Blood & Guts
Vicky Dodds book 1
Ed James
Contents
Copyright
About Ed James
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Next book
Afterword
Other Books By Ed James
Tooth and Claw
Copyright © 2021 Ed James
The right of Ed James to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or transmitted into any retrieval system, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover design copyright © Ed James
About Ed James
Ed James writes crime-fiction novels, primarily the DI Simon Fenchurch series, set on the gritty streets of East London featuring a detective with little to lose. His Scott Cullen series features a young Edinburgh detective constable investigating crimes from the bottom rung of the career ladder he’s desperate to climb.
Formerly an IT project manager, Ed began writing on planes, trains and automobiles to fill his weekly commute to London. He now writes full-time and lives in the Scottish Borders, with his girlfriend and a menagerie of rescued animals.
Prologue
Christmas Eve, 2015
Teresa slalomed through the traffic lights, shooting along the road, the surface shining like glitter. She barrelled past the train station, for once not surrounded by roadworks, and passed the building site for that posh museum and that big old boat. The Discovery or something. They’d visited on a school trip and her mum and dad had taken her too, and she’d been so bored the first time, let alone the second.
Then the car jerked to the right and the steering wheel slipped through her fingers.
STEER INTO A SKID.
Her dad’s advice rattled through her skull, so she fed the wheel clockwise, like she was back in a driving lesson, scooping the hard plastic.
‘Teri!’ Carly rested her hand on the dashboard, like she was bracing for impact. ‘Careful!’
‘I am careful.’ Teresa looked over at Carly in the passenger seat, all dolled up like she was going to a nightclub. Blonde hair trussed, waaaaaay too much make-up. But it worked for her. And Teresa was so jealous. Still, who was she to say anyone wasn’t being careful? ‘God.’
‘Just look ahead, aye?’
Teresa focused on the road, on her steering, faster than before. Who the hell was Carly bloody Johnston to criticise her driving? She hadn’t even passed her test! Teresa didn’t even slow at the roundabout by the hulking great Tesco, just slid round it.
‘Teri, I swear to God…’
Teresa kept on along the road, a massive straight line, with just one pair of red rear lights up ahead. Nobody about, Christmas Eve quiet. Everyone tucked up at home, in bed or watching cheesy crap on the telly. Some lights hovered in the darkness over the river, a late train coming up from Edinburgh maybe.
Out of nowhere, a car battered out of the supermarket car parks, the wheels screeching as it fled away towards Perth.
‘Jeez!’ Carly was arching round, her mum’s perfume washing all over Teresa. She could taste it, that bitter tang that made her sneeze. ‘Think he’s robbed the place?’
Teresa slowed for this roundabout, indicating right and checking both other exits. ‘Just a car dick making up for lost inches.’
Carly’s throaty laugh echoed around her skull. ‘Classic.’
Teresa eased into the car park for the two supermarkets. Back the way they’d come. Tesco was the bigger of the two and still had a few punters walking around. Probably sad old men like Teresa’s dad, out buying last-minute presents because they just didn’t give a—
Nope.
He was in her head all the time already. Tonight, he was getting banished.
Teresa took the exit for the smaller supermarket. She used to come here with her dad when it was a DIY place, but now it was an Ashworth’s. And there were hardly any cars, just a big empty lot of nothing. The store was long shut, the outside lights off, but people were still working inside in a dim glow.
It made her heart flutter.
Hayden would be out soon. He’d get in her car, and they’d drive off into the night, heading wherever they wanted for a few hours.
Carly was jerking her head around, hungry eyes scanning the car park, her frown growing in time with Teresa’s slow progress down the lane. Then she smiled, probably the exact same smile as Teresa had on her face, but definitely for the same reason. Meeting her man. Carly clapped her hands then pointed to the side. ‘There he is!’
One of those silver cars that all the taxi drivers used in Dundee. The engine was pluming exhaust into the dark night.
Teresa pulled up alongside, just a space between them. But the car looked empty. ‘Where is he?’
The frown was back on Carly’s forehead. ‘I… I don’t know.’
‘The engine’s running so he must be near.’ Teresa kept looking over at the supermarket, trying to spot Hayden’s casual stride, but the staff were all still inside. She grabbed her mobile from the cradle and there was a text:
Be another twenty minutes, babe.
Teresa felt herself shiver. The only good thing was it was sent ten minutes ago. Focus on the positives!
Carly’s door was open and she was peering into her boyfriend’s car. Still hadn’t told anyone his name. God, such a drama queen.
Teresa got out into the freezing cold. All she had on was a dress – her fleece was in the boot – and it was sub-zero right now. Not that it would snow. No, they never got that lucky
