Read The Stretch (Stephen Leather Thrillers) for Free Online Page B

siren behind her. She looked in the mirror and saw blue flashing lights.
    There were two policemen in the patrol car and neither of them was much older than Jamie. One of them said that she seemed to be driving erratically, and the other held out a breathalyser. Sam shook her head and told them that she hadn’t been drinking.
    ‘I can smell alcohol on your breath,’ said the one with the breathalyser.
    ‘I had two glasses of wine. Two glasses.’
    ‘So you have been drinking,’ he said.
    ‘I’m not blowing into that. I had two glasses of wine. And I wasn’t driving erratically. You know that I wasn’t.’
    The policeman put the breathalyser away. ‘In view of your refusal, you’ll have to come to the station with us, I’m afraid, Mrs Greene.’
    Sam sneered at him. ‘You know who I am, then?’
    The officer’s face hardened and she knew that she was right.
    ‘So it wasn’t a random stop, was it?’ She held out her hand. ‘All right, I’ll blow into your little machine if it makes you happy.’
    He shook his head. ‘You’ve already refused,’ he said. He nodded at the car. ‘In the back, please, my colleague will secure your vehicle.’
    ‘I know policemen are looking younger, I didn’t think they were stupider as well.’
    ‘If you want to be handcuffed, that can be arranged.’
    They drove Sam to the police station in silence and showed her to an interview room. There was a table and four chairs, and a tape deck with two slots for cassettes on a shelf under a window made of glass blocks. Sam sat down and lit a cigarette. It had burned halfway down before the door opened again. It was Frank Welch.
    ‘I might have known,’ said Sam.
    ‘The doctor’s on his way,’ said Welch, closing the door and standing with his back to it.
    ‘I don’t have to piss in a bottle to know that I’ve not been drinking,’ said Sam, scornfully.
    ‘Two glasses of wine, you told the woodentops.’
    ‘What do you want, Raquel?’
    ‘The last person to call me Raquel was your nearest and dearest, and look what happened to him.’
    ‘Everyone calls you Raquel, it’s just that most people do it behind your back.’
    Welch’s cheeks flared red and he opened his mouth to reply, but then he made a conscious attempt to calm himself down. He smiled ingratiatingly. ‘Let’s not get off on the wrong foot, Sam. Let’s at least try to be civil to each other.’
    Welch pulled a chair away from the table and sat down, carefully adjusting the creases of his dark grey suit. Sam watched his face, waiting to see what it was that he wanted. Welch had a bloodhound’s face, jowls that hung around his chin and sad, almost watery eyes. His hair was receding but he was growing it long at the back as if to compensate for the shortcomings up front. He licked his lower lip with the tip of his tongue and fiddled with his tie as he looked Sam up and down.
    ‘You were always too good for Terry, Sam,’ he said, his voice a soft whisper. ‘You’ve got class. Lots of class. You know how to dress, how to behave. Terry didn’t even know which knife and fork to use before he met you.’
    Sam looked around for an ashtray. There wasn’t one so she flicked ash on to the floor.
    Welch’s voice hardened. ‘I want to know who’s running things while Terry’s away. I know he was setting something up.’
    ‘Grow up, will you?’ said Sam savagely. ‘Terry and I separated more than a year ago. And even when we were together, he never told me what he was up to.’
    Welch licked his lower lip again. ‘I always know when you’re lying, Sam. I knew you were lying in court and I know you’re lying now.’
    Sam didn’t say anything. She blew smoke in two tight plumes through her nostrils and tapped more ash on to the floor.
    ‘You don’t owe Terry anything, Sam. He’s a criminal. A murderer. He didn’t give you and his kids a second thought when he pulled that trigger.’
    Sam crossed her legs and saw Welch stiffen at the sound of her