Strict and Peculiar (The Falconer Files Book 7) by Frazer Andrea

Author:Frazer, Andrea [Frazer, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781783751518
Published: 2015-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Friday 5th November

The next morning it was confirmed that the burnt-out car did, in fact, belong to Chris Roberts, and the hospital had confirmed that he was now fighting his way towards consciousness. The CAT scan had revealed nothing sinister with regard to inter-cranial bleeding, swelling of the brain, or possible permanent damage, and he had been taken off the ventilator first thing that morning and was now breathing for himself.

Sightings of the ice-cream van now referred to as ‘Mr Spliffy’ had been reported by a number of patrol vehicles, and there was a pattern emerging on Falconer’s wall map now. Although the sightings, literally pin-pointed over a period of time during the day were wildly at random, there seemed to be a general area where they started in the morning and ended, sometimes very late in the evening.

Falconer felt that he was moving in on whoever was peddling dope under the cover of selling ice-cream, and wondered if the vendor actually kept some real ice-cream and lollies on board, in case he got some kosher customers. He supposed that whoever it was would have to, otherwise someone would have been bound to complain, and it would have come to the ears of the local community police officers and passed on to the station.

Given the date, Carmichael’s thoughts were on a totally different subject, and he was hardly able to conceal his excitement as he contemplated the happy hours he would spend in his garden, lighting a bonfire and burning the guy he and the boys had made, then letting off the fireworks he had purchased specially for the occasion, and safely stored in the loft, away from prying eyes and hands. Kerry had promised that they could bake potatoes in the embers of the bonfire, and cook sausages held to the flames on long twigs, and he felt as if he were seven years old again.

When Monica Raynor called to say that Quentin had disappeared again overnight, Falconer was not in the best of moods, and suggested that, as Quentin was an adult, it was not advisable to start a search for him until he had been gone for forty-eight hours, and asked if he had charged his phone, and made sure the car was in working order before he’d left.

At that point, he had hung up on her, exasperated by Carmichael’s capers round the office, and his continued guilt at the beating Roberts had suffered. If he had let the call last a little longer, he would have discovered that Quentin had not taken his car. It was still outside the house, and his mobile phone was sitting on the kitchen table, not even switched on, but Monica made no second call, lulled into a false sense of security at the mention of waiting a little longer before doing anything official.

In the end he sent Carmichael home early, asking him to pass a little time by visiting Roberts’ bedside again, and not to let him, Falconer, set eyes on him until the following morning, when his gunpowder plot would have been executed.

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