Bored already.
Will keep you updated.
Urgh...!
DOREEN:
I had to send Baker and Ducat home – sick.
Need more bodies!!!
Need to call off search.
Need HOLIDAY!
Yeah, she was probably right. If Charles MacGarioch’s body had washed up on the riverbanksurelythey’d have found it by now.
The final message on the list was from an unknown number:
Hi. I was thinking ~> you only have those old pics of Charlie right? In the paper they’re all ancient.
Got a couple from drinks last week. Attch:
Which means the unknown number was probably Randolph ‘I go by Ralph’ Hay.
He’d attached a couple of jpegs, but the internet was running like a three-legged sloth, so they’d be a while downloading.
They were still chugging away when the door to the Yellow Zone opened, and Tara and Elizabeth escaped from Dr Buchan’s pus-coloured lair.
Tara closed the door behind her, slumped against it, then narrowed her eyes at Logan. ‘Yourottensod.’
‘Duty called.’ He held up his phone. ‘Literally.’
‘We’re going to have to get a piano, aren’t we.’
Elizabeth skipped on the spot. ‘Dr Buchan’s what Aunty Roberta would call “a—”’
‘Oh no you don’t, young lady.’ Logan shook a warning ‘dad’ finger at her. ‘We’re not having that kind of language in an educational setting.’
Those pictures werestilldownloading.
He glanced at the coloured doors. ‘How many of these spudging things have we still got to go?’
‘Millions...’
‘No, Mum,’ Elizabeth frowned up at her, ‘only Drama, Art, History, and Computer Science.’
‘Is it too late to put you up for adoption?’
A shrug. ‘Probably.’
Logan’s phone bleeped, announcing that the attachments were finally ready to view. ‘OK, but I can only stay fifteen minutes: got Rennie and Tufty waiting outside.’
Tara gave himherversion of the Paddington Stare, which had far more of the homicidal Father Jack about it.
He raised a hand. ‘Unless youwantmurderers running about the city, murdering people in a murdery way?’
She rolled her eyes instead. ‘Fine.’