Human Remains Read Online Free PDF

taken her coat off and hung it on the back of the door – she’d turn the computer on and complain about how bloody slow the system was. And maybe twenty minutes after that, Jo or Amy or Sarah or someone from the office next door would call for her and they’d all go up to the canteen on the top floor for breakfast.
    Today, it was Carol.
    ‘You coming?’ she said.
    Kate was already on her feet, purse in hand. ‘Absolutely. I’m chuffing ravenous.’
    ‘Morning, Annabel,’ Carol said to me, sweetly. ‘Do you want anything bringing back?’
    Sometimes they asked me this. They never asked me if I’d like to go with them, of course, because they were afraid I’d say yes and then they’d have to make conversation with me.
    ‘No, thanks.’
    They’d already turned away from the door and the office was blissfully quiet again. If any of them had asked about my weekend, I would have told them. If they’d bothered, they could have heard all about how I found the body next door. I could picture their faces, rapt, over their platefuls of bacon sandwich, toast and cheese scones. For once, they would listen and not interrupt. For once, my news would trump anything they could offer.
    But they didn’t ask, and so I kept it to myself.
    I’d forgotten to ask Kate to get a pint of milk in the canteen, and there was no way she would think of it herself, so after ten minutes of enjoying the peace in the office I got up, found my purse in my bag, and took the lift up to the top floor.
    They were all gathered around a table near the till, heads together. I could hear snatches of the conversation as I found a pint of semi-skimmed in the fridge and checked the sell-by date.
    ‘You see, I told you, didn’t I?’
    ‘He’s only just moved out, Kate, he’s not even taken all of his stuff with him yet…’
    So, Carol had chucked poor old Rick out of the flat, then. I waited behind two PCs in their full patrol kit: stab vests, Airwave radios bleeping. Behind the counter Lynn was adding a generous glug of vinegar from an industrial-sized plastic bottle to the poached-egg pan. It already had an ugly brownish scum of vinegar and egg-white froth floating on the surface. I looked away.
    ‘You started talking to the walls yet, then?’ Sarah was asking Carol.
    ‘Don’t laugh. It is horribly quiet without Sky Sports on every bleeding second of the day though.’
    ‘You’ll be getting a cat next…’
    ‘Hey, don’t knock it,’ Kate said. ‘It’s only her cat that stops Annabel from going completely batty, you know.’
    ‘Don’t be mean,’ Amy said. ‘She’s not batty.’
    ‘She’s heading that way, if you ask me.’
    I stared at them, wondering if they really hadn’t noticed I was standing right there or if they were being deliberately rude.
    ‘Is that all you want, Annabel?’ asked Lynn. She’d plopped eggs into the pan and was spooning brown water over them to hurry the cooking process along. I turned towards the till, opening my purse.
    ‘Yes,’ I said. My cheeks were burning.
    ‘Oh, shit,’ I heard someone say from the table behind me.
    They were all silent, then. I handed over a pound coin and took the milk and hurried away, not looking at the table, not looking at Lynn even though I heard her say, ‘Wait – your change!’
     
     
    The Chief’s Summary arrived by email at half-past nine, just as Kate came back into the office. In the twenty minutes or so since the scene upstairs in the canteen, I’d had a few private tears, washed my face in the Ladies’ and decided to put it behind me. I knew they talked about me, after all. They talked about whoever wasn’t currently in the room, so I couldn’t consider myself special.
    Kate put the kettle on behind me and cleared her throat. ‘You want a tea?’
    ‘Yes, please. I’d love one.’
    She’d obviously been hoping I’d say no, but it gave me a perverse pleasure to take her up on the offer. When it was plonked on to the desk, it was very milky. I was