The Book Of Death: Simon Turing, #1 by Jack Treby

Author:Jack Treby
Format: epub

Chapter Thirteen

‘Mandy went ballistic,’ Susan said, back in the kitchen. I had asked her about the phone call with her boss. ‘You should have heard the language! Blimey. Talk about turning the air blue.’ She chuckled, leaning over the kitchen table as she worked to clear up some of the mess. The tea things had been returned from the living room and piled up on the table. There was a stack of dirty crockery in the sink. Lorraine and the others were having a quick break outside. They had set up some chairs by the side of the van and were munching on a few left over sandwiches. ‘I suppose I can’t really blame her,’ Susan added. ‘This sort of thing can be really bad for business.’ She put down a dirty mug and peered across at me. ‘So what did the sergeant want with you? Where did you disappear off to together?’

‘In search of a newspaper,’ I replied, enigmatically. Susan shot me a querying look. I cleared my throat and quickly explained; the conversation in the pantry and everything that had happened since then. She raised her eyebrows when I told her about the torn page in Mr Babbage’s wallet, but it was the business with the passport that really caught her interest.

‘Blimey. So Monique is related to that German bloke? What’s his name? Otto?’ She had stopped clearing the table for a moment and grabbed a chair.

‘Apparently, yes. Although she does have a French passport.’

‘Her mother’s French,’ Susan said, settling back in the chair. ‘She’s mentioned her once or twice. So what did Sergeant Hussein do when he saw it?’

‘He went straight back to the nursery and demanded an explanation. Well, not demanded. He was very polite about it.’ Hussein had shown the girl the passport and the newspaper we had found in her room. ‘She admitted she was related to Mr Leibniz. But she swore she knew nothing about the newspaper.’

Susan lifted an eyebrow. ‘And did you believe her?’

‘I did, yes. The way she reacted. I honestly don’t think she had seen it before. The sergeant asked her to accompany him downstairs, to speak to Inspector Lovelace. He said he’d send somebody up to look after the children. So we came downstairs together. And the first person we bump into is Mr Chadwick.’

Susan let out a groan. ‘It never rains but it pours.’

‘That was when things got really sticky,’ I agreed. ‘He’d been out front, saying goodbye to some of the guests. The sergeant showed him the newspaper and told him where we had found it. “I have it on good authority that you know something about it,” he said. He was tactful enough not to mention me, but as I was standing next to him at the time and he said somebody had heard him talking about it, it was pretty obvious it had to be me. Mr Chadwick went bright red. I thought he was going to explode. It was lucky the sergeant was there, otherwise heaven knows what might have happened.

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