Cradle to Grave by Aline Templeton Read Free Book Online Page A

of view. Any questions?’
    Kershaw had been hoping for an opportunity. ‘Not a question, ma’am, but may I say something?’
    ‘Of course.’
    The tone was cordial enough, but she sensed that the other woman was on her guard. She took a deep breath.
    ‘DS MacNee has just apologised to me. I appreciate your concern for me as a newcomer, but I don’t need you to fight my battles. I’m perfectly able to deal with him myself and it won’t help to have an awkward relationship made worse by him getting grief from you.’
    There was a pause, during which Kershaw remembered Andy Macdonald’s warning and began to wish she’d taken it to heart.
    Then Fleming said calmly, ‘I admire your capacity to be direct – and I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way. I’m all for straight talking. On the other hand, I don’t think you quite appreciate what I was doing. Your relationship with MacNee is your own business. You’ll have to sort things out between you. My business is the good discipline of my officers. A divided team is an ineffective team, and I don’t tolerate any behaviour that affects our standards of professionalism. My intervention was on that basis. Do you understand now?’
    Wrong-footed, Kershaw muttered that she did.
    ‘Good. I’m sure you’ll be a valuable addition. Thanks, Kim.’
    Kershaw left, reflecting on the interview. There had been no aggression, no animosity; Fleming had merely been as blunt as she had been herself in spelling out her position. Why, then, did she feel like saying, ‘Phew!’ as she shut the door behind her?
     
    ‘And this blue one on top. Now, what shall we do? Oh dear, over it goes!’
    Beth Brown laughed as the toddler gleefully knocked the tower of bricks to the floor.
    ‘Do it again? Here we are – green one, red one . . .’
    From her seat in the corner of her son’s sitting room next to the mottled brown thirties fireplace, Ina McClintock Buchan watched Beth like a spider assessing the potential of an unfamiliar species of fly.
    A lifelong habit of discontent had etched itself on Ina’s features, producing eyes narrowed by suspicion and harsh lines between her brows. Even when she smiled, usually in triumph at some barb that had found its mark, there was still a sour downturn to her thin-lipped mouth.
    Now she said, ‘You’ll be wanting away, to get back to your family, no doubt.’
    Beth, placing a yellow brick on top of the green and the red, didn’t look up. ‘Not really.’
    Ina frowned. ‘ “Not really”? What kind of answer is that?’
    Beth gave her a sidelong look, then shrugged.
    The thin lips tightened. ‘If that’s your idea of manners, it’s no wonder if your family don’t want anything to do with you.’
    Goaded, the girl retorted, ‘I never said that! I’ve none to go to, that’s all.’
    ‘Funny thing, that – no family,’ Ina mused artlessly.
    ‘I’m an only child and my mother’s dead, all right?’ Beth snapped. ‘If it’s any of your business.’
    ‘What about your partner, then? Maidie said you’d a partner – apparently that’s what you call it these days when you’re a bidie-in.’
    ‘He’s – he’s away.’
    Beth was biting her lip and she put the brick in her hand on to the tower so clumsily that it collapsed. Calum crowed and clapped his hands.
    ‘Away where?’ Ina persisted. ‘You’ll be wanting to let him know what’s happened before he sees it on the telly and gets a fright.’
    ‘Well, I can’t, can I? Phone’s not working.’
    With malevolent glee, Ina heard real anger there. The girl was glaring at her, and there was something curious about her eyes. What was it, now?
    As Beth looked away to say something to the child, Ina realised there was a gap between the bottom of the iris and the lower lid. It made her eyes look as round as marbles and oddly staring.
    ‘Funny eyes you’ve got. Not natural, that, is it?’ Ina was saying when the door opened and her daughter-in-law came in with mugs and a