The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Author:Richard Osman [Osman, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241988251
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-09-15T23:00:00+00:00

39

Joyce

It is tomorrow morning, if you know what I mean, and I have just got back from the shop. More of that in a moment. My bag and umbrella are ready, waiting, on the hallway table. More of that in a moment too.

Elizabeth thinks that Douglas faked his own death. It is, apparently, not uncommon in her line of work. Killed someone, had the body identified as his own and ran off with twenty million. Who’s to say, but certainly nice work if you can get it.

We were all round at Ibrahim’s last night, as Elizabeth wanted to run the theory past Sue Reardon. Ibrahim is moving better, by the way, but he looks sad, which is not like him at all. I mean, he has always looked melancholy, unless he’s writing a list, or explaining something, but you very rarely see him looking sad. I need to get him out of his flat somehow. Get him back behind the wheel of his car. Or Ron’s car, but you know what I mean.

We had a very nice evening. It was nothing special, but it doesn’t always have to be, does it? Having someone from MI5 there might have felt unusual a year ago, but I am growing to expect such things. Sue Reardon looked a bit sad too, I thought. I imagine she is in trouble at work after everything that happened.

I am learning that it is important to stop sometimes, and just have a drink and a gossip with friends, even as corpses start to pile up around you. Which they have been doing a lot recently.

It’s a balancing act, of course, but, by and large, the corpses will still be there in the morning, and you mustn’t let it spoil your Domino’s.

We didn’t really talk too much about the case until Elizabeth started going on about Douglas and the weather. That was Sue Reardon’s cue, and then Elizabeth let everything spill. Douglas faking his own death, the full works. It does sound a bit complicated to me. How would he have done it?

Though I suppose if you don’t put a bit of effort into stealing twenty million pounds then when will you put in some effort?

You could see that Sue didn’t dismiss it out of hand. She knows Elizabeth has her head screwed on, and, also, she probably wanted to believe it too. If you are investigating something, you want all sorts of things to be true if they help you out.

I was proud of Elizabeth for sharing, and after Sue left, I was going to tell Elizabeth that she was showing real maturity, not keeping everything to herself for once, but then she told us she had something to show us, and suggested a walk in the woods. Oh, Elizabeth!

Bear in mind, also, that this was gone ten and I had already said, ‘Well, this has been lovely,’ more than once.

We packed up our things, Ron went to his for a torch and Ibrahim wouldn’t come, but wished us luck.

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