Ancient Images Read Online Free PDF

policeman looked increasingly unhappy. "Think carefully if you will," he said. "Could you have seen anything at all that might suggest why Nolan behaved as he did?"
        She tried to drag her mind away from the memory of Graham's fall, but it was reluctant as a fascinated child. "I can't think of anything."
        "He could hardly have been running away from an old horror film."
        "He wasn't running away," she said, and found herself wishing that her response hadn't been quite so immediate: it seemed to cut short her ability to think. As she strained to imagine what Graham had been up to, Toby came in.
        He stared blankly at the kitchen and the lingering smell of charred pastry, stared at Sandy and her interviewer. He stepped into the projector beam, rubbing his upper arms as though it might warm him, and stumbled into the booth. Minutes seemed to pass before he gave a cry of outrage and grief.
        The snub-nosed policeman, who had brought him upstairs, grimaced as he kept an eye on him and made a fluttering gesture to tell his colleague what Toby was. "There's nothing wrong with people showing their emotions," Sandy said, her voice pinched.
        "Depends what kind you mean." The policeman wrinkled his nose. "There are some we can do without, that are best locked up."
        "Maybe you've forgotten someone's just been killed. If you can't leave your prejudices outside, at least show some compassion," Sandy said between her teeth, and told herself to stop: she might be making them even more hostile to Toby. It was Toby who interrupted her by appearing in the doorway, knuckling his eyes. "Who did this?" he demanded. "Where's the film?"
        "It was like that in there when I first came, Toby. I didn't see any film."
        "But he'd set it up. He was lining it up when I stepped out," he cried. "The can's still there on the floor."
        Both policemen scowled as if he were talking in code to her. When Sandy explained, the mustached one said, "How rare was this film?"
        "V. It took Graham years to track it down."
        "Have you any idea how much it's worth?"
        "A great deal to a collector, I should think. Are you suggesting-was
        "That he might have caught a thief red-handed? Would that have made him act as he did?"
        Toby sucked in a breath so fierce it seemed to dry his eyes. "He'd have chased the swine all right."
        "You're not telling us he'd have chased someone across the roofs at his age," snub nose said.
        "You'd be surprised. You don't have to be straight to win prizes at athletics."
        It was news to Sandy if Graham had, but Toby fetched a photograph album from a bookcase and flung it on the couch. "Try believing these."
        They were photographs of a young Graham in singlet and shorts. In one he was snapping a tape with his chest, his full lips pouting with the effort. Sandy found the photographs heartbreaking, but the policemen looked unimpressed. Eventually snub nose said "How do you reckon a thief could have got in?"
        "I left our door on the latch," Toby said, his eyes brimming. "He said to, and I thought it would be safe while he was home."
        The policemen exchanged resigned glances that said this was all too familiar. "You saw Mr. Nolan jump," the mustached policeman said to Sandy. "You actually saw him jump."
        Why must he repeat it? "I said so."
        "Of his own accord, you're certain."
        "There was nothing-nobody else on the roof."
        "There isn't now," snub nose said, gazing into the bedroom, and Sandy felt reality shiver, for she could see figures up there. Of course, she thought as he gave them a thumbs-up sign, they were police. "Well?" he said.
        "Well?" said his colleague.
        He jerked his head at Sandy. "The doctor said the same as her."
        So Sandy needn't have felt nearly as harassed, she realized, too exhausted to be angry. "The place will have to be