Battle for Inspector West Read Free

out of the window, and a feeling of security and contentment spread over Christine, and with it a kind of breathless wonder that he had fallen in love with her.
    â€˜What time’s dinner?’ she asked abruptly. ‘I’ll unpack, then—’
    â€˜We’ll share all chores,’ Grant said firmly. ‘Not that there’s much to do.’ He opened her case, and saw that it was packed to overflowing. ‘Rather more than one dinner-dress,’ he said dryly. ‘Can I hang anything up?’
    â€˜I’ll do the dresses,’ she said, and crossed to the wardrobe, gay and light-hearted, and opened the door.
    She screamed!
    Grant sprang to her, and saw in a flash what had frightened her. Hanging inside the wardrobe was a face – a cardboard face, swinging gently from the movement of the door; the face of a grinning Chinaman.
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Chapter Two
Pink Mr Prendergast
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    Christine, trembling helplessly, saw that the face was life-size, and so skilfully painted that at first glimpse it looked almost real. It was fastened by a loop of string to a clothes-hanger. Grant took it down. Closer inspection showed that it was not really a Chinaman’s face, or even Oriental, but it had the set grin which they had seen on the face of the man in the Mercedes. Even a lock of dark hair, falling over the forehead, was there.
    Grant put an arm about Christine’s waist.
    â€˜I’m so sorry about this, darling. So terribly sorry, I thought this place was absolutely safe.’
    Christine couldn’t speak.
    â€˜At least I prepared you a little,’ Grant said.
    She moistened her lips.
    â€˜Yes, you did. I—I shall be all right in a minute.’
    He pulled her towards him and gave her a hug which made her gasp.
    â€˜Now I know what a bear-hug is,’ she said breathlessly, and tried to be bright, making herself remember that it would be folly to try to make him tell her more; his confidence must come freely. ‘This is an awfully bad start to our married life, Mike.’
    â€˜It’s damnable, I know, but—’
    â€˜I mean, you’ve made such an awful flop of arrangements,’ Christine said hurriedly. ‘I don’t so much mind Chin-chin Chinaman, but to think that you made all these plans to prevent him from finding out where we’d be, yet he was here ahead of us. It’s shocking bad staff-work.’
    â€˜Hum-hum-hum,’ murmured Grant. ‘Yes. If I weren’t desperately in love with you already, I’d start right now.’ How that did her heart good, another great reward for patience. ‘You didn’t tell me that you had nerves of iron and a pretty wit at times of crisis. Yes, I made plans which I thought were foolproof. Yes, I did know he was back. It was a question of letting Chin-chin put a spanner in the works and postponing the wedding until he was rendered harmless, or pretending that he didn’t exist and hoping that he would have the sense to keep out of the limelight. It’s only a week or two since I knew he was back in England, and you know what these gossips are. Imagine them whispering: “ And he practically left her at the church, m’dear. ”’He gave a little bitter laugh. ‘Can’t you hear them?’
    â€˜Yes, I think I can. Mike, don’t look like that! If there’s a thing I’m quite sure about, it’s your love for me. Of course, I wish you’d felt that you could have told me about this before, but—’
    â€˜But you wouldn’t have had half so much fun a-trousseauing,’ protested Grant, ‘and you’d have been looking all about you in church and not listening to the parson, imagining some slant-eyed villain standing among the crowd outside, preparing to do violence.’
    â€˜I suppose you’re right,’ Christine conceded. It was good to think that he had kept this back for her sake, not his own.
    â€˜Let’s try to