White Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

and can hardly think for foggy headedness.”
    “Fair enough. This afternoon then? It’ll give me chance to have a bit of a tidy up.”
    “Oh no. Don’t do that. I’ll have no idea what might be missing if you tidy everything away.” Meinwen drew her fingers across her eyes, rubbing the grit from the corners as she yawned. “Have a root about and see if you can find a clue to that money book. Then get in touch with your brother’s solicitor about his death. Do you know who he used?”
    “No clue.”
    “All right. There aren’t many in town so it won’t be too hard to track down. Ask the police for a release date for the body and a list of everything they removed from the house. I’d look into your brother’s insurance policies, too and make the funeral arrangements. That’s a good use of your time. Make it sooner rather than later and advertise it in the Laverstone Times. Let’s see who turns up to his funeral, shall we? It’ll give us a chance to look at the rats in their finery.”
    “Aye I suppose it will at that. Do you think his lady friend will come?”
    “I don’t see why not. I’d go to the funeral of a loved one who’d supposedly killed themselves.”
    “You’re right. Is Oxley’s still in business?”
    “I believe so. Chapelgate? Next to the butcher’s?”
    “Aye. That’s the one. I’ll have a trot down there. See what the rates are.”
    “As you wish. I’ll see you this afternoon. Do you have a mobile I can reach you on?”
    “Surely.” Jimmy pulled out an old mobile. “Haven’t used this for a while. We’re not allowed them inside. It doesn’t work at the moment, mind. I’ve no charger for it.”
    “I might have one.” Meinwen held out her hand and Jimmy gave her the phone. She went back into the house, leaving him to finish tying his laces. There was a box full of wires and rubbish in the cupboard under the stairs. She hauled it out past the vacuum cleaner and dropped it on the sideboard, shifting a couple of her landlady’s Royal Doulton figurines aside to make room. She rooted through old USB and modem cables, several plugs cut off the ends of defunct appliances, her first mobile phone from the nineties, which was roughly the size and weight of a house brick and a number of leads from assorted defunct mobiles. She pulled one out and checked the end fitted in the handset and plugged it in. It lit up straight away, allowing her to access the memory for its own number, which she wrote twice on two pieces of card.
    “Here.” She handed the phone, the charger and one of the pieces of card to Jimmy, who was smoking a cigarette under the shelter of the portico. “I’ve written the number down for you as well, so you can give it the undertaker and the police.”
    “Thanks.” John hefted the charger. “How much do I owe you?”
    Meinwen shook her head. “Nothing. It was for a phone I don’t even have any more. Just useless clutter to me. You could get a new one for a few quid.” She gave him a smile. “I’m just glad it’s going to a good home. Waste not, want not.”
    Jimmy laughed, his brown eyes reflecting the light and matching the exact shade on the tea cups she’d just stacked next to the sink. “Our mam used to say that.”
    “Then she was a wise woman.” Meinwen stepped forward and held out her hand. “I shall see you this afternoon then, Mr. Fenstone.”
    “Call me Jimmy.” He shook her hand. “All my friends do.”
    “Then you can call me Meinwen.” His hands were rough, the inner edges of the fingers calloused and the mounts of Jupiter and Saturn-like miniature gobstoppers of hardened skin. Whatever they’d had him doing in prison had not been kind to him. “Is there anything you need before you go? Are you all right for money?”
    “For a while yet, thanks. There was a few quid in the house and I’ve a post office account the police never got wind of.” He winked. “I just have to convince them I am who I am and I’ll have enough to tide