Neon Madman by John Harvey Read Free Book Online Page B

ice.
    â€˜Don’t get too presumptuous! I assure you I am not in the habit of behaving like an alley cat!’
    â€˜But your old man was—or whatever the male equivalent is?’
    â€˜Does that matter?’
    â€˜It might, but for now we’ll let it pass. I guess you were going to tell me that you didn’t get your phone calls.’
    â€˜Exactly. Neither of them.’
    â€˜Maybe he’s out on a blitz. Perhaps he got drunk, fell asleep, was having so much fun getting laid that he forgot all about it. I guess he’s only human like the rest of us.’
    She was shaking her head and I wasn’t too clear what to.
    â€˜He’d always phoned you before?’
    â€˜Yes, always.’
    â€˜So you figured something had happened to him and you called me. Why me and not the police?’
    â€˜That’s obvious. The police would say that twenty-four hours wasn’t long enough to start worrying without any more facts and … ’
    â€˜And you thought that a few shots of those brown eyes of yours would divert me from asking the same question?’
    â€˜I didn’t say that.’
    â€˜You didn’t have to. You also didn’t have to say that if the cops did get involved then they might start probing around in the wrong places. And you wouldn’t like that, would you, Mrs Murdoch?’ I paused and looked at her. ‘Caroline.’
    Her hand reached out for mine and hovered over it like a butterfly about to land; then it thought better of it and returned to rest on the white silk of her thigh.
    â€˜What do you want me to do?’ I asked.
    â€˜Find James.’ She blinked her eyes shut. ‘Or find out what has happened to him.’
    â€˜Is that all?’
    She looked at me uncomprehendingly. Or she did her best to. She wasn’t the kind of woman to whom looking dumb came easily.
    â€˜You left out the bit about saving the family’s good name and fortune.’
    I thought she was going to go into her ice maiden routine again, but she decided against it. She said, ‘I’ll be honest with you, Scott, I’m not awfully worried about the former, but the money is important to me. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that … ’
    She let the sentence trail off into visions of hard-earned luxury that made my heart break into a hundred pieces, each of them gilt-edged.
    â€˜You’re hiring me?’ I wanted to be sure she didn’t think I was going to find her old man for a favour.
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜All right. I shall want a nice cheque for a retainer and something to cover expenses. Then you’d better give me a list of places your husband might be, as far as you know them. I can’t promise to turn up too much, but I’ll try. And one other thing … ’
    â€˜Yes?’ She hadn’t really believed I was going to let her off that easily.
    â€˜I had a friend asking questions about your husband’s business interests. For reasons of my own. When he came across the Mancor connection he also came across a line in brick walls that makes the Great Wall of China look like something you might have at the bottom of your garden. Come to think of it, you probably have. Then when I mentioned the name to you on the phone this morning it was as though I’d suddenly said a very dirty word in the nursery.’
    â€˜So?’ The ice was back with a vengeance. It hadn’t done anything about the line of sweat that was chasing down my back and threatening to stick me to the settee. It hadn’t done anything about that but it was wreaking havoc with what little composure I might have had left.
    â€˜So,’ I managed, ‘before I’ll agree to act for you I want you to know something about what Mancor is and how your old man came to be mixed up in it. Remember, you didn’t say disappeared, you said murdered.’
    She closed her eyes and allowed me to stare at the perfection of her face.