Penny Green series Box Set 2 by Emily Organ

Author:Emily Organ [Organ, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-31T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

“I hope you don’t mind my saying so, Penny, but you look rather pale this morning. Is everything all right?” whispered Mr Edwards.

“Oh, I’m just a little tired. Thank you for asking, Francis.”

In truth, I had slept badly the previous night. Every time I had closed my eyes the image of a severed finger had swum before them. I had never felt so concerned for James before. Someone who was willing to cut off another person’s finger had to be extremely barbaric. How could James, or any police officer, defend himself against something so inhuman?

“Are you sure it’s just tiredness?” asked Francis. “You seem worried about something.”

“It’s these murders. They’re so dreadful.” I shuddered.

Francis sighed. “I wonder if there might be some merit in you writing for a different type of publication,” he said.

“A different one? No, I couldn’t possibly. I like writing for the Morning Express.”

“But it means you have to encounter such gruesome stories, Penny. Meanwhile, there are many excellent periodicals you could write far more pleasant stories for. The Ladies’ Scholarly Repository magazine, for example.”

“I wrote articles for them during my brief hiatus in employment at the paper last year.”

“I don’t recall that. What happened?”

“It was before we were acquainted with one another. I criticised the work of Chief Inspector Cullen on a case and he complained to the commissioner, who just happens to be the cousin of my editor, Mr Sherman.”

“Oh dear.”

“I won’t go into the detail now, but suffice to say that Chief Inspector Cullen and I have never worked well together. I have had some experience writing for other publications, but I found them all rather dull, I’m afraid.”

“But surely dull is preferable to gruesome?”

“If you think about it sensibly I suppose it should be, but there’s a little more excitement with the gruesome stores, isn’t there?”

“Excitement, but also danger.”

I sighed. “Yes, there is danger, but I feel I can do something with these stories. When I think about the cases I’ve reported on, and particularly the ones I’ve worked on with Inspector Blakely, I feel that I’ve helped in bringing the perpetrators to justice. There’s no chance of doing that when you’re writing about French authors for the Ladies’ Scholarly Repository. I know that because I’ve already done it.”

“You have your father’s sense of adventure,” said Francis with a smile.

“Yes, I think I do.”

“But you must also be careful.”

“I’m always careful, Francis.”

“Your visit to the opium den worried me.”

“It mustn’t; I was absolutely fine. If there’s anyone we should be concerned about it’s Inspector Blakely.”

“Why him?” Francis frowned.

“It seems he has some particularly nasty people to deal with at the moment. I’m worried for him.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t worry about him. He can look after himself.”

“I hope so.”

“It’s not unusual for the police to put themselves at risk in the course of their work. And don’t forget that they’re accustomed to dealing with nasty people.”

“I know. And I know that I shouldn’t be concerned.”

“So why are you?” There was something unusually sharp in his tone.

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