Coffin's Ghost by Gwendoline Butler

Author:Gwendoline Butler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1999-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

8

On the first rising step of the staircase lay something small.

It was the head of a cat. A black and white cat. Underneath it was a sheet of paper with letters cut out of a newspaper.

SO YOU WANTED A HEAD?

Coffin, summoned from his office, swore under his breath.

‘Does anyone know whose cat it was?’

Phoebe Astley shook her head. ‘A stray, I expect. Plenty of them around in the Second City.’

She stepped back to let the photographer continue taking the picture of the poor little head.

She turned to Stella who had arrived to collect her keys in time for the drama. ‘Not your cat, anyway.’

‘We haven’t got one at the moment.’ Stella looked sick. ‘What a terrible, loathsome thing to do. Poor little creature.’

‘I hope it was dead when the head was cut off.’

Stella moved away. ‘I don’t suppose you do a postmortem on a poor old mongrel cat. No, of course not. Why did I ask?’ She was getting rid of her pain with a dose of anger.

‘I expect we could get a vet to take a look,’ said Phoebe doubtfully.

‘I’ll pay the bill.’

Coffin came up to Stella, put his arm round her. ‘It was a lousy thing to do. Thank goodness you had the dog with you.’

‘I can’t even get into my own home,’ wailed Stella.

‘No, the forensic and scene-of-the-crime people must go over it all.’ He looked towards the van where Arthur and Dave were sitting, uncomfortable but forbidden to leave until they had made a first statement with the promise of another to come to be signed later. ‘They will clean up for you afterwards. You go off to Max’s, order lunch and I will join you when I can.’

‘You will come?’ He was famed for making a promise to arrive and then failing to turn up. Police business was tricky and unpredictable was his excuse.

‘Sure. Have you got the dog with you?’

Stella nodded. ‘Not actually with me. I left him behind in my office, but he will be safe.’

‘I am thinking of you, not him,’ said Coffin. ‘He’s not a bad protector.’

Of course, he had to see this second attack on his house as a clear threat.

‘He’s got teeth,’ agreed Stella dolefully. ‘I suppose he would defend me.’ He had in the past. She kissed her husband on the cheek in a neutral kind of way and went to her car, passing Dave and Arthur on the way.

‘You can come and clean up after this.’

‘Sure. We will be there,’ said Arthur.

‘I’m glad you didn’t get hurt, Dave.’

‘Oh, no question of it, Miss Pinero.’ Dave nodded his head sagely. ‘Not after me, I don’t think . . . he made off as soon as he saw me.’

After me or my husband, thought Stella. And all part of this horrible sequence of events starting in Barrow Street.

‘Are we stuck here, Miss Pinero?’ asked Arthur; he was the paymaster. ‘We have another job to go to.’

‘You’ll be told when you can go, when the forensics and the photography are done,’ said Stella.

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