made to young women as much as men. On grounds of diminished mental health, Pavel was not sent to prison. But he did lose his position. And the article didn’t say what his punishment or treatment was. The article was two years old. Only one person had stuck up for her cousin. One of his colleagues, a professor called George Ballelli.
“Can I help you?”
Eva looked up and saw the young sales assistant standing in front of her. His hands were clasped together as if in prayer. The name badge on his blue shirt said” Jeff.”
Eva was just about to say “No, I’m just browsing,” when her eyes chanced upon the forty-inch screen behind the young sales assistant. The screen showed one of the now infamous images from Lille. A blurred image of a young man wearing a scarf over his face and a backpack on his back, heading into Lille train station. Everyone knew the image was taken twenty minutes before the bomb exploded. There were four images of the masked man divided across the screen. The one in the top right corner had Eva transfixed. Right behind the masked man, a tall man walked with a briefcase. The image was blurred, but the shadows on the man’s face implied a beard and large eyes. Eva’s mouth fell open. Her heart started to pound. There could be doubt. Pavel had been in Lille twenty minutes before the train station exploded, captured in the same shot with the infamous man in black. His presence looked almost incidental. But Eva had learned long ago there was no such thing as coincidence. Eva left the sales assistant hanging and called Dan just as fast as she could.
Continued in Flesh & Blood part two:
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed the first part of this thrilling adventure. I would be very grateful if you would leave a review with the retailer where you bought it. Every review really does matter! If you have enjoyed the story you may like to know there is a whole 13 book series of Eva and Dan thrillers called ‘Long Time Dying,’ and the first three books are available FREE. I would also love for you to join me at the Solomon Carter facebook page More free stories, exclusive news, early bird discounts and other great stuff is available when you join the Readers’ Group at SolomonCarter.net. I’d love to have you with us.
All the very best,
Solomon
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FLESH AND BLOOD – Roberts & Bradley Casebook series
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Great Leap
Copyright © Solomon Carter 2016
Solomon Carter has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this e-book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review, without the prior written permission of the author.