City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

some sort of gang activity out here before it began. What was that about? Could it have been related in some way?’

She snorted. ‘You mean have the locals found a way to harness the power of Mother Earth to attack us before we interfere in their business? I doubt it. They were as terrified as anyone else. They all scarpered before things got too bad. Although…’ her voice trailed off.

‘What?’ I prompted.

She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing.’

From the expression on her face, it didn’t look like nothing. Before I could prompt her to say more, another policewoman who I vaguely recognised came over. ‘There are problems over by the Arndale Centre and the paramedics and hospitals are already stretched dealing with rat bites and scratches. Nine-nine-nine calls are coming in all over place. We need to get over there and administer first aid.’

Anna straightened her back and nodded, her professional demeanour shutting down whatever thoughts she might have been about to spill. Say what you like about her, when it came to her job she always did her best and gave her most. Not all of her colleagues were like that; I reckoned that to several of them dedication was some terrible disease that afflicted only the insane.

Anna gave me a perfunctory nod and walked away briskly. I watched her go before setting off in the opposite direction. There didn’t appear to be any point in hanging around here. What had happened might have been one of the strangest moments of my life but all I could do was hope that it had been a freak occurrence.

In any given scenario there are always anomalies that might cause a gambler to win – or lose – big. No doubt what had occurred was one such scenario and there was a perfectly sensible scientific explanation. Anything else simply wasn’t possible.

Chapter Three

I was bone-tired by the time I got home. All public transport appeared to have been shut down. I would have sprung for a taxi or an Uber but there were none to be had for love or money. Given I had more love than money to dole out, maybe that wasn’t a bad thing. All the same, I was so weary by the time I dragged myself through the front door that I could barely lift my feet.

‘Charley!’ Lizzy, my Australian housemate ran towards me before I could even close the door. ‘Are you alright? I’ve been watching the news. It’s bloody madness out there! Did you see what was going on?’

I gave her a tired nod. ‘Most of it.’

She wagged a finger in front of my face. ‘I told you – it’s climate change. We’ve spent generations messing up this planet and now it’s fighting back. This is the beginning of the end.’

Lizzy always had a penchant for the melodramatic. She reminded me of a character out of a soap like Neighbours or Prisoner Cell Block H – and not because she was Australian. Her sense of drama and her grand proclamations often seemed as if they should be accompanied by a drum roll or thudding suspense music. Not that I could explain what in hell had happened either. For all I knew, it was a result of climate change.

I yawned loudly, which had nothing to do with her questions or my rat-infested worries and everything to do with the fact that I hadn’t slept for almost forty hours.

Lizzy peered at me. ‘You didn’t come home last night. Did you get lucky?’

Her idea of lucky had nothing to do with gambling and it was pointless reminding her that luck only existed where preparation met opportunity; it wasn’t the result of some charm or aura over which I had no control. I’d been through this many times, but most normal people don’t get it. Hell, most gamblers don’t get it either.

‘No,’ I said. ‘And before you ask, I didn’t get lucky in any sense of the word.’

‘Ah.’ She appeared deflated, her mouth turning down at the edges. Then she immediately brightened. ‘Don’t worry about it, mate. Chris is here to see you. I’m sure he’ll be able to scratch that particular itch.’

I grimaced. ‘We don’t have that kind of relationship. As you well know.’

She shrugged. ‘It’s the end of the world, Charley. You don’t have time to be picky.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘The end of the world seems like the best time to be picky. Besides, everything seems fine now. I walked all the way home and I didn’t see a thing.’

‘You’ve not been seeing what we’ve been seeing,’ she said darkly, propelling me towards the large living room. I sent a longing glance at the staircase that led up to my bedroom and my comfy bed and let her lead me through.

Christopher was slumped in a deckchair, staring at the old television set. Although the house itself was grand the furniture, alas, was not. I’d won the place in a poker match a couple of years earlier and somehow hadn’t yet managed to gain the funds to furnish it properly. There were too many plumbing and heating disasters to sort out first, not to mention the need to afford to eat from time to time. It didn’t bother me much; I loved the place with its cobwebbed corners and large, empty spaces. And deckchairs can be very comfortable.

‘They keep playing the same footage over and over again,’ Christopher said, waving a hand at the television.

I glanced at it, noting the sea of running rats, and winced. ‘How are you doing?’ I asked Christopher.

He swivelled his head round and jumped up. ‘Charley!’ he exclaimed. It was rather nice to be greeted with such repeated enthusiasm. ‘Are you okay? Did you get caught up in all that craziness?’

‘I’m fine. But yes, I saw some of it. Dark skies, funny smells. Lots of rats.’

‘Pink elephant.’

I started. ‘Pardon?’

He pointed over at the screen again. ‘There.’

I followed his finger. There was indeed camera footage of a pink elephant bursting through the window of a