‘All right, nobody likes a smartarse.’
He started on the other hand. ‘—someone to take minutes, probably a bunch of subcommittees about stuff like alibis and killing methods—’
She thumped the back of her hand against his chest. ‘I’m no’ saying thewhole townmurdered Sir Buggerlugs, it’s—’
‘And even if itwaslogistically possible, where would everyone in the village hide? They weren’t invited to the wedding and they can’t have sneaked off in this weather with the bridge out. They’d be every bit as stuck as we are!’
She gave him another thump. ‘I liked you better when you were cringing in awe-struck reverence.’
‘You did ask.’
‘Hmph...’ Roberta marched off, past the dribbly fountain and under the big portico with its miserable bunting. Clicked her umbrella shut and gave it a good shake, sending water flying like a soggy terrier.
‘I’m sure it’s a good book, it’s just a very silly idea.’
She shoved through the double doors into the hotel lobby again. Jammed the umbrella back in the thing. Peeled off her high-vis raincoat and thrust it into the cultureless idiot’s arms. ‘You’ve no’ got a clue about proper literature.’
Sergeant Moore appeared from the other side of that huge metal stag. Face all creased and worried. ‘Where did you pair disappear off to?’
McKinnon unbuttoned his raincoat. ‘Bridge is out. Must’ve got washed away in the night.’
‘Aye, and there’s sod-all mobile signal out there either.’ Shesquished and squelched past the pair of them, making for the stairs.
‘I could’ve told you that.’ Sergeant Moore fell into step beside her, holding out a couple sheets of paper. ‘I’ve made a list of everyone and ranked it in order of who hated him the most to least.’
‘Aye, I got the low-down from your wee loon, there; every bugger for a hundred miles hated our victim.’ The steps creaked beneath her saturated shoes. ‘Don’t blame them either: man was a dick.’
Sergeant Moore stopped at the bottom of the stairs, frowning up at her. ‘Where are you off tonow?’
Roberta kept on going. ‘Getting changed. Everything from the waist down’s dripping. And no’ in a sexy way!’
And believe it or not, the rude sod had the cheek to shudder at the thought.
9
Susan sat in that high-backed armchair by the window, scowling at the rain. Disapproval oozing out of her like stink from a chunk of forgotten haggis, festering away at the back of the fridge. Honestly, the woman could hold a grudge better than anyone.
Ah well, nothing Roberta could do about it now, standing there naked from the waist down, towelling her lower half – working a bit of life back into the cold, pale, wobbly skin. And that wasn’t cellulite, thank you very much, it was goose pimples. Because it was much colderinsidethis old pile than out.
Her stripy pair of soggy socks sagged over the hotel room’s radiator, but the jeans had to be abandoned in the bath, draped over the shower rail. Dripping.
Susan gave a pointed sniff as Roberta moved on to one set of wrinkled toes. ‘I don’t see whyIhave to be confined to my room like some sort of criminal.’
Again.
No point rising to it, she was spoiling for a fight – could see that a mile off. She had her spoiling-for-a-fight face on. Mouth pinched. Chin up. Arms folded, squishing her boobs down as she pressed herself back into the chair.
‘Can we no’ do this right now?’
Susan’s eyes got harder. ‘Bad enough you humiliated me last night without—’
‘A man’s been murdered, OK? And yes, he was ashittyman who screwed everyone over, but he was still murdered and that means we all have to make sacrifices. All of us.’ Roberta finished her drowned-corpse feet, dumped the towel on the bed, and had a rummage about inside her suitcase. Had to be another pair of pants in here somewhere...
‘You just want me out of the way.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake.’ Muttering itjustloud enough to make sure it was audible. Roberta stood, a pair of big grey pants clutched in one hand – the elastic gone a bit hairy around the waistband. ‘Look, I’ve got to go catch a killer, so can we—’
‘And those!’ Susan released an arm to point at the pants. ‘I bought you three nice new sets of decent underwear – they wereLa Perla, have you any idea how expensive they were? Did you even try them on?’
