Zorilla At Large! Read Free

negated Miller’s notion and assured them if there was an animal in that room, his team would have stumbled across it by now. He said he would send his full report, nodded farewell to Brough and went back to finish his job.
    Wheeler sneered in disdain. “Hoi, Casa-buggering-nova, isn’t a film star fuck buddy enough for you?”
    Brough blushed beneath his tan.
    â€œRight,” Wheeler addressed the team as a whole. “Brough, Miller, you stay here. Talk to people: hotel manager, night porter, chambermaids, even the fucking paper boy. I want a full picture of what happened since Doctor Whojimmyflop checked in, right up until he... checked out. You two,” she stabbed a finger at Pattimore and Stevens, “You two am going on a skunk hunt.”
    â€œWhat did you call me?” Stevens bristled.
    â€œI said ‘skunk hunt’,” said Wheeler deliberately.
    Stevens groaned. “Make it a beaver hunt and you’ve got a deal.”
    â€œI’m not in the fucking mood,” Wheeler snapped. “Perhaps you can twiddle your porn-star moustache and entice that thing out of hiding then, while it’s fucking your fucking fuck face, Pattimore can chuck a bag over it.”
    â€œYes, Chief,” said Pattimore brightly, earning himself a sharp jab in the ribs from Stevens’s elbow.
    â€œAnd me, Chief?” Harry Henry stood blinking. He wore the hopeful expression of a boy scout during bob-a-job week.
    â€œYou, Harry,” Wheeler gave him a smile that would not have been out of place on an inmate in the zoo’s house of reptiles, “are going to get your picture in the papers. I want you at that photo opportunity, keeping an eye on that second fucking skunk. Make sure His Worship the fucking Mayor doesn’t come to no harm.”
    She reached up and patted Harry Henry’s face.
    â€œThat’s not fair,” Stevens complained. His moustache curled like a petulant caterpillar. “Why can’t I get my picture in the papers?”
    â€œBecause Benny-boy,” Wheeler rounded on him, “Of all of us, Harry is the only one qualified to go undercover on this one.”
    â€œEh?” said Stevens.
    â€œBecause he’s black, you plum,” said Brough. “Or don’t your detective skills extend far enough for you to notice?”
    â€œI don’t get it,” said Harry Henry.
    â€œChief wants you undercover as a member of Doctor Kabungo’s African contingent. Am I right, Chief?”
    â€œYeah,” said Wheeler, although she might have gone with ‘tribe’ rather than ‘contingent’ - at least she didn’t break out a can of boot polish for Brough, her top undercover man.
    â€œI still don’t get it,” said Harry Henry. “I’m from Tipton.”
    â€œJesus Christ,” said Wheeler. “You’re to stand in for the dead doctor. Only don’t tell them he’s dead. Say he’s ill, if you have to. Just shake the Mayor by the hand and smile sweetly for the photographers.”
    â€œOh,” said Harry Henry. He shuffled away but Brough jogged after him.
    â€œHarry!” he clapped an arm around his colleague’s shoulder. “Might I ask you something?”
    â€œI suppose.”
    â€œWhen you came in this morning and saw the screen, you recognised the animal right away, didn’t you? None of us had ever heard of one before but you knew what it was called. How on Earth...?”
    Harry Henry grinned. It was not often his knowledge was superior to that of Detective Inspector David Brough.
    â€œYou’re not married, are you, David?”
    â€œNo...” Brough was baffled by the question. “You know I’m not.”
    â€œYou see, David, sometimes a married couple have to do certain things together to keep the fun alive.”
    â€œOh, God...” Brough paled - even with that tan - fearing Harry Henry was about to reveal there was a