So Soon Done For (1979) by Marian Babson

So Soon Done For (1979) by Marian Babson

Author:Marian Babson [Babson, Marian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-09-14T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter XIII

'It's gone beyond a joke,' Kay said, as soon as Emma had left the breakfast table in the morning. 'Someone ought to do something.'

'What do you suggest we do?' Crispian asked reasonably. 'You heard me warn him. I can't take his pills away and hide them. That's for Sylvia to do - if she gets worried enough.'

'Even then, he'd just get more. I gather there are bottles of them floating all around the agency, for photography and label design and all that sort of thing. Sylvia says he doesn't even have a prescription for them. He just brings more home when he's run out.'

'There you are.' Crispian shrugged. 'It's up to him, then.'

'But they can't be safe. Just look at what they're doing to him.'

'What do you suggest?' Crispian asked again. 'An anonymous letter to the manufacturer telling him that his product is dangerous and possibly unfit for human consumption? That would go down well. Especially if Jeremy ever discovered we were responsible for it.'

'You know I don't mean that.' Kay glanced out of the window and stiffened. Emma, with elaborate unconcern, was drifting across the street, a book under her arm. Poppy was in the front yard, watching her approach.

'In any case,' Crispian said. 'The things are probably perfectly safe. They have to pass all sorts of tests. Of course, you're usually warned not to mix them with alcohol. As always, the use or abuse is up to the ultimate consumer. To Jeremy. But I must admit, he does seem to be making a balls-up of it.'

'He's cracking up. I wonder - ' Kay voiced the thought which had occurred to her during the night. 'Do you suppose he's passing them around? Sharing them with Norman? Norman seems to be in nearly as bad a state, although I don't think he drinks to the extent that Jeremy does.'

'Jeremy has been knocking it back of late,' Crispian agreed. He considered the new idea. 'It's possible, I suppose, but I doubt it. Norman was in pretty bad shape when he first showed up. I don't think you can blame medication for that. I think the medical check-up caught him at that point just before he started to go down, where he had to go down before he started coming up again.'

'He hasn't started up yet, that I can see,' Kay said. She hesitated. 'Did you believe what you were saying last night? About the drugs? Do you think Norman might have passed from smuggling them to taking them himself?'

'Not really. It would have been caught in the routine medical long before this. He was probably pushing himself to the limits of his endurance, worrying about Barnaby and his parents and whether to send him to boarding school, and the fees - ' He paused and studied Kay with interest.

She was staring at something happening outside, her hands making abortive little grabbing motions, as though to snatch something back.

'You're getting pretty jumpy yourself,' he observed cheerfully. 'What's the matter? Don't tell me it's a neighbourhood epidemic?'

'Why shouldn't it be?' Kay turned on him, suddenly snappish.



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