Out of Bounds by Val McDermid

Author:Val McDermid [McDermid, Val]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781408706930
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2016-08-24T16:00:00+00:00

32

TAP had hung on to the old-fashioned Soho shop frontage, its only concession to hip modernity being the matt black paintwork and the spartan smokers’ bench outside. Karen peered through the window before she ventured inside. She approved of the clean lines, the simple wooden tables. She was less sure about the benches. She liked a back to her chair when she was relaxing over a coffee. Not everyone wanted to be doing pilates all the time.

The coffee shop was busy and its long skinny layout made it hard to see whether the Grassies had already arrived. She was going to have to go in to be sure. And if they weren’t there, she could try to snag a table, though from here that looked easier said than done.

But Karen was spared that problem for, as she neared the coffee counter, she could see Craig and Shirley. They looked exactly the same as when she’d last seen them. Anonymous casual clothing you’d forget the minute you were out of their company. Craig with his lugubrious long face like a depressed Shetland pony, big luminous eyes beaming out like headlamps from under his untidy fringe. Shirley the former nurse, who had never quite shed the expression of professional concern from a face that always made Karen think of a currant bun. Which wasn’t fair, because there was nothing mean or tight about Shirley.

They were obviously looking out for her and both waved as they caught sight of her. She wove through knots of chattering people and slipped as elegantly as she could manage on to the bench. ‘Wow, this place is jumping,’ she said.

‘The coffee’s lovely,’ Shirley said. ‘When we grew up we thought Gold Blend was the height of sophistication. But it’s like gay rights. We’ve come an amazing distance in the last ten or fifteen years.’

‘I don’t think those two things are actually connected,’ Craig said, reminding Karen that his routine delivery was so deadpan she could never be quite certain when he was serious. ‘It’s nice to see you again, Detective.’

‘Please, call me Karen. This is completely unofficial, I don’t want you to think I’m pulling rank or anything.’

Shirley smiled. ‘Either way, it’s nice to see you again. Now, what will you drink?’

They negotiated the complexities of the coffee menu then Karen took a deep breath and dived in. ‘I suffer from insomnia and I walk around the city a lot at night,’ she began. As succinctly as she could, she described her encounters with the Syrian men and explained the particular problem she’d discovered. ‘All they want is somewhere they can sit around and talk. Relax, like we’re doing right now, right here. We’ve got countless places we can go and really, they’ve got nowhere.’

Craig and Shirley had both been nodding supportively throughout. Now Craig stirred his half-empty cup pensively and said, ‘I’m assuming you have a suggestion? That you’re not just bending my ear because you want to get it off your chest?’

‘I wouldn’t waste your time like that.

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