Blackstone's Pursuits Read Online Free PDF Page A

heaped on the floor, surrounded by the shattered pieces of a ceramic container. ‘Sorry about that, Miss. One of these clumsy sods knocked it off the counter. We can replace it if you like.’
    ‘That’s all right,’ said Prim. ‘I never liked it anyway. I’ll use this to buy another, one that doesn’t break this time.’ Casually, she slipped the two halves of the note into the pocket of her jeans.
    ‘Why did you cut it?’ asked Dylan.
    ‘Added security,’ she replied, mysteriously.
    ‘What else can we do, Inspector,’ she asked, ingenuously.
    Dylan shrugged his shoulders. ‘I’d like you both to call into the Police Station in Queen Charlotte Street to give us formal statements, but tomorrow’ll be fine for that. Make it around midday.’
    We each nodded. ‘So when,’ asked Prim, ‘will you be finished here?’
    The Inspector sucked his teeth. ‘Hard to say, Miss. Depends on the technicians. They’ll want to pick up every hair and every piece of fluff from that bedroom, so we can match it to a suspect, sooner or later. Don’t you worry about that, we’ll get him.
    ‘I shouldn’t reckon they’ll be any more than a couple of days.’
    ‘Two days!’ She puffed up like a pigeon in her indignation. ‘What the hell am I going to ...’
    I seized her hand, and my chance. ‘What the hell else are you going to do? Let’s take your kit round to my place and leave these guys to it.’

In which Jan gets a shock, Primavera meets Wallace, and I gain a sleeping partner.
    Out in the street, I was delighted to see that the Traffic Warden from the Other Side had been so disconcerted that he had neglected to paste me up for my out-of-date disc. The blue Nissan wore no adornment other than bird-shit, and a few specks that weren’t.
    I opened the tailgate door and slung Prim’s kitbag first into the boot, and then the smaller one which she had packed with a few ‘sensible clothes’ from her wardrobe and cupboard, under the supervision of a young woman detective, who, she told me, had kept sneaking astounded glances at the tiny colossus on the bed.
    Neither of us spoke as I coaxed the engine into life and reversed out of my parking space. I weaved my way through the police cars which were thronging the street like ants round a peach-stone. We were heading up Leith Walk, when Prim said: ‘So where is it then? This refuge I’m bound for, this pad of yours.’
    I grinned, thinking it would put her at ease. From her expression, my grin must have been more of a leer. ‘Not that far. It’s in the Old Town, down one of the closes off the High Street.’
    ‘And will Mrs Blackstone be gone for long?’
    ‘My mother is dead,’ I said solemnly.
    Prim frowned. ‘Don’t be cheap. You know what I mean, Mrs as in spouse, or even Ms Something Else as in live-in partner.’
    I shook my head. ‘I don’t have any of those. My last live-in girlfriend was two years ago. She died of “dish-pan hands, Mummy”, or so she said. Since then I’ve preferred my independence. There are some bloody good takeaways around the centre of town, you know.’ I let the silence fill the car as she weighed up Oz in a new environment, and pondered the prospect of Oz on Oz’s turf.
    ‘Mind you,’ I said, after a suitable interval, looking sheepishly at the dashboard as we turned into Leith Walk. ‘I don’t know how you’ll take to Wallace.’
    She gasped. ‘Wallace! You’re not...’
    I relished the sight of Prim on the back foot. ‘What about it if I am?’ She looked at me, uncertain for the first time in our short acquaintance.
    ‘Actually, if there was anything between Wallace and me they’d have to invent a new name for it. Wallace is an Iguana. He’s the last of the dinosaurs. I named him after a wizened old fisherman uncle of my Mum’s.’
    Her jaw dropped. ‘Let me get this right. You’re taking me to a flat that you share with a lizard?’
    ‘Wallace would be hurt by the description, but yes, that just about sums