Person or Persons Unknown Read Online Free PDF

moment I’m working from preliminary sketches and photographs. He’s due for another session in a week or two.’
    â€˜But I need to speak to him now, if I’m to incorporate any of it in the article. Barnie’s restive about its non-delivery as it is.’
    â€˜Can’t help you, I’m afraid. Write to him at the House of Commons – or call in at the local offices. They might be able to help.’
    â€˜OK, thanks. Speak to you tonight, then.’
    She’d no sooner put down the phone than it started to ring, and she lifted it to hear Lindsey’s voice enquire, ‘All right if I pop round for lunch?’
    â€˜As long as you take pot luck.’
    â€˜Larder luck, you mean.’
    â€˜Very funny.’
    â€˜I could pick up something on the way if you like? Pizza? Fish and chips?’
    â€˜There’s an offer I can’t refuse. Fish and chips would go down a treat.’
    â€˜Put the plates in the oven, then. See you.’
    The cool breeze had dropped, and they ate companionably at the kitchen table beside the open patio doors. A scent of herbs from the trough outside drifted tantalizingly in, overlaying the smell of chips.
    â€˜I saw Catherine Bishop this morning,’ Rona said, shaking on more vinegar.
    Lindsey’s eyes narrowed. ‘And?’
    â€˜And nothing, really. If I’d hoped to glean anything, I was unsuccessful.’
    â€˜Heaven knows what Pops sees in her. She’s no oil painting.’
    â€˜I’ve told you before, she grows on you. And her face has character.’
    â€˜It’s what that character is that worries me.’
    â€˜I honestly can’t think there’s any malice there. She seems so pleasant and self-assured.’
    â€˜Probably comes from always getting her own way. She was a headmistress, don’t forget.’
    â€˜Mum looked ghastly on Sunday,’ Rona said gloomily.
    â€˜Mum
always
looks ghastly nowadays. She just doesn’t seem to care.’ Lindsey speared a piece of fish angrily. ‘I’d like to take her by the shoulders and shake her, ask if she can’t see that she’s driving Pops away. Because that’s what’ll happen, whether to this Catherine woman or someone else. Damn it, he’s an attractive man, Ro; there’d be plenty of women only too ready to snap him up if he became available.’
    â€˜Can’t you talk to her? You’ve always been closer than I have.’
    â€˜And say what? “Take a look in the mirror”?’
    â€˜Exactly that.’
    â€˜And then duck! But I never get the chance to see her alone. I’m at work all week, and Pops is there at weekends.’
    â€˜Suggest a girls’ day out one Saturday. Say you want to buy a new suit or something and would she like to go with you.’
    Lindsey eyed her doubtfully. ‘Do you think it would work?’
    â€˜It just might. Perhaps, in the glamorous surroundings of Netherby’s, it’ll strike her that what she’s wearing isn’t exactly
le dernier cri
.’
    â€˜Talking of Netherby’s, guess who I met the other evening? Some people in the road had us all in for drinks, and our friend the “battered wife” was there, complete with spouse.’
    â€˜Lord, I’d forgotten all about her,’ Rona said.
    The Yarboroughs had moved into Lindsey’s cul-de-sac during the summer. Adele joined Max’s watercolour class, and on her first attendance he’d glimpsed bruising on her arms, which caused him concern. Rona and Lindsey, called upon to meet her and assess the situation, had concluded that, with the house move so recent, she’d simply banged herself while moving furniture.
    â€˜Her husband works at Netherby’s, doesn’t he?’
    â€˜Sales director, no less,’ Lindsey confirmed.
    â€˜What’s he like?’
    â€˜Seemed OK. Quite a charmer, in fact.’
    â€˜And the fair