Ann Granger Read Online Free PDF

of you, Jess.’
    ‘Are they? I don’t want them to be proud, just satisfied would do. But I know Dad wishes I did something “less dangerous” and Mum just doesn’t understand why I want to be in the police force at all. Dad doesn’t mind the police as a career; he just wishes I sat in a back room somewhere rattling the keys of a computer.’ Jess sighed. ‘Mind you, some days that’s just all I do.’

    ‘Believe me,’ he insisted. ‘They are proud of you.’ After a moment he added, ‘And so, at times, am I.’
    ‘Only at times?’ She gave him a look of mock dismay.
    ‘Wouldn’t want you to get swollen-headed!’ He reached out and ruffled her cropped red hair.
    ‘Some chance of that!’ she said ruefully. ‘In the police force.’
    Simon frowned. ‘Ah, I detect a note of dissatisfaction. You don’t think you’re going to like this new job of yours?’
    ‘I like my job. I think I’m going to like the rest of the team, providing they don’t keep telling me how my predecessor did things. You know how it is when a woman turns up to replace a popular male colleague. The chap I’m replacing, Dave Pearce, is being quoted to me at every turn. He seems to have been the best-liked officer in the history of the police and he was, in addition, a local man. He couldn’t go wrong!’
    ‘Whoa!’ exclaimed Simon.
    ‘I know I sound grumpy but it’s only because I’m nervous. Not that I’ll let any of them see it.’
    ‘They probably know it,’ said Simon. ‘What about your boss, Superintendent, whatsit? Maltby?’
    ‘Markby? I haven’t seen much of him. But he’s another one everyone seems to credit with superhuman powers, even more than Pearce. I get Markby quoted at me, too. I’ve only met him briefly when he welcomed me. He seemed all right, not quite the usual sort of copper.’
    ‘Oh? How? Not broken-nosed from playing rugger and with a suspicious squint in his eye?’
    ‘I don’t know if he played rugby. He hasn’t got a broken nose. He’s quite a good-looking chap, tall, fair hair, remarkable blue eyes. No squint.’
    ‘Blimey,’ said Simon. ‘You haven’t fallen for this guy, have you? That’ll stir things up.’
    ‘It certainly would, if I had, because he’s about to get married. But I haven’t. It’s just that when I met him, it rather threw me. I expected to be given the usual welcome talk combined with a
lecture about clearing up the crime rate and turning in my reports on time. But it was more like being granted an interview with the headmaster of a rather good school. I gather, by the way, that he did go to a rather good school. But although he was very nice, I wouldn’t like to cross him. I got the impression that behind the expressed hopes that I’ll be happy here and that I’ve got somewhere to live, he was summing me up pretty accurately. I reckon he’s as tough as boiled boots, but he doesn’t let it show.’ Jess paused. ‘In fact, he rather scared me.’
    ‘You’ll be all right, Jess,’ Simon said. He touched her arm. ‘And so shall I.’
    Above them the sky darkened for an instant as a flock of swarming starlings passed over them, heading for nearby trees. Jess, looking at her brother, saw that he had turned his face upwards to watch the birds.
    ‘Sometimes, though,’ he said quietly, ‘I do feel I’ve been in too many places where wheeling birds mean dead bodies on the ground beneath.’
    Jess bit her lip. They reached with car without further conversation and bumped away down the track. At the turning into the surfaced road, they saw a pub on the other side. It looked welcoming with a row of coloured lights draped along the façade beneath its slate-tiled roof.
    ‘A drink?’ Simon suggested. ‘I know you coppers don’t drink on duty but you’re not on duty now.’
    ‘No, but I am at the wheel of a car!’
    ‘Oh, come on, one drink. Or sit there supping tomato juice and watch me, if you prefer.’
    She grinned and turned into the car park, but