Death Trap Read Online Free PDF

she said. ‘I’ll come round about ten on Saturday to collect your note.’
    â€˜I’m very grateful, my dear. Such a pretty name, Catherine. It was my mother’s, you know.’
    Kate got up early the next morning. She had told Tess and Marie what Harry Barnard had told her, and both had found the news unsettling. They would, they had decided, try to find a new flat which could accommodate all three of them, although Marie, the aspiring actress without a secure job, had been anxious about her ability to pay more rent. They had also decided that Kate and Marie, who started work later than Tess at her Holland Park comprehensive school, would go to the local police station on their way to work in the West End and report the visit of the two thugs and their dog. None of the girls was under any illusion that they might not be next in line for the same treatment.
    The police station was just off Ladbroke Grove, one of the main arteries through the Victorian suburb with its often-crumbling crescents and terraces and overgrown garden squares, and only about a ten-minute walk from their flat. The bored-looking desk sergeant in reception looked up with interest as they walked in, scanning them from head to foot with a faint leer.
    â€˜What can I do for you young ladies?’ he asked, but his enthusiasm soon drained away when Kate explained why they were there.
    â€˜Well, for a start,’ he said, ‘we would need to take a complaint from the people you say are being annoyed by this dog. You can’t do it for them. Has anyone actually been bitten?’
    â€˜It’s not just a problem with a dog,’ Kate said. ‘It’s a problem with two scallies trying to get this couple out of their flat. They must be working for the landlord.’
    â€˜Must they?’ the sergeant asked sceptically. ‘You don’t seem to me to have very much to go on. In any case if the landlord sent them, this is a civil matter. He may be perfectly entitled to evict this couple if they’re behind with their rent. What they need is a solicitor.’
    Kate’s heart sank. Their attempts to help the Wilsons seemed to be hitting the same brick wall whichever way they turned. ‘Do you have someone here called Eddie Lamb?’ she asked. ‘A friend suggested I talk to him for some advice.’
    â€˜He’ll only tell you the same as me,’ the sergeant came back quickly, obviously irritated that they would not take his word for it. ‘There’s no crime here that I can see, and ’specially if these people don’t come in themselves to complain.’
    â€˜Even so  . . .’ Kate said, giving the sergeant the benefit of a brilliant smile.
    He shrugged. ‘That’s Eddie,’ he muttered reluctantly, waving a hand towards the front entrance. ‘You can catch him yourself, if you must.’
    Kate and Marie spun round to meet a small plump man in a trench coat tightly belted around a considerable paunch, and a brown trilby pulled low over startlingly blue eyes. The man had obviously caught the sergeant’s dismissive tone because he looked at the two women without enthusiasm.
    â€˜Did you want me, girls?’ he asked. ‘I don’t come cheap.’ He and the sergeant laughed.
    â€˜Harry Barnard suggested we should track you down,’ Kate said quickly and was pleased to see that the name stopped Lamb in his tracks though he still did not look overjoyed to be accosted.
    â€˜Did he now,’ he said quietly. ‘And how do you come to know Flash Harry? You don’t sound his type. Here, you’d better come in here. But I’ve only got five minutes, mind. I’m due in court at ten which is why I’m here so bloody early.’ He waved them into an empty waiting room on the other side of the reception area and closed the door. ‘So? What did Harry think I could do for you two? Where the hell are you from, anyway?