The Tower Grave Read Online Free PDF Page B

Pritchard?”
                  “Yes, of course. Come in,” she said, smiling at him. He thought he noticed her eyes flick down over his body before she turned around but his thoughts were distracted by the grand interior of the farmhouse entrance hall and then by the sight of her as she led the way into the house. The riding had clearly paid off and she walked in a way that accentuated her hips in her jodhpurs. He wondered if she exaggerated the step and if it was his benefit. He smiled again at the thought. Shaking himself, he forced himself to ignore the distractions flying around his head and concentrate on the job at hand; at least for a while.
                  She led him across the large hall and another empty room before opening a final door and looking back.
                  “They’re in there,” she said, politely. “I’m Jane, the riding instructor. I’ll see you around, Mr Bridge?”
                  “Cheers. And, uhm, call me John,” he replied.
                  “Of course, John,” she said, smiling happily, and walked off not looking back.
                  The room through the door, John could see, was very different. It looked like a modern briefing area or classroom with a huge screen at one end of the room and eight single desks in the centre. He recognised three of the four faces immediately and entered the room to greet them.
                  “Morning, Gentlemen,” he said as he stepped down into the room from the raised floor of the main house.
                  “John!” shouted Derek as he looked up. “You remember David and Rich?”
                  “Of course,” he replied, nodding towards them with a smile.
                  David put up his hand, smiling, but Rich jumped up and waved enthusiastically.
                  “Hello, Mr Bridge,” he said, stepping over to John and taking hold of his hand.
                  “Call me John, Rich.”
                  “Okay, okay. Have you met Chris?”
                  “Not yet,” John replied, walking over to the short, slim man he took to be the technical scientist on his team. He looked far too young to risk his life and looked nervous under his thick, strawberry-blonde hair. Nevertheless, he smiled politely back at John. “Nice to meet you, Chris,” John said as he took his hand.
                  “Hi John,” he said in reply, taking off his rectangular glasses for a second and rubbing his nose between what seemed like extremely small eyes.
                  “So you’re our whizz-kid scientist? Are you excited?”
                  “Oh, yes definitely,” he said in a nervous but well-spoken accent. “I’m nervous as hell though.”
                  “Yeah, we all are,” John replied. “We’ll be fine though, I’m sure.”
                  As John turned and shook David’s hand, the door opened behind them and down stepped an attractive woman with light, wavy, blonde hair falling casually over her shoulders. Remembering she was thirty-two, John was surprised to see who must be Charlotte looking a lot younger than he expected and he turned to face her, smiling as the men around him fell silent.
                  “Hi then!” she said enthusiastically in a feminine, high-class, London accent.
                  “Hi,” the men all replied together before Derek broke the following silence by stepping forwards to shake her hand.
                  “Good to see you again, Charlotte,” he said.
                  “And you, Sir,” she replied.
                  “This is the team leader, DI John Bridge,” he continued.
                  “How do you do?” she said, smiling as she shook his hand.
                  “And these are Chris