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

mesmerized by her bra-less tits that he hasn’t taken in the full horror yet. The others are in a bit of a state. Tiny’s the only one who’s fighting back. He’s trying to rally the others to back him in a litany of anti-feminist jokes, but they’re too scared of her, poor wretches. She’s cleverer than they are, overpowering in debate and she uses words and concepts that befog them completely. And she’s a nasty cow with it. She’s deliberately setting out to undermine them, sneer at the way they conduct their lives and threaten their manhood by dark statements about the irrelevance of men now that sperm banks are really getting going.’
    ‘How do you get on with her?’
    ‘Well, of course I think she’s appalling, but I know her kind and she doesn’t bother me overmuch. I’m adopting the Tiny approach on the whole. I’d hate her to know I’m unprejudiced about women; she’d think I’d been frightened into it. So I’m looking for opportunities to annoy her. Today I congratulated her on her woman’s intuition and told her she was looking pretty. That was so successful that I expect her to come in on Monday wearing a sack.
    ‘Anyway, that’s enough about me. I want to hear how things have been going with you two. Still enjoying the jet-set life, Ann?’
    ‘No, I’m not,“ said Ann starkly. ’Apart from anything else, I’m fed up with the kind of life Jim and I lead. We have hardly any time together. I’m a parasite, he’s in a job that stinks, and I wish we could both get the hell out and do something worthwhile.’

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    7
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    Amiss hadn’t been expecting this. ‘I always thought you enjoyed your work.’
    ‘Not any more. I’m sick of flying all over the world to seminars in identical hotels to learn some bright new statement of the obvious from some academic who never got his hands dirty, and come back here to incorporate into our consultancy service some new gimmick I don’t believe in. After years in this business the only advice I have for British management is to scrap their self-indulgent perks and treat their employees like human beings. My only advice to employees would be to get a grip on reality, stop whingeing, be prepared to share jobs and stop demanding miracles. It’s all happening gradually anyway because of the recession. And I haven’t got right-wing. I’m sick of the ignorance of politicians as well.’
    ‘How do you feel about all this, Jim?’
    Milton shrugged. ‘It’s been coming for a long time.’ He looked over at Ann questioningly and raised an eyebrow. She nodded.
    ‘That’s not the whole of it, Robert. You won’t have missed her crack about my job. Ann hasn’t forgiven the Met since I was told in so many words that my promotion was being delayed because there was a general feeling that I was too much identified with the wets in the force. I think I should stay and fight. She thinks I should abandon ship.’
    Amiss didn’t feel he knew the Miltons well enough to come between husband and wife, and he was initially relieved when Ann broke in on his sympathetic murmurings. ‘You’re forgetting the main point. I don’t care about the bloody police force any more except that it seems to be changing you for the worse.’
    There was an uneasy pause. Milton clattered around with a decanter and filled their brandy glasses. He sat down again and looked across at Amiss. ‘Ann was very upset by police conduct during the riots and after. Then something happened this week that made her think I’m condoning brutality.’
    ‘And that was?’
    Milton looked embarrassed.
    ‘You’re not sure you know me well enough to trust me with the story?’
    ‘Oh, hell. What have I got to lose? You trusted me with your career last year. It’d be a relief to tell someone else about it. It comes down to a simple fact: last week I denied seeing one of my detective sergeants viciously hitting a suspect across the head during the course of