First Blood
Page 36
‘Which we found out for ourselves. Yes. So, there it is. No one else has any involvement in this. Not your Jerry Swann, nor Neville Carr, whose only problem is he’s gay and doesn’t want it known. It was all down to Beatrice. Who’d ha’ thought it?’
‘Ah,’ she said and left it at that and then smiled at him. ‘Not me,’ she said, and there was another long silence. She stretched. ‘Got a cup of coffee for me?’
‘What, now? It’s almost time to knock off for the day! I got a better idea. Give me another half-hour and I’ll be clear here. I’ll take you to the best fish-and-chip restaurant on the patch and give you the best bit of halibut you ever had. What do you say to that?’
She got to her feet. ‘Sorry, Gus. Not tonight. I – er – I have a date.’
‘Oh. Anyone I know?’
‘None of your business!’ she said. ‘You’ve no right to ask.’
‘Course I have. Aren’t I battered to hell and back, all because you couldn’t keep your big mouth shut at a party? Don’t I deserve a bit of attention from you in consequence?’
‘You didn’t go and hang around the lab on your own just to keep an eye on me, and you didn’t get battered as badly as –’
‘As your date did, right?’
‘Well, so what if it is Toby? I don’t have to ask your permission to go out with him, do I?’
‘No, of course you don’t. It’s just that – Oh, well, Dr B., I’ll be seeing you around, I suppose. Next case, eh?’
He stood up, came round his desk and walked to the door with her. ‘Give my regards to Bellamy, then. Lucky sod. But there, I dare say I’ll get over it. I’ll spend the night crying into my beer, and dream of the might-have-been. Yes, Roop, what is it? Can’t you see I’m busy?’
Dudley had put his head round the door and was regarding them both with a somewhat owlish expression. He came right in and looked from one to the other. ‘Well, this is handy, I must say. Saves me putting out a call. We’ve got a real beauty for you, doctor. Two this time.’
‘Two?’ Gus said. ‘Two what?’
‘Bodies,’ Rupert said, grinning from ear to ear. ‘In a basement down the river end of Wapping High Street. Been there a couple of days, I shouldn’t wonder. Shall I get you a separate car, doctor, or will you go down with the Guv?’
She looked at Gus and he looked at her, and he lifted both hands in a gesture of helplessness. She sighed and shoved her hands deep into her pockets. ‘I’ll go with the Guv,’ she said. ‘And you, Roop, can bloody well send for my bag to the lab. Because surprise, surprise, I don’t have it with me.’
‘That’s what I like about you, Dr B.,’ Gus said as he held the door open for her with elaborate ceremony, even a small bow. ‘You sort of bring life’s surprises with you. Well, shall we go? Pity about poor Dr Bellamy having to wait for you, ’n’t it?’ She threw him a withering glare and marched out.
And Gus followed her, but not before he’d muttered into Dudley’s ear, ‘Tell them to call the hospital and tell Dr Bellamy that she’s working all night, will you? And if you want me, later, I’ll be at my place with the doctor. Eating halibut. See you, Roop!’