Murder... Now and Then Read Free Page B

asked, as he arrived.
    Catherine nodded briefly.
    â€˜Who the hell are you?’ Max demanded, still breathless, still holding on to her.
    â€˜Detective Sergeant Finch, Stansfield CID.’ Finch showed Max his ID. ‘Let’s cool it mate – all right? Let the lady go.’
    Max looked as though he might start on the policeman, but he swallowed hard, and let her go.
    â€˜That’s better,’ said Finch. ‘Now – name and address.’
    â€˜What the hell for?’
    â€˜Because I’m asking you for it!’ shouted Finch. ‘And if you refuse to give me it, I’ll have you down the nick in no time flat – all right?’
    â€˜Max Scott,’ he said, through his teeth. ‘Seventeen Garrick Drive. This is my wife, and this is a private matter.’
    â€˜Then maybe you should try talking about it, whatever it is.’
    â€˜I can’t very well do that with you standing there,’ Max said, his voice still a low, almost whispered monotone.
    Finch looked at Catherine, who nodded.
    Finch backed off a little. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘But I’ve warned you – keep your hands to yourself. And you call us if you need us, love,’ he added to Catherine. He walked off, back to wherever he had come from.
    As soon as he was out of sight, Max pushed her bodily through the open fire door back into the building, his anger unabated. ‘You and I are going back in there,’ he said, his hands gripping her arms.
    She shook her head.
    â€˜Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘We’ll see this thing through. Then I’m getting you home.’
    She found herself being propelled back along the corridor to reception, his hand clamped around her wrist like a handcuff. His fingers dug into her as he took another deep breath, and pushed his way back into the room through the gathering, his grip on her growing even tighter as Victor Holyoak’s speech began.
    â€˜I had a very special reason for wanting to move not only back to Britain, where I belong, but to Stansfield …’
    The voice came to her in waves of nausea and giddiness; fading away, coming back.
    â€˜â€¦ already had a toehold with the admirable operation set up by Jimmy Driver and carried on so ably by his widow, in which I had the foresight to buy shares …’
    Blackness gathered at the corners of her vision, and she seemed to float away from it all.
    â€˜â€¦ may come as news to some of you that my new general manager’s wife Catherine is in fact my stepdaughter who has sadly been estranged from her family, but now …’
    Catherine heard the startled applause; she saw the stunned look on Zelda’s face. Her body weight tore her hand from Max’s grasp as she fell to the floor.
    Holyoak’s eyes had been on his stepdaughter as he spoke; he broke off as she slipped to the ground, then walked over, pushing through the crowd that had immediately gathered round her.
    â€˜Get out of the way!’ he shouted. ‘ How do you expect her to breathe?’
    Geraldine Rule was pushing through from the other side; Holyoak watched as she knelt down. Catherine hadn’t looked well – he’d noticed that when he came in, before she’d had to rush out of the room. And her cheeks were flushed; she had probably been sick. She had always been highly strung, and she was bound to be nervous.
    â€˜It’s all right,’ said Geraldine, helping her into a sitting position, and pushing her head down. ‘She’s only fainted.’
    Holyoak nodded. He had known that it would be an ordeal for her, and hadn’t expected her to come to the opening, but Scott had presumably insisted.
    Geraldine helped her to her feet. There was a brief hiatus while everyone expected Scott to come to her, but he didn’t. He just stood tight lipped and unmoving, and watched while Charles Rule went to help.
    â€˜Here,’ Holyoak said, digging in his pocket