Death Comes to Durham by Jeanne M. Dams

Author:Jeanne M. Dams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448304349
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-02-20T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

When my phone rang and woke me from a nap, I expected some new tale of calamity from David. Instead it was Eileen who greeted me.

‘You sound a bit foggy. Did I wake you?’

I sighed. ‘I admit it. The past few days have been … sort of trying. But it wasn’t a restful nap, so I’m just as glad you called. What’s up?’

‘Nothing good, I’m afraid. I shouldn’t bother you with this, but I thought … well, you’ve been kind to Tim, and—’

‘Is something wrong with Tim? He’s not hurt!’ My voice was sharp. On the other side of the bed, Alan sat up, his brow furrowed.

‘No, nothing like that. It’s just that … oh, it’s dreadfully unfair!’

‘Tell me.’ I turned on the speaker to let Alan hear.

‘Tim’s flatmates have moved out. No warning, they just said they wanted a better place. Maybe they can afford it. Tim can’t. And the rent is due, and the landlord won’t give Tim time to find new flatmates. He’s going to be out on the street!’ She was fighting back tears, not very successfully.

‘All right, dear, calm down. I think we may be able to help.’ Alan had picked up his phone and moved to the bathroom. I shut off the speaker, just to make sure Eileen wouldn’t hear; I had a good idea what Alan was doing. ‘Why don’t the two of you come over for tea? I know you should both be studying, but I wouldn’t imagine your concentration is at its best just now.’

Eileen drew in a long, shuddering breath, the remnant of a sob. ‘I’ll go and persuade him. He’s not with me now; I didn’t want him to hear this call. I’ll tell him – oh, dear, what shall I tell him?’

‘Tell him I called you and invited you both to tea. It’s only a half-lie, and we can tell the whole truth if necessary. Come as soon as you can; I’ll send Alan out for some goodies.’

I clicked off before she could object and waited for Alan to end his call.

‘You called David?’

‘Yes. He’s on his way. With tea cakes. I think it may work out, Dorothy.’

‘Can we lend Tim some money, meanwhile? I doubt he’d accept an outright gift, but it’s going to take David a while to find a new place. That’s if he agrees. What did you tell him?’

‘Only that our friend had a dire housing problem, and we thought his needs and David’s might mesh. He jumped on it. He hasn’t said much about his living situation. He’s loyal to his family. But we’ve both felt his unrest.’

‘I hope he gets here first, to let us lay a little groundwork.’

But as it worked out, Tim and Eileen were the first to knock on our door. I explained that we were going to have another guest, who was bringing the tea cakes, and Alan went to filch another couple of chairs from somewhere. A party of five was going to stretch the capacity of our room to the limit.

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.