The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey

Author:Peter Lovesey [Lovesey, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-61695-394-2
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2014-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

In the black limousine, Ingeborg was allowed to sit beside the driver. Nathan was in the back seat with his arm around Lee, who was grim-faced and silent.

“Some hard things were said back there,” he said to Ingeborg. “Heat of the moment.”

She turned her head. “Is that an apology? I could have been badly hurt.”

“You looked after yourself pretty good. Where did you learn to fight?”

“I did a course,” she said. “Every woman needs to know the basics, journalists even more so.”

“You hear that, Lily?” he said. “If you’d learned self-defence, none of this would have happened.” Apparently he’d persuaded himself that she had been abducted by Marcus, who right now was probably giving his account of the affray to the police response team. And if Marcus had any care for his future well-being, he’d deny all knowledge of his attackers.

“Where are we going now?” Lee asked, staring ahead.

“Back to the house,” Nathan said. “You still want to do that piece for the Sunday Times, don’t you?”

“Not right away. I’m a mess. I need a shower and a change of clothes.”

“No pressure,” Ingeborg said, thinking ahead. “We could do this tomorrow and I’ll still make my deadline.”

Nathan said, “Stay another night and keep Lily company. I have some business back at the house.”

“What is your business?” Ingeborg was bold enough to ask. Nathan’s mood was distinctly friendlier now that he’d rescued his lover. If ever there was a time to get him to open up, it was now.

“I supply the hardware for various projects,” he said, embracing the chance to give an arch response. “I’m a middleman, really, specialising in goods not obtainable from the manufacturer.”

“Who are your clients?”

“That’s confidential. Household names, some of them.”

“Not the government?”

“No, my customers tend to operate independently.” He was basking in the interest and clearly enjoying giving these cryptic answers.

“You obviously made a terrific success of it,” Ingeborg said.

“I always thought the way to get ahead is to corner the market in something and I’ve proved it over and over. They all know me and my reputation—here in the southwest, for sure, and some of them come out from London to get the best service and no questions asked.”

“Are they a bit dodgy, then, some of your customers?”

He chuckled. “I wouldn’t say that, if I was you, not to their faces, anyway. Lily’s met one or two ripe specimens passing through in recent months, haven’t you, my precious?”

“Too true,” she said.

“They wouldn’t get into a garden party at Buck House, if you know what I mean,” Nathan added. “In my line of business, you can’t be too choosy.”

“It sounds intriguing.”

“A job of work, that’s all.”

“Maybe you’d consider letting me do one of my photo features on you. A day in the life of a millionaire middleman.”

“No chance,” he said. “Publicity is the last thing I need.”

“Don’t you advertise?” She was starting to enjoy this game as much as he.

“It’s all done by word of mouth.”

Lee piped up, “And some of the words are unprintable.”

The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.