Rattling the Bones by Ann Granger Page B

such a trim sprightly figure, looked pale and cold. She shivered. Her shoulders slumped. Even her blond curls seemed to have lost their springiness.
     
    ‘I could do with a cup of tea,’ she muttered. ‘But the kettle is in there.’ She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. ‘Anyway, I suppose you don’t want me to touch that, either.’ She rallied a little and sat up straighter to look me full in the face. ‘It’s not foul play, Fran. It’s life playing one of its sick jokes.’
     
    Usually I’d agree with her about life’s often misplaced sense of humour, but general unease prompted me to ask, ‘What time did you go out, Susie?’
     
    ‘Out of the office or out to work? I haven’t been in the office this morning till now. I had a call to make first, business, or I thought it was.’ Susie’s voice took on a grim tone. ‘I’ve been all the way out to Richmond and for nothing. Some woman made the appointment over the phone and sounded kosher. She’d met a new bloke and he was really keen but she thought some of the stories he was spinning sounded a bit unconvincing, so wanted me to check him out. Straightforward stuff but plenty of legwork and surveillance and day-to-day expenses so out I went to meet her in some upmarket pub calling itself a wine bar, only she never showed.’
     
    ‘Did you try and get in contact with her?’
     
    ‘Of course I did! I rang the number she gave me and some other woman, not the same one for sure, it was a different voice - she said she didn’t know anyone of that name. I know when I’ve been given the run-around and believe me I am not pleased!’
     
    ‘I do believe it,’ I told her morosely, ‘and I also believe it sounds as though we’ve been set up, both of us.’
     
    She looked startled and then thoughtful. ‘Someone got me out of the office so that they could fix to meet whatsit, Gardner, here? And then croak him? Leave him here for one of us to fall over when we got back? Why? I mean, why here ?’
     
    ‘Because it drops me right in it, doesn’t it?’ I muttered. ‘You’ll have to get your story about your trip to Richmond absolutely straight, remember all you can about this woman who contacted you. The police will ask.’
     
    She sniffed, but having a story to get clear had concentrated her mind and temporarily wiped out the image of Duane. She took on a more businesslike air. ‘Oh, right. Well, normally, I’d look in the office first, before I went to meet anyone, to check if there were any messages or post. But Richmond is a long way out and I thought it better to go there direct from home.’
     
    ‘Was Les coming in today?’
     
    She shook her head. ‘I told him not to bother for a week or so. I’d phone him if I needed him. Like I said, we’ve had no work to speak of. That’s why I grabbed the offer to go out to Richmond. I didn’t ask enough questions. I just thought she sounded as if she had the money to pay for an in-depth search.’
     
    ‘So, did you lock the outer door when you left last night?’
     
    ‘Of course I did!’ Susie was getting her normal confidence back. ‘Even if I hadn’t Michael would’ve locked up the street door downstairs when he left. He’s got a lot of expensive equipment up there. He wouldn’t want to come in the morning and find it ripped out, or some crackhead dosing up or old wino sleeping it off in there. If you’re in any kind of business around here security is like breathing: you do it automatically and you don’t forget. Look, we don’t know why that poor stiff in there came here, unless it was to find you .’
     
    Susie gave me a stern look as if I’d set it all up on purpose. ‘Perhaps this Richmond business has nothing to do with it. There could be someone else out there giving me the run-around for the fun of it. It could be someone I’ve investigated, someone who was into things he didn’t want my client knowing and I found out and told the client all about. He or she could be