The Less Dead
Welcome to our regular feature showcasing the talents of the nation’s best writers.
In this extract from Denise Mina’s new novel
The Less Dead, Margo has gone in search of her birth mother but meets her aunt Nikki instead. Margo learns that her mother was a sex worker murdered soon after her adoption and that her killer has never been found.
Ijust think, you know, probably no one does that job unless they’ve been traumatised in some way.” Nikki shuts her eyes. “POOR,” she says, exasperated. “What?” She looks hard at Margo. “She was poor. We were very poor. That’s why we did it. We were poor. It’s not a mental illness, she didn’t have secret daddy issues, it’s not about sex for the lassies out there. I mean, you’ll tell a punter that if they want to hear it, but it’s about money. Getting money because we’re poor. Upsets the status quo, doesn’t it? That’s why it’s policed the way it is.” Nikki huffs. “The cops are there to protect the public. Folk like us, we’re not the public. We’re a nuisance to the public. That’s how most cops seen it. They hated us, we hated them.”
“You seemed to like Diane Gallagher.”
“I’ll always love her for trying. Don’t always agree with her, she’s got her opinions, but as a person – yes. She was the only woman in the CID – they used to roll her out as a spokesman. She wasn’t in charge then. They were barely investigating the murders before she took over.” “Why?”
She whispers, “We didn’t matter. That’s how they seen us.”
“But people were being murdered.”
Nikki shrugs and holds it, a profound sadness in her eyes.
“See, in New York, back then, when street people got killed the cops used to mark the file NHI: “No Humans Involved.” Not even human. When we get killed they call us the “less dead”, like we were never really alive to begin with. See, if Susan was a doctor, like you, they’d have brought the fucking army in. You’d be the perfect victim.”
She looks away and Margo wonders if she’s just been threatened. It surprises her because it’s not something she wonders about very often and she decides that she must be mistaken. She puts her hand over Nikki’s.
“Listen, I don’t feel that way about Susan. I don’t think she’s less than human or not important because of what she did for money.”
Nikki snorts and shakes her hand away. “Don’t give me that.”
“But I don’t.”
“Why even say it? Would you tell me you don’t think she’s less than human because she was a teacher? A bus driver?”
Margo is stumped. She’s right. ■
About the author
Denise Mina is the author of 14 novels and also writes short stories, plays and graphic novels. In 2014 she was inducted into the Crime Writers’ Association Hall of Fame. Her latest book, The Less Dead,is published on 20 August by Harvill Secker, price £14.99