Mask of the Verdoy Read Online Free PDF Page A

forget his name now. Anyway, amongst other things, he told us about a tribal ceremony he once went through where the medicine man blew some kind of hallucinogenic powder in his face. He said the effect was immediate … Mind-bending stuff—monsters, angels. He was delirious for hours, apparently.’
    ‘Oh lor, George! First it’s Spring-Heeled Jack, now it’s some pygmy assassin with a blow-pipe.’
    ‘No Vi, not a blow-pipe, what I said was—’
    ‘And that poor lad lying there in that state. It’s like a sodding penny dreadful with you around, George Harley; enough to give a soul a case of the screaming abdabs, I swear it is. I’m off to check on Miss Perkins—give us your cup, Percival.’
    ‘Don’t go too far, Mrs. C—I’m sure the detectives will want to have a word with you when they get here,’ said Burns, brushing the biscuit crumbs from his uniform.
    ‘ Ooh—I can’t wait for that little treat, really I can’t! ’ called out Vi as she rattled the teacup down the stairs.
    Burns took his seat again next to Harley.
    ‘’Course, you don’t have to travel to the jungle anymore for that kind of thing.’
    ‘What kind of thing?’
    ‘All that pygmy malarkey and such.’
    ‘Oh yeah? And how’s that then?’
    ‘Just go up the West End on a Saturday night—you’ll find plenty of Negro Jazz bands banging out the jungle rhythms whilst pretty young things blow powder up their noses—most of it courtesy of your pal Limehouse Lil’ of course.’
    ‘Come on now, she was acquitted of all charges. What was it her brief said? Just an honest widow restaurateur, trying to scrape a living to provide for her daughters .’
    ‘Honest? What Lilly Lee? Pull the other one, George! She’s responsible for most of the cocaine coming into the Port of London.’
    ‘All just nasty rumours, Percy. Besides, I’m guessing that whatever was blown into Miss Perkins’ face was a little stronger than just a puff of happy dust.’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t know about that kind of thing, George,’ said PC Burns, arching his eyebrow.
    ‘Not a Jazz baby yourself then, eh?’
    ‘Nah, just sounds like a row to me. I prefer a good ol’ comedy song—your Harry Champion, Gus Elen, that sort of thing. How ’bout you?’
    ‘What, Jazz? Can’t get enough of it, can I. Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver—I’ve just picked up the new Midnight Moochers’ platter if you want to hear it later.’
    Burns smiled and shook his head. ‘You’re a queer one all right, George Harley—what with all your travelling, your politics and such. I mean—look at all them books you’ve got downstairs. You can’t have read ’em all, surely?’
    Harley chuckled and drew the last from his Gold Flake.
    ‘Not all of ’em, Perce.’
    ‘What about that big old motorbike and side car—still got her?’
    ‘The Norton, Mabel? Course! She’s in the lockup.’
    ‘Well, it takes all sorts I suppose. Tell me something—I was having a drink with a DC once, and he reckoned that …’
    ‘What? Come on—don’t be shy.’
    ‘Well, it’s probably gonna sound a bit stupid now, George, but … well, he was saying that there was some rumour that you’d done a bit for the SIS after the war. You know—a bit of the old cloak and dagger stuff. There’s no truth in it, is there?’
    ‘The Intelligence Service? They’re all your Oxbridge types, ain’t they? What would they want with my kind, eh? I dunno where that came from, Perce—load of old gammon. When I was demobbed I went straight into the Merchant Navy for a few years; saw a bit more of the world. Then my Uncle Blake left me this gaff and I came back to The Smoke and started the agency.’
    ‘Yeah well, I must say, I thought it sounded a bit far-fetched at the time. Hold on … Here we go—that sounds like the Q car now.’
    Burns hastily replaced his helmet and then ducked out onto the landing. There were voices below, and then footsteps on the stairs.
    ‘Up here, sir!’ Burns