The Borgia Ring by Michael White

Author:Michael White [White, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780099536291
Publisher: Random House Australia
Published: 2008-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Stepney, Wednesday 8 June, 8.25 p.m.

Pendragon paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. He smoothed back his hair, coughed unnecessarily and pushed the doorbell. Sue Latimer opened the door. She was wearing a light blue summer dress, her hair tied back, accentuating her fine cheekbones.

‘Hello. I imagine punctuality is all part of the training.’

‘Sorry. Should I have been fashionably late?’

She laughed.

He held out a bottle of red wine in one hand, a bunch of tulips in the other. She looked genuinely delighted. ‘Gorgeous. Thank you, Jack.’

Sue’s flat was so different from Pendragon’s, it was hard to believe it was in the same building. The walls were painted in warm shades, chocolate and cream and duck egg blue. The lighting was subdued. A wall of shelves held hundreds of books and CDs. The kitchen was modern and glistened with highly polished pans hanging from hooks above an expensive-looking hob. A medley of smells came from a pan. A radio in the corner of the counter was playing some piano music he half-recognised.

‘I hope you like Indian,’ she said, and handed Pendragon a glass of red wine.

He felt unusually relaxed straight away. He had never been a great mixer, and often needed time to get to know people, but Sue was so open and warm, it felt natural to let the barriers down.

‘I must say, you struck me as a bit of a mystery when I first met you,’ she said, as she stirred the curry.

‘Oh, it’s a carefully cultivated act.’

She lifted a wooden ladle and handed it to Pendragon, inviting him to taste. He took a little into his mouth and nodded his approval.

‘Well, the act was successful,’ she replied. ‘I’m intrigued.’

The music on the radio faded to silence and the host of the programme handed over to the newsdesk. Sue was reaching over to turn it off when the newsreader began: ‘The homicide investigation into the deaths of two men linked with Bridgeport Construction took a new twist this afternoon …’

‘Wait a second,’ Pendragon said, and Sue took her finger from the ‘off’ switch.

‘Sources close to the investigating team at Brick Lane Police Station have disclosed that a human skeleton, said to be several hundred years old, was unearthed at the construction site in Stepney shortly before the murder of Amal Karim early on Saturday last. The police have not released details of the find, but the skeleton disappeared the night of Karim’s murder and reappeared only this morning. It was found in a skip less than a hundred metres from the building site where it was unearthed. In an official statement from Brick Lane Police Station, Superintendent Jill Hughes told reporters that police forensic scientists were studying the bones and that details would only be made public when that investigation was complete. Turning to other …’

‘Bad news?’ Sue asked, seeing Pendragon’s frown.

He forced a smile. ‘Oh, not really. It had to come out, I suppose.’

‘Are you working on this case?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you only got here at the weekend.’

‘A cop’s life is rarely boring.

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