C.T. Brown - Second Time Lucky? by C.T. Brown Read Free Book Online

turned
out to be more eventful than he'd expected. Belinus Carter, for that was the name he'd been saddled with parents who had been going
through a brief but unfortunate hippy phase, had expected a trip to a small
south London restaurant that was a particular favourite of his and little else
this evening. Instead he had almost been kidnapped when he and his wife had
stopped to buy a snack along the way. Unfortunately the police had taken
exception to the way he and particularly his wife had responded to this and
arrested them too. He was sure it would all be sorted out soon enough, but it
had certainly made the evening a bit more interesting than originally intended.
    When
the door opened and Detective Inspector Spencer entered the interview room the
look on his face told Belinus the next part of the
evening might be interesting but it was unlikely to be fun. Spencer walked
around the table, and Belinus , as if checking that
the man sitting there really looked like that. Belinus had no illusions that he was a handsome or impressive looking individual, in
fact the most complementary descriptions of himself he'd ever heard used words
like "average" or "non-descript". However, he knew this
particular look - it was the one he got when someone had met his wife and was
trying to work out in what possible world she could have ended up married to
such a dull looking man. If he was completely honest with himself he understood
this reaction but enjoyed watching other, better looking, men try to work out
why they didn't stand a chance with women that attractive while this geeky,
pale, unimpressive-looking academic had married one. After a lifetime of put
downs from such men it gave him some satisfaction.
    "So,
you're Belinus Carter then?" Spencer asked as he
flopped into an identical metal chair opposite Belinus . "Professor Belinus Carter of
Welwyn University, head of the history department?"
    "I
am indeed."
    "Ain't
you a little young to be a professor? I thought professors were all old fogeys
with comb-overs and elbow patches on their jackets. Possibly
pipe smokers too."
    "My
career has advanced rather rapidly, I admit, but I assure you that I am fully
qualified."
    "So,
what's a history professor doing being targeted for kidnap by gun-toting nutjobs ? What could you be involved in that people like
that would be interested in?"
    "Maybe
they read my paper on coin-making in Roman Britain? It was fascinating, if I do
say so myself, but some do consider it to be a little controversial."
    "You
really think sarcasm is a good idea right now? You are in a lot of trouble
mate."
    "No,
I'm not. We both know that by now you've run my name and my wife’s name through
the system and I expect you've already had the call, haven't you?" Spencer
reluctantly nodded in reply, Belinus went on.
"Then you have been told to let us both go and not look into this any
further and you're wondering what a university professor and his wife are doing
with friends in such high places, am I right?"
    "That
about sums it up, yeah."
    "Regrettably
I cannot give you any details," he said, continuing under his breath,
"not that you'd believe them anyway."
    D.I.
Spencer continued to look at Belinus in silence for
another minute or so then got up and opened the door. "Go on then, time to
go. I ain't got time to get mixed up in whatever spook crap is going on here, I
don't know if you're MI5 or MI6 and I don't really care."
    "We
aren't either actually."
    Spencer
snorted in derision at this.

 
    Emily
Carter's mobile phone beeped as she ended her call, she then carefully and
deliberately placed the phone on the floor in front of her and stamped on it
until it was almost unrecognisable as a phone, keeping a perfectly calm
expression on her face at all times. Behind the desk in the reception area of
the police station the middle-aged Sergeant Thomas did little more than glance
in her direction briefly, after nearly thirty years working the streets of
South London it took more