“And I haven’t got time for games.” He placed the weight of one knee across the man’s shoulders then prised a finger straight in one of the bound fists and pushed the point of the hat ping between the flesh and the nail. He felt the finger flinch.
“You’ve got five seconds to tell me what the hell is going on before I push it home. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.”
He breathed deeply through his nose, closed his eyes and shoved.
The man screamed.
Hal caught “Foreclosures. You’re costing money on the foreclosures’ before a ton weight descended on the back of his head.
Sister Bridget, as imperturbable as ever, ushered Roz into her sitting room and sat her in a chair with a glass of brandy.
Clearly Roz had been in another fight. Her clothes were ifithy and dishevelled, her hair was a mess, and splotchy red marks on her neck and face looked very like the imprint of fingers.
Someone, it seemed, was using her as a target for his spleen, though why she chose to put up with it Sister Bridget couldn’t begin to imagine. Roz was as far removed from Dickens’ Nancy as anyone could be and had quite enough independence of spirit to reject the degrading life that a Bill Sykes offered.
She waited placidly while wave after wave of giggles spluttered from Roz’s mouth.
“Do you want to tell me about it?” she asked at last, when Roz had composed herself enough to dab at her eyes.
Roz blew her nose.
“I don’t think I can,” she said.
“It wasn’t at all funny.” Laughter welled in her eyes again and she held the handkerchief to her mouth.
“I’m sorry to be a nuisance but I was afraid I’d have an accident if I tried to drive home. I think it’s what’s known as an adrenalin high.”
Privately, Sister Bridget decided it was a product of delayed shock, the natural healing process of mind over traumatised body.
“I’m pleased to have you here. Tell me how you’re progressing on the Olive front. I saw her today but she wasn’t very communicative.”
Grateful for something to take her mind off the Poacher, Roz told her.
“She did have a lover. I’ve found the hotel they used.”
She peered at the brandy glass.
“It was the Belvedere in Farraday Street. They went there on Sundays during the summer of eighty-seven.” She took a sip from the glass then placed it hurriedly on the table beside her and slumped back into the chair, pressing shaking fingers to her temples.
“I’m terribly sorry,” she said, ‘but I don’t feel at all well. I’ve got the mother and father of headaches.”
“I should imagine you have,” said Sister Bridget, rather more tartly than she had intended.
Roz massaged her aching temples.
“This ape tried to pull my hair out,” she murmured.
“I think that’s what’s done it.” She pressed an experimental hand to the back of her head and winced.
“There’s some codeine in my handbag. You couldn’t find them for me, could you? I think my head is about to explode.” She giggled hysterkally.
“Olive must be Sticking pins into me again.”
Tut-tut ting with motherly concern, Sister Bridget administered three with a glass of water.
“I’m sorry, my dear,” she said severely, ‘but I’m really very shocked.
I can’t forgive any man who treats a woman like a chattel and, harsh though it may sound, I find it almost as difficult to forgive the woman. Better to live without a man at all than to live with one who is only interested in the degradation of the spirit.”
Roz squinted through one half-closed eyelid, unable to take the glare of light from the window. How indignant the other woman looked, puffing her chest like a pouter pigeon. Hysteria nudged about her diaphragm again.
“You’re very harsh all of a sudden. I doubt Olive saw it as degradation. Rather the reverse, I should think.”
“I’m not talking about Olive, my dear, I’m talking about you.
This ape you referred to. He isn’t worth it. Surely you can see that?”
Roz shook with helpless laughter.
“I’m so sorry,” she said at last.
“You must think me incredibly rude. The trouble is I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster for months.” She dabbed at her eyes and blew her nose.
“You must blame Olive for this.
She’s been a godsend. She’s made me feel useful again.”
She saw the polite bewilderment on the other’s face and sighed inwardly. Really, she thought, it was so much
