Killing Time

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Killing Time Page 31

by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles


  Atherton sat up. ‘Really? Fantastic. Who is it, anyone we know?’

  ‘Oh yes, we know him. I should think everybody knows Detective Superintendent Fred Porson.’

  Atherton’s eyes widened. ‘Oh bloody Nora! Not The Syrup! What have we done to deserve that?’

  Hart was looking lost. ‘Who’s this? The what?’

  ‘Fred “The Syrup” Porson,’ Atherton elucidated. ‘Famously foul-tempered and notoriously the bearer of the most unconvincing hairpiece ever to leave the back of a cat!’

  ‘I crossed paths with him briefly when I was at Hampstead,’ Slider said. ‘We used to call him The Rug From Hell. He doesn’t like it to be mentioned, so I warn you,’ he said to Hart. ‘Or looked at.’

  ‘Trouble is, you can’t look anywhere else,’ Atherton said. ‘But it’s not just the rug: he uses words like a blind man swatting wasps at a picnic. Ernie Wise crossed with Mrs Malaprop. It’s going to drive me mad. You know I’ve got a low threshold for language abuse.’

  Slider was quietly pleased that Atherton was assuming he would be there to be driven mad. Talk of taking another job seemed to have been dropped. Things were definitely looking up.

  ‘D’you know where he’s coming from?’ Atherton was pleading. ‘Where’s he been lately? Somewhere taxing, I hope.’

  ‘He’s been on a Commissions Office posting at the Yard,’ Slider said. ‘Traffic Planning Unit. So he’ll be full of beans, raring to go, ready to get his teeth into an operational again. Ready to take out all his frustrations on us for being CO’d for three years.’

  ‘Look on the bright side, guv,’ Hart suggested. ‘Maybe he’ll be so glad to get out again he’ll be in a sweet and pliant mood.’

  ‘In the pig’s eye,’ Atherton said elegantly.

  COPYRIGHT

  Published by Hachette Digital

  ISBN: 978 0 748 13323 9

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1997 Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

  Hachette Digital

  Little, Brown Book Group

  100 Victoria Embankment

  London, EC4Y 0DY

  www.hachette.co.uk

  With special thanks to Laurence Cohen for his generous help with

  the background, not forgetting tea and biscuits.

  Contents

  About the Author

  Also by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  About the Author

  Also by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

 

 

 


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