The Saint Valentine's Day Murders Read Online Free PDF Page A

him and then caught Charlie’s eye. They both burst out laughing.
    ‘I suppose you’ve got to admire their ingenuity.’
    ‘Sure. No flies on those fuckers.’
    ‘Wait a minute. If they only want duds in PD, why are we getting a graduate entrant to replace you?’
    ‘There’ll be a reason. It’s a girl, for a start. Personnel aren’t too keen on them. She’s probably got something else wrong with her as well.’
    ‘So everyone else in PD is doomed to spend the rest of his life there?’
    ‘Yeah. Well, why not? Look at them. What a shower of shits! I don’t know how I haven’t gone mad, what with Henry drooling over his girlie-mags and Tony counting his money. I used to spend hours trying to decide if Graham was more boring than Bill or the other way around. Tiny’s a bit better, but you get sick of all those practical jokes.’
    ‘I thought most of them were directed at me.’
    ‘Christ, no. You don’t know what’s going on, living in that stupid box of yours. He never stops: funny labels on people’s coats, hoax messages, out-of-order notices on the lift, hiding briefcases. I used to get back at him sometimes, but it only made things worse, so I just put up with it. Anyway, he livens the place up a bit, and that’s got to be good. And he’d probably go mad if he didn’t have some safety valve.’
    Amiss sighed. ‘You’re probably right. I might as well go on letting him get away with it.’
    Charlie looked at his watch. ‘Sorry. I’ll have to be off.’
    ‘Yes, of course. Just one more thing while I’m finishing my pint. What do the others think of me now? Is it as bad as when I came? I sometimes think I’m not getting through to them at all.’
    ‘You’re wasting your time trying. I’m the only one that changed my mind about you. And in the beginning that was because you were my only hope. The rest still can’t stand you because you’ve had all the breaks with education and career and all that. You’ve got a snotty accent. You earn more than any of us and you’ve got freedom to spend it the way you like. The last straw has been you coming into the office a few times with a bag of duty-free goodies from Paris airport. Monday mornings, too, with all the lads plunged in gloom. Guaranteed to choke them.’
    ‘Oh, God. I never thought of that. It’s only because I go there for the odd weekend to visit a girlfriend and I come straight to the office from the airport.’
    ‘Oh, that’s it, is it? Henry thinks you’re having it off with every whore in Paris. Takes it as a personal insult that you’re living out his fantasies.’
    Amiss picked up his briefcase. ‘I’ll put the bottles in this next time. Beyond that, I give up. I think I’ll take a leaf out of Shipton’s book and sleep away the rest of my time in BCC. Good luck, Charlie. I’m glad you’ve got out anyway. Makes me feel this whole year isn’t a complete write-off.’
    ‘I won’t forget what you’ve done. But you shouldn’t be saying goodbye, Robert. We’ll be meeting up in a couple of weeks at the PD training weekend. Horace insisted I must come as well in case I had any bright ideas.’
    ‘What did you want to remind me of that for? I’ve been trying not to think about it. Au revoir , then. I’m catching a bus. I’ve found one that takes me most of the way home.’
    ‘Lucky sod. Good night.’
    Amiss watched Charlie’s hurrying form disappear around the corner and felt suddenly very forlorn.

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    6
    « ^ »
    13 November
    Amiss had been looking forward to this Saturday night during the whole of the fraught five days that had preceded it. As he walked towards the Miltons’ house, he was trying to recall a worse week during the whole of his time in that frightful office.
    For a start, on Monday the staff had been in a state of gloomy resentment occasioned by the sight of Charlie’s empty chair. One of their number had got away and they rotted in Colditz. The following day had brought the news that calculator