Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author:Marie Tierney
- Language: English
- Genre: Crime Thrillers
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Mid-May 1981, Rubery, South Birmingham
WHEN EVERYTHING WAS DRENCHED IN sleep. Ava knew it was time. She
eased out of bed and, when her feet touched the floor, she became still. No
stirring from her younger sisters in their bunks – only soft snores. The trick
at night was to banish all thoughts and let instincts govern. She must be
stealthy and quick: the Small Hours were called small with good reason –
especially as dawn approached. The dark was not absolute, only
monochrome, though the night was her ally, and never harmed her.
Her pupils were matt black and massive in the gloom. She cocked her
head to one side and listened. Only the tick-tock of the clock. Her mother
was sound asleep in her room at the end of the hall. Ava was the only thing
awake.
She padded to the front door. She reached for her coat but did not put it
on: the polyester lining rustled too much. No shoes: shoes were inflexible,
rowdy. She tucked her pyjama trousers into her sock tops. Thick socks lent
silence to movement. After thumbing the latch off, she gradually pulled
open the door.
Cold air nuzzled without bite as she stepped out onto the communal
gallery. She tucked a wad of tissue paper between the door and the frame.
Although the latch was on, Ava couldn’t risk either being discovered or
being locked out. No moon, no mist: the ground dry as burned bone.
Somewhere far away, a dog barked its warning to an unseen intruder. Ava’s
nose twitched – petrol, earth, stone. Her skin prickled and her belly
quivered with anticipation and the excitement of being out alone in the
dark.
The apartment block hunkered in its trench, and faced the looming bulk
of the Quarry. She scurried along to the central stairwell, which stank of
ciggies and chip fat as concrete steps ascended and descended into
blackness. She didn’t consider the noisy elevator. Ava swung her coat on,
felt in her pocket for her blue pencil sharpened at both ends, retrieved her
Red Book from behind the huge metal bin and exited the open foyer. She
swept into the laburnum bushes that hugged the low wall of the property
then stepped forward into the gap with a view of the street, silent as an
abandoned film set. The street lights tipped everything in a pallid glow, and
a strange peace wavered in it.
Ava surveyed the realm: no people, no animals. She straddled the wall,
crouched, then ran for the sanctuary of the red telephone box on the corner
of the next street. She pulled her hood over her face. She was darkness
against darkness, therefore invisible.
Ava scampered to the dun maisonettes, to the last building in the row,
which was a burned-out shell after a major fire the year before. It was
supposed to be demolished but it still stood, its scorched walls buttressed by
scaffolding, its immediate perimeter protected by a high wooden fence.
Kids avoided it because they thought it was haunted and grown-ups avoided
it because it was unsafe.
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