Death in Zanzibar by M. M. Kaye Read Free Book Online

has suddenly taken to breeding like rabbits. A pain — no kidding. I met him last time your step-father was in the States, and I can assure you he wouldn’t know one girl from the next. One of those. So phooey to Ponting. You don’t have to worry about him.’
    â€˜Well…’ began Dany hesitantly; and was caught in another spasm of panic and doubt. ‘No! No, I can’t. We couldn’t!’
    â€˜What’s to stop us? They can’t give us more than a two-year stretch at Sing Sing — or Borstal, or wherever they send you in this country. And what are two years among so many? Haven’t you British any guts?’
    There was a sudden angry sparkle in Dany’s grey eyes, and her chin lifted. ‘All right. I’ll do it.’
    â€˜That’s the girl,’ approved Mr Holden, and helped himself to another drink.
    â€˜I can’t think,’ he said, ‘why I don’t write for a living instead of publishing the puerile efforts of lesser minds. It’s all here — brains, dash, fertility of invention and a frank approach to the problems of daily life. What are you just sitting there for? Get going, girl! Jump to it!’
    â€˜What am I supposed to do?’ inquired Dany, startled.
    â€˜Well, pack I guess. You’ve got to get out of here before the cops catch up on you, so the sooner you check out the better. Get the girl at the desk to call up and cancel your seat on the plane and to send off that cable. That’ll help. And tell the room girl and the hall porter and anyone else you meet that you’ve just heard that your bedridden old grandmother is dangerously ill in Manchester or Aberdeen or some place, and you’re having to cancel your trip and rush to her side. Ask the hall porter to get you a taxi to go to whatever station it is where trains leave for the wilds of Caledonia.’
    â€˜King’s Cross, I think,’ said Dany.
    â€˜O.K. King’s Cross. And when you get there, grab a porter and get him to put your bags in the checkroom, and I’ll meet you in the booking hall in an hour and a half’s time. Think you can make it?’
    â€˜I’ll try.’
    â€˜Try, nothing! You’ll make it or else. If there’s one thing that makes me madder than a hornet it’s women who keep one waiting around. I’ve put up with plenty of that in the past, but no more of it for L. J. Holden, Jnr. No sir! Not from now on. Besides, there won’t be much time to waste. We have a stiff itinerary before us. Check you in at another hotel, change all your baggage labels, find an intelligent hairdresser and buy a pair of spectacles, for a start. So the sooner you get going the better. See you at King’s Cross at 11 a.m. sharp. And mind, I’m not waiting there for ever! Ten minutes is my limit.’
    It was, in actual fact, twenty. But he was still there, and in excellent spirits — in every meaning of the words.
    â€˜I’m sorry I’m late,’ apologized Dany breathlessly, ‘but as I was checking out I saw him again — at least it may not have been, but I thought ____ ’
    â€˜Saw who?’ demanded Lash, confused.
    â€˜The African — or whatever he is. I told you I passed one when I was leaving Mr Honeywood’s. No, it couldn’t possibly have been the same one I suppose. I’m being silly. But he was talking to the man at the desk about some letters, and it gave me such a jolt that I forgot I’d left a coat in the ladies’ room, and so of course I had to go back and fetch it, and that made me late. I was afraid you would have left.’
    â€˜Another two minutes, and your fears would have proved well founded. But a mish ish as good as a — A miss ish — Oh, well; the hell with it! Let’s go.’
    He hailed a porter, retrieved Dany’s suitcases from the left-luggage office where they had been deposited only a few minutes previously, and