Read I Know Who Did It (A Jack Nightingale Short Story) for Free Online Page B

out a knife. It had a blade almost six inches
long, pointed and with a jagged edge along one side. Nightingale stiffened and
released his grip on Hall’s throat. Hall handed the knife handle first to
Nightingale. ‘Take it. Kill me. Go on.’
    Nightingale shook
his head. ‘That’s not what I meant.’
    ‘So what are you
going to do? Tell the cops?’ He laughed. ‘I’m sitting in a car in a public
street.’
    ‘With a knife,’
said Nightingale.
    Hall tapped him
on the chest with the handle. ‘Take it. You know you want to. Take it and kill
me. Go on.’ Nightingale shook his head and Hall laughed. He turned the blade
around and quickly plunged the knife into his own chest, grunting through
gritted teeth.
    Nightingale
jerked back and Hall continued to smile. ‘What do you think you can possibly do
to me if I can do this to myself,’ said Hall. He slowly pulled the knife out. There
was no blood, not on his chest or on the blade. Hall took a deep breath then
put the knife back inside his jacket. ‘You can’t kill me, Nightingale. That’s
the deal I have. I’m immortal.’
    ‘In exchange for
your soul? And regular sacrifices?’
    Hall shrugged.
‘It’s a small price to pay, in the grand scheme of things.’
    ‘And Emily
Campbell was the first?’
    ‘Why do you
care?’
    ‘Her sister wants
to know what happened. They said it was suicide. But she didn’t believe it.’
    ‘If it makes her
feel better, it was Emily’s fault. She shouldn’t have been there. It was
midnight, I’d done the ritual. Paimonia was explaining the small print. I
didn’t know about the sacrifice, or that the sacrifice had to be repeated. All
I knew was what I’d read in this old book I found among my grandmother’s things
after she died. She was a bit of a witch, though I never realised that. Anyway,
the book explained the ceremony and what I could get, but there was stuff
missing.’ He shrugged. ‘Emily came into the room. I think she was sleepwalking,
maybe. Or maybe Paimonia had done something to her. Anyway, she walked into the
room, the door slammed behind her and that was that. She was the first.’ He
grinned. ‘Does that help you, Nightingale? Does knowing what happened help you
in any way? Because it isn’t going to change anything. I’m going to arrange for
your friend Jenny McLean to be the next sacrifice and there’s nothing you can
do about it. Now go.’
    ‘You can’t do
this.’
    Hall reached for
the knife inside his jacket. ‘Get the fuck out of my car or I swear I’ll kill
you now and fuck the consequences.’
    Nightingale
glared at the man but knew there was nothing he could do. He cursed and got out
of the car. Hall grinned and drove away.

 
    * * *

 
    Mrs Steadman
could see from the look on Nightingale’s face that he was worried so she didn’t
make any small talk or offer him tea. ‘What on earth has happened?’ she asked.
    ‘I’ve made a huge
mistake,’ he said. ‘I confronted a guy who’d done a deal with Paimonia and I
told him that I know what he did.’
    Mrs Steadman
frowned. ‘Why would you do that?’
    ‘I guess I wanted
to know for sure, so that I could tell my client what she wants to know.’
    ‘Client?’
    ‘It’s a lady
whose sister died forty years ago. She was told it was suicide but she never
believed it.’
    Mrs Steadman’s
hand flew up to cover her mouth. ‘The sister was a sacrifice?’
    ‘I think so,
yes.’
    ‘Oh Mr
Nightingale, what have you done?’
    ‘It gets worse,
Mrs Steadman. This man is now threatening me, and my friend Jenny. And there’s
nothing I can do to stop him.’
    Mrs Steadman
sighed. ‘I warned you, didn’t I? I told you not to mess with Paimonia.’
    ‘This man can’t
be killed, can he? That’s part of the deal.’
    ‘I thought I
explained that to you.’
    ‘I knew the deal
was that you could live for ever. I didn’t appreciate that meant you couldn’t
be killed. What can I do, Mrs Steadman? How can I put a stop to this?’
    Mrs