Dance of Death Read Free

that you did your job well and that I said so.’
    Bench rallied and straightened his shoulders.
    ‘Thank you, sir.’

CHAPTER THREE
    War had come as a rude interruption to Alice Marmion’s career in education. Having trained as a teacher, and found a school she loved working at, she began to feel guilty that she was doing so little to help the war effort. As the conflict wore on, and as British casualties reached frightening numbers, Alice decided to abandon her pupils in order to join the Women’s Emergency Corps, one of the many organisations that had been formed in response to the national crisis. It was hard work that demanded long hours and confronted her with all manner of challenges. Instead of teaching young children in the safety and comfort of a classroom, Alice was out and about in all weathers, driving a lorry, repairing the engine when it broke down, unloading supplies or finding accommodation for the Belgian refugees who flooded into the country. Satisfying as it was, the work lacked a component that she sought and the only place she believed that she could find it was in the Women’s Police Service. Accordingly, she followed her father – and Joe Keedy – into uniform and, even though women were not involved in detective work, she at least had the illusion of carrying on the family tradition established by Harvey Marmion and his own father before him.
    Keedy had often complained to her about the frustration of beingat the beck and call of an overbearing superintendent and she understood his predicament only too well because she had her own version of Claude Chatfield to endure. Inspector Thelma Gale was a stout woman in her forties, with short hair brushed back from her forehead and held in a tight bun and defiantly plain features routinely distorted by a frown of disapproval. She seemed to take offence at the fact that Alice was slim, lithe, above average height and decidedly pretty. The inspector made no attempt to hide her resentment at the younger woman’s privileged position with regard to Scotland Yard. While the duties of the Women’s Police Force were strictly limited in scope, Alice had easy access to two detectives engaged in major investigations. It was a sore point with Thelma Gale.
    ‘What’s your father working on at the moment?’ she asked.
    ‘I don’t know, Inspector. I haven’t seen him for days.’
    ‘Sergeant Keedy will have kept you abreast of developments, surely.’
    ‘You’re quite wrong,’ said Alice, firmly. ‘We spend so little time together that we never waste it talking about a case he may be working on. Apart from anything else, it’s none of my business.’
    ‘That’s certainly true.’
    ‘I never ask and I’m never told.’
    ‘Come, come,’ teased the other, ‘you don’t expect me to believe that, do you?’
    ‘You can believe what you wish, Inspector,’ said Alice, anxious to get off a subject that cropped up so regularly. ‘I concentrate on my own duties. They keep me fully occupied.’
    ‘And so they should.’
    It was strange. The inspector was seated behind the desk in her office yet Alice had the feeling that the other woman was somehow loomingover her. Such was the force of her personality that Thelma Gale seemed to fill the room. Alice was eager to get well out of her reach.
    ‘With whom will I be working today, Inspector?’ she asked.
    ‘I’ve assigned a new recruit to you.’
    ‘Oh, I see.’
    ‘Though I have grave reservations about your abilities,’ said the other, getting in one of her customary digs at Alice, ‘I have no choice but to put you in charge of her. Show her the ropes and make sure that you don’t pass on any of your bad habits.’
    Alice bit back a reply. It was her usual response to the inspector’s goading. There was, in any case, no time for her to defend herself against the undeserved criticism because there was a timid knock on the door and it opened to reveal a chubby young woman with a hopeful