Read Online Carnage on the Committee by Ruth Dudley Edwards - Free Book Online

took a large swig of her martini. 'I get enough of this at St Martha's as it is. It's like Aids. They're all infected. I'm terrified the parrot will hear any of them talk.'
    'It would be vexing, wouldn't it? They'll presumably grow out of it and the lingo will change anyway, but parrots don't adjust to fashion. Imagine him telling the St Martha's Mistress in 2050 that "Like, this is like so totally head-wrecking."'
    She jumped up. 'Lunch time. I fear my head is about to be totally wrecked, so my stomach needs all the nourishment it can get.'
    'I left her,' Amiss told Ellis Pooley several hours later, 'surrounded by novels and crying "Rubbish", with Mary Lou kindly but firmly refusing to allow her to jettison a book until she'd read at least a chapter.'
    'She's wonderful, isn't she?'
    'Your betrothed, I presume you mean? Or were you talking about Jack?'
    The waiter arrived and poured Amiss's wine and Pooley's water. Pooley took a sip, shook his head and looked across at Amiss. 'I get nervous sometimes that it won't work.'
    'So does she. She's not convinced that your father is ready for black grandchildren.'
    'Bugger my father. Anyway he's mad about her. And it's not as if I were the heir.'
    'Quite,' said Amiss. 'It's amazing the compensations there are for being a younger son. But if it's not that, what is it? Different cultures?'
    'Not really. Minnesota and rural England can coexist without too much trouble. It's more the practicalities. She's in Cambridge in a job she loves and I'm in London in one I love just as much and which has antisocial hours. We're always fighting circumstances to have time together. And I keep thinking how Jim and Ann split up. Not to speak of you and Rachel.'
    'Both our relationships died over rows about values rather than clashing timetables, Ellis. Though I admit they didn't help.'
    Pooley looked at him worriedly. 'How are you coping, Robert? You've been at a loose end ever since Rachel left. Do you miss her a lot?'
    'I'm getting over her.'
    'Any other women on the horizon?'
    'My mind is on higher things. Like writing a novel in your favourite genre.'
    'What? You're writing a crime novel?'
    'Having a go. Probably hopeless, but I am rather enjoying it. I've already murdered two ex-colleagues.'
    'What style is it? Cosy? Hard-boiled? And where's it set?'
    'I'm certainly not going to tell an aficionado like you anything about it at this stage, Ellis. You'll get all dreamy about the greats of the past and destroy my confidence.'
    Pooley looked disappointed. 'Oh, all right. I'll wait. Do you expect it to make you any money?'
    'Probably not. Probably won't even get published. But between the remains of the legacy and bits of reasonably lucrative freelance writing, I've enough to keep going for now. And the Warburton pays a few bob, and in theory at least makes me useful contacts.'
    'Good luck. Now, about the murder of Hermione Babcock. You've heard the news?'
    'No. There wasn't anything on the six o'clock bulletin.'
    'It was on the seven o'clock. Just said the police suspected she had been poisoned and probably by ricin.'
    'Oh, God. I shouldn't have switched my phone of.' Amiss reached into his inside pocket.
    'Just hold on a sec, Robert. Before you do anything, let's just be sure you know what you're talking about.'
    'All I'm supposed to know is what the news said. Was there any indication of who you think did it?'
    'None. We've no idea. It's early days, and we've only interviewed her husband, but there's no whiff of a motive.'
    'I hope to God it wasn't connected with the Warburton. I know Jack takes these things lightly, but I wouldn't like to think I was putting her in danger.'
    'She'd do it to you without a thought.'
    'True. But that's because she thinks we're invincible. Which I don't. However, there's no point in even thinking like that. We are where we are. I'd better alert her.'
    'It's OK. When I couldn't get through to you, I rang her and warned her to expect an avalanche of calls. She said the