Fear & Phantoms by Carol Hedges

Author:Carol Hedges [Hedges, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little G Books
Published: 2018-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

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Detective Inspector Stride is acknowledged, at least amongst his colleagues at Scotland Yard, as a man who can keep a calm head in trying circumstances. There are, however, three circumstances that can successfully destroy this impression: new boots, an insufficiency of strong coffee, and the press.

Nobody has ever before witnessed the effect of all three coming together. Until now. After limping painfully into work and discovering that his favourite coffee stall had decided to move premises somewhere else, Stride is now standing behind his desk, staring in disbelief at the front-page headlines of The Inquirer.

A small group of officers have gathered outside Stride’s door, on the basis that their fairly wide vocabulary of invective is about to be widened even further. They step back as Jack Cully approaches the office bearing a mug of steaming tar-coloured liquid.

“You might like to wait a couple of minutes before going in, detective sergeant,” one of the men says with a grin.

Cully is about to ask why, when a veritable tidal wave of secular and profane vocabulary comes flooding out.

“Ah,” Cully nods. “He’s seen it.”

“Never heard that expression before,” remarks one of the men thoughtfully. He repeats it slowly, in a memorizing sort of way. “Interesting. Can think of several occasions when I might use it.”

There is the sound of various objects being hurled at the wall.

“He seems to have moved on,” the officer says, in a slightly regretful voice.

“Never mind, we got the best bits.”

“Yeah, we did. Thanks Mr Cully; shame not to hear DI Stride in full flow, I always say. A lesson to us all. Are you going in now?”

Cully smiles. “Might as well. I think it’s reasonably safe,” he says, pushing open the door. “Coffee?” he announces innocently, placing the mug carefully on the desk.

Stride points a quivering forefinger at the newspaper. “Metropolitan Madonna Mayhem!” he quotes. “Detective Police Scuffle while Train Passengers Look on In Horror!”

“Don’t you always say you should never believe what you read in the newspapers?” Cully asks.

“Oh, I don’t believe it ~ not for one single minute. I know Mr Dandy and his sense of the melodramatic. Perhaps you’d like to enlighten me as to what really happened, though? Before I receive a visit from the station superintendent, or a letter from the Home Office.”

Cully picks up one of the many reports piled on Stride’s desk.

“It’s all in here. I took the liberty of writing it down, just in case. I have to say I didn’t notice Mr Dandy present, nor any of his fellows.”

“Oh, they don’t have to turn up any more,” Stride observes bitterly. “Such is the willingness of the general public to see their names in the newspaper, that you can bet somebody will always go hot-foot straight round to Fleet Street with the tale. In this case, it appears to be …” he squints at the newspaper, “Mr G. F. Primmer (32) boiler maker of Pimlico Buildings. According to the aforementioned gentleman, you ‘seized violent hold of an innocent member of the cloth, while uttering words not fit for the female ear to hear’.

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