Deadly Friends by Stuart Pawson Read Free Book Online Page B

and the lizard keep the courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep,” but I’m still impressed.’
    ‘Don’t be – it’s the only poem I know. Your version sounds much more appropriate. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Annabelle, and it sounds as if you gave them something to think about. So when are you coming home? You know I’ll be extremely happy to come and fetch you.’
    ‘Ah. That’s why I rang.’ her voice had dropped several tones. ‘Would you be very disappointed if Istayed down here for the New Year, Charles? Xav rang me earlier today and said he would like to show me the designs for the next restaurant. Apparently it is nearly at the decoration stage and he needs to move fast if he’s changing things. He says he will even pay me consultancy fees, would you believe? Do you mind, love? I’ll come back if you insist.’
    What do you say? Do you insist? The words no win situation are not usually anywhere near the tip of my tongue, but right then I couldn’t think of a better expression.
    ‘Oh,’ I said.
    ‘It’s only a couple of days. I’ll come back on the train, the day after New Year’s day.’
    That was three days. ‘Er, right,’ I mumbled. ‘You’ve, er, caught me off balance. I was looking forward to coming to collect you.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry if I’ve upset your plans, Charles, but I really would like to have a go at this. It’s a wonderful opportunity.’
    Bugger my plans, I thought, it’s me that’s upset. ‘Yes, I can see that,’ I told her. ‘Don’t worry about me. You show those experts a thing or two that they couldn’t learn at college, and tell me all about it when you come home, eh?’
    ‘I knew you would understand, and you know what they say?’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder, of course.’
    ‘Of course.’ And so does lying in each other’s arms under a duvet, with the rain blowing soundlessly against the double glazing and Rimsky’s Sheherazade playing very low on the CD. And I know which I prefer.
     
    You don’t see a suspect for weeks, then two come along at the same time. I was listening to Today on Radio 4, mug of tea in hand, feet on the gas fire, when the phone rang. The Prime Minister was on the radio, delivering his New Year message. Law and Order was high on the priority list again. He was determined to make Britain a safer place for young and old alike. Measures would be announced to curb the increasing tendency towards violence and he promised five thousand more policemen on the beat by the end of next year. I yawned and reached for the phone.
    A refrigerated van had drawn up at the end of Ged Skinner’s street and a figure answering to his description had leapt down from it, carrying a sports bag, and entered the squat.
    ‘I’ll be with you in about twenty minutes,’ I said.
    I was pulling my coat on when the phone rang again. ‘Priest.’
    ‘It’s Maggie, Boss. I didn’t want to ring you last night, but I went for a look-round with Janet Saunders and we found Darryl.’
    ‘Brilliant! Well done.’
    ‘He’s called Darryl Buxton, but we’ve nothing on him.’
    ‘Great. Look, Maggie, I’m sorry to cut you off in your finest hour, but I’m on my way to lift the bloke we think did the doctor. You stay with it today, see what else you can find, and I’ll have a word with you later. OK?’
    ‘Will do. Good luck.’
    ‘Cheers.’
    The unseasonable weather was changing; the sky clearing and the breeze swinging to the North. I pulled my down-filled jacket out of the closet and swapped the contents of my pockets round. Once I wore it up mountains, but now it was just another winter coat. Outside, the fieldfares were stuffing themselves with my cotoneaster berries, as if they knew something we didn’t.
    A panda car was parked two streets away from the squat, with Sparky’s Escort behind it. I pulled in behind them and spoke to the crew of the panda.
    ‘Let’s get on with it,’ I said.
    One of them lifted