Murder Fortissimo Read Online Free PDF

with a carefully tended herbaceous border already showing the points of a few foolhardy bulbs.
    ‘This has been awfully well done, hasn’t it?’ She waved a vague hand. ‘I mean, the house is obviously two farm cottages knocked into one and they’ve managed to keep the cottagey spirit without sacrificing comfort. The garden is nice too. I bet they have hollyhocks and night-scented stocks in the summer, proper cottage flowers.’
    Neil gave her a sympathetic grin, obviously surprised at this flight of poetic fancy from the prosaic Alice, then he called her attention to the splendid clump of beech trees, tilting precariously in its chalk bed, on the brow of the hill beyond the boundary.
    Downstairs in the low-beamed sitting-room of the cottage they compared notes, Alice adding a quick scribble to her clip board, detailing the limed-oak Smallbone kitchen, then they took their leave of the owner, who was reeling in delight at Neil’s valuation, and drove back towards Chambers Forge.
    ‘From the sublime to the ridiculous,’ laughed Neil as he turned the car into the minute drive of the final house on their list, built on the site of the old brickworks that had once provided the village with its main industry, supplanting its previous claim to fame, the cherry orchards of the seventeenth century.
    Alice heard his remark but failed to respond, lost in admiration of the tiny house of her dreams, the Ideal Starter Home. She shook herself and smiled at him, still shy but gaining in confidence after an afternoon spent in Neil’s undemanding, friendly company. ‘It’s such a cosy, compact little house,’ she sighed and saw in his eyes astonishment that such an undistinguished building should seem like the Promised Land to her. ‘It’s just—’ she hesitated. ‘We’ve got a big, rambling old house that’s falling to bits and costs a fortune to heat. There’s an enormous garden as well; it would be wonderful not to have much work to do.’
    He nodded and seemed to be thinking hard. Alice was aware that several times during the afternoon he had been struck by something she had said, some shrewd comment that had surprised him. She had noticed him stealing covert glances at her, frowning slightly.
    ‘Can you drive, Alice?’ he asked now, abruptly.
    ‘Yes, yes I can. I passed my test years ago, when Daddy was still alive, but I haven’t driven for years. We got rid of the car when Daddy died because it was too expensive to run. Why?’
    ‘I was just wondering, thinking aloud I suppose. You’re so knowledgeable about the business, but I don’t think.…’ Heglanced down at the badly typed house details in his hand and she felt her cheeks burn. ‘How would you feel about being my assistant? Training as a negotiator I mean, and helping on that side of the business? We could get someone else in to do the typing, maybe on a part-time basis.’
    The glow spread from her burning cheeks to her dark eyes and for an instant a new, very different Alice sparkled at him. He was about to speak when the colour faded, leaving her dull and sallow, her eyes bleak.
    ‘She won’t let me,’ she said drearily.

Chapter Three
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    Next morning Alice packed under her mother’s supervision, knowing she looked as wan and miserable as she felt. Christiane’s stream of criticism suddenly dried up and Alice looked up, to intercept an unusual expression on her mother’s face. It was almost – no, not affectionate, maternal emotion – that was not something she had met with, not once in her entire life – but instead of the usual contempt, her mother wore an oddly calculating look as if she was weighing up just how near to breaking down Alice actually was. A moment later Christiane was frowning at her nails and the moment, whatever had prompted it, vanished. A clumsy movement destroyed the peace.
    ‘You stupid creature, can’t you do anything properly? That’s my best silk nightdress, fold it properly, I don’t want it creased to