An Early Grave by Robert McCracken Read Free Book Online Page A

browsed the dinner menu. Kate sipped white wine, Chardy, while Aisling, true to her Irish roots, enjoyed a pint of Guinness. A glass of tonic, ice and lemon, but minus the vodka, was ready and waiting for Tara. She was glad of it. Her throat ached from a day spent in heavy conversations, first with Tweedy, Wilson and Murray, then Callum Armour, and finishing again with Murray as he drove her from Treadwater back to the station on St Anne Street. Now, as she tried to unwind, she regretted telling him so much of what went on at Armour’s house. She had to share the details of the case with him, but wished she’d kept it till morning. Murray had a tendency to jump the gun at times. She had another strange pang of nerves rippling across her stomach.
    ‘Sorry I’m so late,’ she repeated.
    ‘We cancelled dinner,’ said Aisling.
    ‘Don’t listen to her,’ said Kate. ‘There’s still time for us to eat. I’m starving. Aisling only eats a stick of celery anyway.’
    ‘Tell you what, to make up for me trashing your evening, how about a sleep-over at my place on Friday? I’ll cook.’
    ‘Yay,’ said Kate, in the voice of a thirteen-year-old. Aisling laughed a hearty infectious laugh.
    ‘Do we get to bring some men?’ she said, ‘Or will you supply those as well?’
    ‘I’m afraid not.’
    ‘What about a couple of those nice policemen you work with?’
    ‘That would be novel for you,’ said Kate. ‘What do you think your Dad would say about you lying with a couple of bizees? He thinks his precious daughter’s still a virgin.’
    ‘Hold on a minute,’ said Tara, laughing. ‘I’m a bizee now, you know?’
    ‘I know, luv,’ said Kate, her hand placed affectionately on Tara’s arm, ‘But we’ve forgiven you for that.’
    ‘Hey,’ cried Aisling, ‘What the hell do you mean? Me lying with a couple of bizees. What do you think I am?’
    ‘I said two, because I thought maybe you were cutting back,’ Kate replied.
    Tara nearly choked on a lemon pip.
    ‘Cheeky cow.’ Aisling mocked a snub of Kate and turned to Tara. ‘Well, any men, bizees or otherwise on the sniff?’
    ‘Not a one,’ Tara replied.
    ‘So that faraway look has nothing to do with a man wanting into your knickers?’
    Tara was well used to this. Aisling spoke her thoughts; spoke what all of them thought with not the slightest hint of modesty or restraint.
    ‘Fair enough,’ said Aisling when Tara had nothing to add. ‘Just be careful, all right?’
    It felt great to be having fun. Didn’t take much for the three of them to conjure a good time. Tara needed more of this. She wouldn’t cope with the pains of her job if she didn’t have these girls and these times to enjoy, even if they were becoming less frequent. Strange though, tonight she was unable to squeeze from her mind the picture of one man. And Aisling had sussed it. How surreal it felt when he pulled the Alumni magazine from a bundle in that bizarre armchair and showed her a picture of herself in uniform. Tara Grogan , the caption read, graduate of Latimer College , now a Detective Inspector with the Merseyside Police . She wondered how Callum Armour spent his evenings.

 
    CHAPTER 7
     
    Dr Zhou Jian breathed easy. Despite his nerves his presentation had gone well, although his shirt clung to his back from sweating in the heat of the auditorium. Conference delegates had received his paper ‘ Recent Advances in the Detection of Adulterated Food in China ,’ with interest. Quite a few questions were asked and several requests made for reprints of the paper. He was pleased. It was the culmination of two years’ work, investigating cases of food contamination and the development of analytical methods for detection of the contaminants. Kudos for him and his department at Yanshan University. Not such good news for those arrested and charged with deliberate adulteration of food. The ring leaders faced the death penalty, some had already been executed. That’s the kind of