Cradle to Grave Read Online Free PDF Page A

smiled. ‘I’ve two teenagers planning to go. They seem to see a three-day mudbath as a pleasurable activity, though I suppose for Cammie, as a rugby player, mud’s more or less his natural element. I’d have thought Cat might have been more delicate about it, but apparently someone called Joshua who’s coming from the States is not to be missed. With a band called Destruction – big in retro disco, she tells me.’
    Bailey looked pained. ‘If you say so. But the point is, we have two problems. The householders there who are flooded out were upset already over “the invasion of the Great Unwashed”, to quote the gentleman who insisted on seeing me personally to complain.’
    ‘It’s bringing much-needed casual work to the locality,’ Fleming pointed out. ‘Ushering, catering, rubbish collection – these events are good business. And the shops will get a boost too.’
    ‘Yes, yes,’ Bailey said tetchily, ‘that’s all well and good. But there are a couple of problems it’s thrown up and I’d like you to look into them as a matter of urgency. In the first place, Crozier’s filed a complaint about vandalism. Cables that were laid out last week to be connected have disappeared – massively expensive, it seems. Then yesterday he saw that someone had written in weedkiller in the camping field, “No raves here.” Or, to be strictly accurate, since the wet weather had made the weedkiller spread, what it actually said was, “No Daves here,” but you get the gist.’
    Fleming couldn’t suppress a choke of laughter. Bailey looked surprised, then grinned himself. Sometimes, if only sometimes, the humour showed, which leavened his pomposity.
    ‘Oh, I suppose . . . But really, Marjory, it isn’t funny. Crozier is quite worked up about it, and he’s worried about what they might do, with a lot of high-voltage equipment coming in.
    ‘The other problem is the report from Traffic about that bridge over to the headland.’
    Fleming shook her head. ‘Haven’t been there for years. I can’t remember what it’s like.’
    ‘It was only built for the shooting estate. You’re talking about hundreds arriving over the next few days – indeed, a handful of them have apparently arrived already. The Carron’s high, of course, and Donaldson, the new man in Traffic . . . Well, between these four walls, Marjory, I think he’s a bit of a fusspot. He’s saying he’s not sure about the bridge with that level of traffic.’
    Fleming was startled. ‘But surely to get insurance they must have done a proper risk assessment?’
    ‘Of course. So this is a complete bolt from the blue.’ Bailey’s expression indicated that in a properly ordered society this sort of upset would not happen. ‘So what I want you to do is go out and see Crozier, try to get a handle on the vandalism and make your own assessment of the bridge. I can’t bear to think of the trouble it’s going to cause if it has to be cancelled – all those disappointed fans with nowhere to stay and nothing to do.’ He shuddered.
    ‘Right,’ Fleming said, getting up quickly before he could think of anything else to add to her workload.
    As she went to the door, Bailey said, ‘We really don’t want to encourage Donaldson to be overcautious. If we all went down that route, we’d end up afraid to get out of bed in the morning.’
    The obvious implication was that real chaps laughed at Danger, snapping their fingers in her face. Fleming felt rather differently, aware that her precious children, along with the precious children of hundreds of other parents, would be crossing this dubious bridge. She decided to go and talk to Donaldson before she left.
    Before that, she had to go to the CID room and see her officers for the morning briefing. The team she liked to work with most closely was depleted: Tansy Kerr had resigned and gone off on a belated gap year while she thought about her future, so that left Andy Macdonald, Ewan Campbell and Tam MacNee.
    Oh, yes.