Beneath the skin by Nicci French

Author:Nicci French [French, Nicci]
Format: epub
Tags: Nicci French
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-04-06T02:40:01.285000+00:00

'Investigation?' I said. 'It's just a letter.'

'It's important to take these matters seriously. Also, we have a psychologist, a Dr Grace Schilling, who is an expert on, er ... She should be here .. .'he looked at his watch'... at any minute, really.'

There was a silence.

216 'Look,' I said, 'I'm not stupid. I had a break-in about a year ago, well, nothing was taken. I think I disturbed them. But it took the police about a day to get here and they did sod all about it. Now I get a single nasty letter and it's a major operation. What's going on? Don't you have real grown-up crimes to solve?'

Stadler snapped his notebook shut and put it in his pocket. 'We've been accused of not being sufficiently sensitive to offences targeted against women,' he said. 'We take threats of this kind very seriously.'

'Oh, well,' I said. 'That's good, I suppose.'

Dr Schilling was the kind of woman I rather envied. She'd obviously done really well at school, got fantastic grades and still looked rather intelligent. She dressed pretty elegantly as well, but even that was in an intelligent sort of way. She had this long blonde hair that looked great but that she'd obviously pinned up in about three and a half seconds to show that she didn't take it all too seriously. She certainly wasn't the sort of person you'd catch standing on her head in front of a group of screaming tots. If I'd known she was coming I really would have tidied the flat up. The only thing that irritated me was that she had this air of extremely serious, almost sad, concern when she addressed me, as if she were presenting a religious TV programme.

'I understand you've been in a relationship that ended,' she said.

'I can tell you that that letter wasn't written by Max. For all sorts of reasons, including the fact that he would have trouble composing a letter to the milkman. Anyway, he was the one who walked out.'

'All the same, that might mean you were in a vulnerable state.'

'Well, a.pissed-off state, maybe.'

'How tall are you, Nadia?'

'Don't rub it in. I try not to think about it. Just a little over five foot. An emotionally vulnerable dwarf. Is that the point you're trying to make? You should be all right, then.'

217 She didn't even smile.

'Should I be worried?' I asked.

Now there was a very long pause. When Dr Schilling spoke it was with great precision.

'I don't think it would be ... well, productive to get alarmed But I think you should behave as if you were worried, just to be on the safe side. You have been threatened. You should act as if the threat means what it says.'

'Do you really think somebody just wants to kill me for no reason?'

She looked thoughtful. 'No reason?' she said. 'Maybe. There,| are a lot of men who feel they have very good reasons for attacking | or killing women. They may not be reasons that would convince you or me, But that isn't much comfort, is it?'

'It's not much comfort to me,' I said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.