Read Online Fitzrovia Twilight (Nick Valentine Book 1) by James White - Free Book Online

room to stand next to the man, looking bored already.
                  “Okay, you heard her. Or am I going to have to start shooting?”
                  “I already told her; I was hired by a friend of Ramona’s to look into her death. They didn’t think the police would take it so seriously, Ramona being the kind of girl she was.”
                  “And what kind of girl was that, Mr Valentine?” asked Lucia.
                  Nick gestured around the room. “The kind with a married lover and a love nest. Look, I don’t know who you people are or what your connection is, but I’m guessing that you killed her. Why?”
                  The man smiled. It was a cruel twisting of the mouth and Nick noticed his thin lips. “We didn’t kill her, but like you we are anxious to know who did. Ramona had something of value, something that she’d taken from us and we’d very much like it back.”
                  Nick let his surprise show while his mind raced. “And I thought you were the light-fingered lady,” he said to Lucia.
    She ignored him.
    “What did she take?”
                  “You ask a lot of questions for a man with a gun pointed at him.”
                  “It might be my last chance,” smiled Nick. He held out his hand. “May I?” He nodded at the bottle. Lucia passed it to him with a despairing shake of the head.
                  “Why did you scare the Brigadier away like that?” the German asked.
                  “I figure he didn’t kill her and I didn’t want him mixed up in it. Like I said, I’ve just been asked to find out what happened.”
                  “And have you found out?”
                  “No, but I’m getting a good idea. She was playing the Brigadier, she stole something from you.” He shrugged. “Maybe she had form and she stole something from someone that didn’t like it who got to her before you did. Either way, I know enough to know that I’m out of this. I like my life and I don’t want to end up as the next body.” He took a swig from the bottle, subtly sliding his thighs closer to the end of the bed as he did so.
                  The man looked at him through narrowed eyes. “You didn’t find anything here?”
                  “Like what?”
                  “Anything!” barked the man.
                  “No, no I didn’t.”
                  “Stand up!”
                  Nick wearily got to his feet.
                  “Search him.”
    Lucia looked surprised at the man’s command and with a resigned sigh, moved to Nick and started rummaging through his pockets and patting him down. The scent from her hair was driving him crazy, the proximity of her body, those hands on him.
                  “I kind of like this,” he quipped.
    She stepped back and gave him a slap hard across the face.
                  “Nothing.” She petulantly folded her arms and glared at him. “Are you going to kill him?”
    Nick held his breath.
                  “No, murders are too inconvenient.”
                  Nick silently thanked God for German efficiency.
                  “He is unimportant.” The man lowered the gun. “You can leave, only on the understanding that you leave this case now and that I do not see you again. Do we have an understanding?”
    Nick slowly shuffled round the man and was about to answer but saw the man’s gaze flick past him to the bureau, and to the wireless and gramophone, the only undamaged items on the room. Lucia was just off to his right side. In the blink of an eye, he whipped the bottle up and smashed it against the German man’s head, sending him crashing to the floor. The gun flew out the man’s hand and onto the bed, with Lucia diving in quick