Judicial Whispers by Caro Fraser

Author:Caro Fraser [Fraser, Caro]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780749014032
Google: ZS-KAgAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 1848221
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 1995-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Anthony had been puzzled and annoyed by Rachel’s disappearance the previous evening. He had spent some time combing the crowd in the Guildhall before finally concluding that she had gone, and allowing himself to be taken by David Liphook and William Cooper to a spaghetti house in Covent Garden, where he had drunk far too much wine. His head still ached vaguely that morning as he rang Rachel’s office.

‘Good morning, Nichols and Co! How can I help you?’ sang out Nora’s voice. ‘No, Mr Cross, Miss Dean won’t be coming in today. She’s working from home. Can her secretary help? I see. Thank you for calling!’

Anthony put the phone down and hesitated before picking it up again. If she hadn’t gone in to work today, maybe she’d felt unwell last night and just gone home. She’d been behaving rather peculiarly before they got to the Guildhall, with a nervy talkativeness quite unlike her usual manner. Perhaps he should just leave it – wait for her to call him. But since he was in love with her and would take any opportunity to speak to her, he seized upon his legitimate excuse and rang her flat.

Rachel was sitting at her kitchen table working out laytime calculations for a tedious demurrage claim when the phone rang. She was still in a sufficient state of nervous apprehension for the sound to make her start. She listened to the insistent, rhythmic ringing for a few seconds, and wondered, hoped … But she knew that was impossible. He didn’t have her number. Anyway, he would not get in touch with her. That much had been clear. Yet, despite his words, she still felt, as she walked from the table to the phone, as though she were carrying her newly discovered love like a fragile burden.

She set the burden down gently when she heard Anthony’s voice.

‘Oh, hello,’ she said, disappointed in spite of everything she had just told herself. She walked back into the kitchen with the phone and sat down.

‘Hi,’ said Anthony. ‘I’m just ringing to see how you are. They said you wouldn’t be in to work today, and I wondered where you’d got to last night.’ He had already decided that there was no point in sounding annoyed about her disappearance, even if he was.

‘Oh …’ Rachel let out her breath in a sigh. ‘I’m sorry, Anthony. I was beginning to feel a little unwell, and I just went home. I know I should have looked for you to tell you, but I really did feel quite ghastly …’ She paused for a second, conscious of her nervousness at the deception. Anthony was the last person who should find out that she’d spent last night at Leo’s. He thought so much of both of them – he would find it hard to deal with, to say the least. ‘To tell you the truth,’ she went on, trying to sound bright and casual, ‘I asked my secretary for some aspirin before I left work last night, and I don’t know what she gave me, but it made me feel most peculiar.

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.