Skeleton Hill Read Free Page A

are built that way. It doesn’t stop me doing my job. So why don’t you sign me off and call in the next guy?’
    ‘I can’t do that.’
    ‘Why not?’
    This doctor wasn’t completely cowed. ‘Unless you take your state of health more seriously, it may not be just your job you lose.’
    Diamond picked up his shirt. ‘Are you telling me I’m ill?’
    ‘Unfit is a more accurate term.’
    ‘And we all know what happened to the man who wrote that famous book on jogging.’
    ‘I wouldn’t suggest you take up jogging, Mr Diamond, not in your present condition. Some sensible eating would be a start.’
    ‘Don’t go there,’ Diamond warned him.
    But the doctor was back on the attack. ‘A brisk walk at least once a day. Do you drive to work?’
    ‘I live in Weston, over a mile away.’
    ‘Ideal.’
    ‘I don’t have the time to walk.’
    ‘Get up earlier. Do you live alone?’
    ‘These days, yes.’
    ‘Then you won’t disturb anyone by setting the alarm.’
    ‘Didn’t I make myself clear? I don’t need you to tell me how to run my life.’
    ‘You need somebody, Mr Diamond. That’s my job.’
    ‘Are you going to sign that certificate?’
    ‘With misgivings.’ The doctor picked up his pen.
    Diamond should have left it there. Instead, he asked, ‘Why didn’t they send the regular man? Hold on, I don’t mean regular in your understanding of the word. The doc we’ve seen for years, about my own age, who I sometimes meet in the Crown & Anchor?’ ‘He died.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘Heart. He didn’t look after himself.’
    Difficult to top that. ‘Well, at least he had warm hands.’
    The doctor looked over his half-glasses. ‘Not any more.’
    Back with his team, still buttoning his shirt, he said, ‘Passed.’
    ‘With flying colours?’ Halliwell asked.
    ‘With misgivings.’
    ‘Miss who?’
    ‘He’s not the quack we usually get. Looks fifteen years old, just qualified, out to make an impression.’
    ‘He didn’t impress you?’
    ‘That’s putting it mildly. How about you? Have you been in yet?’
    ‘Next but one.’ An anxious look crossed Halliwell’s features. ‘It’s just pulse and blood pressure, isn’t it?’
    ‘That’s what I thought, until . . .’
    Halliwell’s eyes were like port-holes. ‘Until what?’
    ‘He put on the surgical glove.’
    ‘He’s kidding,’ John Leaman said. ‘Can’t you see the grin?’
    Diamond switched to Leaman. ‘So when’s yours?’
    ‘I’m excused. They gave me a medical at Bramshill when I did the weapons training.’
    Diamond rolled his eyes. Typical, somehow, that Leaman should escape. ‘You can hold the fort, then. I need some lunch after what I’ve been through.’
    Still nettled by the young doctor, he asked for extra chips with his burger. ‘I just passed my medical,’ he told Cressida in the canteen. ‘While I’m at it, I’ll have an extra spoonful of beans.’
    ‘Building up your strength?’ she said, smiling.
    ‘It’s a good principle. In my job, you never know what’s round the next corner.’
    ‘Could be a nice young lady, Mr D.’
    ‘I’ll need the strength, then.’
    ‘If you like I’ll spread the word among the girls that you passed your medical.’
    His romantic prospects were fair game. The kitchen girls knew about his friendship with Paloma Kean. What they didn’t know was how much he missed his murdered wife Steph.
    He paid, picked up his cutlery and looked for a table, always a tricky decision. If he joined other people, they would be lower ranks and uncomfortable in the presence of a superintendent, but an empty table left him vulnerable to Georgina, the Assistant Chief Constable. Many a burger and chips had been ruined by Georgina arriving with her salad and some sharp questions about the way he was running his department.
    A face from the past looked up from a newspaper, not a face to be recalled with much affection, yet not easy to ignore. A Lord Kitchener moustache flecked with silver. Brown,