Thursday legends - Skinner 10 by Quintin Jardine Read Free Book Online Page B

she's child-minding while her step-mother
works on poor old Smith. Good, that means I can go and see Jimmy, rather than
just phoning him.' As he opened the door of the sports car, Bob looked at his
friend. 'I'll bet you haven't had any breakfast. Come on in and have something,
a coffee at the very least.'
    Andy
shook his head. 'Thanks, but ...'
    'Listen,
son. The two of you can't avoid each other for the rest of your lives. You'll
be sad bastards if you try; now come in, and no "buts".'
    Reluctantly,
Martin climbed out of the MGF and followed Skinner into the house.
    Alex
was in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, with her back to the door. 'In you
go,' said Bob, in a whisper, then turned towards the stairs, leaving him there.
    For
a second, he thought about turning to go, but instead he stepped into the
kitchen.
    She
heard his footfall and straightened up, a plate in her hand. 'Hi, P—' she
began, her voice tailing off as she glanced over her shoulder. If anything she
was even more beautiful than he remembered her. He guessed that she had lost a
little weight; her face seemed more angular, her eyes deeper.

'Hello,
Alex,' he said. 'How are you doing?'
    She
turned to face him, with an awkward smile which eased the tension. 'Oh, fine.
Still stuck in the bloody kitchen, as you can see. You?'
    'Okay.
Getting on with the job.'
    'I
heard you've moved house. Dean Village, eh? Going upmarket.'
    He
shrugged, self-consciously. 'It was just something I felt I had to do. It's
better for the collection,' he added lamely.
    'Collection?'
She smiled, her eyes sparkling - a flash of the old Alex. 'Ah, you mean the
paintings ...'
    'Call
in and see them if you like.'
    'What?
As in "Come up and see my etchings?" We're a bit beyond that.'
    A
corner of his mouth flickered; more of a grimace than a grin. 'Maybe... But
come up anyway. I've missed you.'
    For
a second, her eyebrows came together in a frown, a trademark gesture inherited
from her father. 'I've missed you too. And I'm sorry for the way I behaved ... for everything but one thing, that is,'
she slipped in, quickly. 'But when we split up, Andy, we didn't just burn the
bridges between us - we mined the bloody river.'
    'Maybe,
but we were friends before we were ever lovers. Can't we get back to that?'
    'I
didn't think you wanted that.'
    'Come
on, I hated what you did, but I couldn't hate you, not ever. Anyway, I was way
in the wrong too, before then.'
    She
picked at her fingernails. 'Friends then?' she murmured. 'Okay. I'll come and
see the paintings in your new house. I'll call first, of course, just in case
you've got company.
     
    As
a matter of fact, a colleague of mine called me last night to say she saw you
muscling your way into One Rutland Place with a very tasty blonde.'
    He
flushed; there was no way of preventing it. The girl next door,' he protested.
    'That'll
be handy for you.' She smiled again, wickedly. 'Does Karen Neville know about
her?' His mouth dropped open as he stared at her, as the smile became a laugh.
'Andy, this is a village. When will you realise that?'
    'Hey,
since when did you listen to gossip? Karen's an off-duty pal, that's all. Just
like McGuire and Maggie.'
    'Maybe,
but my friend Liz's taxi-driver brother didn't pick you up from their house at
ten o'clock on a Sunday morning a couple of months back.'
    It
was his turn to laugh. 'Jesus wept, woman, I'm supposed to be the detective in
this relationship.' The last word hung awkwardly in the air for a few seconds,
until he pressed on. 'But you tell your pal Liz to tell her brother to be a bit
more discreet. One word from me to the traffic boys and he could find life
becoming very sad. There are so many reasons for us to pull a black cab over,
he could wind up spending more time in the garage than on the road.'
    'Andy,'
Skinner's voice boomed from the doorway. 'It looks as if you're making your own
breakfast at this rate.' He was carrying the baby, carefully, in the crook of
an arm. 'Alex, your sister was crying.