Chameleon

Chapter 2

There are rats in those garages.

Big ones, with red, darting eyes. They live in the rotting carcasses of the cars that were left behind when the tenants moved out.

North Street is a dead street now. Condemned long ago. No-one comes here anymore, not for any legitimate purpose anyway. Windows are smashed or boarded up. Houses left to fall apart in their own good time. The evolution of decay.

The street has an evil reputation. Murders have been committed here. Bodies hidden, some yet to be found, so they say. Virgins deflowered. Dope deals struck and reneged upon. Old scores settled.

An evil place.

The last functional street lamp is way back at the junction with Coast Road. Clouds cover the moon. Anything could be hiding in those shadows. And it is cold.

Sally Parker wasn't dressed for the cold. Hardly dressed at all by polite standards. She sported a short denim jacket, worn open to show off the merchandise. Beneath that, a red halter-top, two sizes too small, clung to the contours of her body like a second skin and left her midriff bare. A black miniskirt that barely covered her thighs, black stockings and black high heels completed her outfit. Her hair was a peroxide tangle proclaiming that if you wanted more fun with this particular blonde you could expect to pay accordingly. There was nothing subtle about the way she looked or the way she walked. In all of Sally's twenty-two years' experience on this planet the one lesson she had learned above all others was that it pays to advertise.

She stopped at the short alleyway leading to the garages, the echo of her high heels fading away on the cold night air. There are rats in those garages, she thought. Big ones. Guarding their concrete caves as jealously as any fabled dragon. Sally shrugged and moved forward.

It was even darker back here than on the street. Shadow lay upon shadow, making everything strange and distorted. In the far corner, a lumpier piece of darkness suggested the shape of a car. Sally stepped towards it. Headlights came on, pinning her in their glare, blinding her. She swore. The headlights went out. Sally blinked away the spots before her eyes. She heard a car door open. The car's interior light came on. The driver stepped out and stood by the open door. She could make out another figure in the passenger seat, indistinct, huddled in the folds of an over large anorak. The driver grinned, his breath emerging as a tiny cloud of foetid breath. His name was Sammy Pierce. He stood a little over six feet tall and had bad skin, a paunch and lank, greasy hair to go with the bad breath. He'd never been able to afford her. Until now. Now he had something to barter with. When he'd first approached her in the pub, the smell of best bitter fighting for supremacy with the B.O., she'd thought he was lying. She knew that he worked at the Big House all right, that much was true. Nobody really knew what went on up there, so people made things up. By now it had gained almost as bad a reputation as North Street.

It had been the photographs that had finally convinced her to take the chance. Blurred and out of focus they may have been, but clear enough to spark her interest, make her take the risk. If it was true, the price would be high. Giving herself to Sammy Pierce was not well up on her agenda of things she most wanted to do. Still, she reasoned, I've had worse, and if he's lying, well, the flick-knife in her jacket pocket had scared off better men than he could ever dream of being.

Sammy leant an arm on the car's roof. 'Sorry about that,' he said. 'I wanted to be sure it was you. You're late.'

Sally shrugged. 'I'm worth waiting for,' she said.

Sammy licked his lips. 'That you are,' he agreed, 'that you are.' He leant back inside the car. 'Come on out and say hello to our guest, Bob,' he said. At first the figure in the passenger seat didn't move. Then, slowly, he opened his door and got out. He was shorter than Sammy, thinner, even in deep shadow his face looked pinched and angular. 'Hello,' he said.

'Charmed,' Sally responded. For a few seconds all three stood looking at each other. 'Well?' said Sally. 'Shall we get on with it, or do you expect me to stand here all night freezing my tits off?'

Sammy laughed. 'Can't have that, can we? Just need to take a few precautions though. You do believe in taking precautions, don't you, love?'

Sally gave him a look and he gave a small, embarrassed cough, 'Yea, course you do,' he muttered. 'Follow me.' He moved to the back of the car. Sally followed. Bob came up on the other side. 'I've told you about the security problems, haven't I?' Sammy continued.

Sally nodded. 'So?'

'Well, we can't just drive in there with you in the back seat, you'd be stopped. So...we have to smuggle you in.'

Sally frowned. Light was beginning to dawn and she didn't like what it showed. 'What do you mean?' she asked.

Sammy grinned and opened the boot.

'Get in,' he said.