Read Online Linger Awhile by Russell Hoban - Free Book Online Page B

getting mad and start getting even.’
    ‘Every woman’s right,’ I said.
    ‘Justine,’ she said, ‘was put together from an image on videotape, yes?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Got any more Justine on tape?’
    ‘Oho!’
    ‘Righty-oh,’ said Grace, and we drank to that.
    ‘But from the video to a walking-around Justine is a whole big project,’ I said, ‘and I have no idea where to start. Do you?’
    ‘No, but I know a man who does and I’ve got keysto his place. All I need is a little time alone in Hermes Soundways and I’ll find his notes. Now that Justine’s up in Golders Green he’ll probably drop in on her and that’s when I’ll do it.’
    ‘OK, say we get the whole thing figured out and we end up with Justine Number Two, have you any idea what to do next?’
    ‘If we build her it will come. When we’ve got her standing in front of us the next thing will make itself known. Do you think you’ll fall in love with this one too?’
    ‘I’ve done that particular folly once already; I’m not likely to do it again. Besides, she’s not as amazing as you are, Grace.’
    ‘You silver-tongued seducer,’ she said, and we retired to the bedroom with the Stolichnaya.
    ‘Don’t ever say you’re not a player,’ said Grace as we freshened our drinks. She’s very gracious.
    ‘Well, I don’t do the full orchestra,’ I said, ‘but if you like chamber music, I’m your man.’
    ‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Grace.
    Mutiny on the Bounty
, the one with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, was on TV that evening and we both enjoyed seeing it yet again. ‘Every now and then,’ I said, ‘I come across some mention of Bligh in the papers where they say he wasn’t all that bad.’
    ‘He was a hell of a navigator,’ said Grace. ‘Thirty-six hundred miles in an overloaded open boat!’
    ‘And he had no charts and there were only about aweek’s rations,’ I said, ‘but he got them all to Timor safely.’
    ‘Well,’ said Grace, ‘he suspended his disbelief and all that remained was the belief that he could do it.’
    ‘Plus his practical knowledge and his seamanship,’ I said. ‘If I had to be cast adrift in that longboat I’d rather have Bligh at the tiller than Fletcher Christian.’
    ‘He was the man,’ said Grace. ‘No doubt about it.’
    All in all, a very pleasant evening and we fell asleep talking about DIY Justines.

22
Detective Inspector Hunter
    18 January 2004. Harry Burke and I were drinking London Pride at The Anchor & Hope by the River Lea. A cold winter evening but we took our pints outside and sat down on a bench under the street lamp to enjoy the peacefulness of it. Across the river a train clattered with its windows all lit. It went over the bridge and the Sunday quiet moved in again behind it. Four murders, two suicides, three rapes and assorted burglaries this past week. Life goes on.
    We didn’t say much for a while, drinking in the quiet with the London Pride. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘we’ve had nothing new in the vampire line.’
    ‘Early days,’ said Burke.
    ‘You’re still expecting another one?’
    ‘You’re the detective, not me. What do
you
think?’
    ‘I think I’d feel a lot better if we could catch whoever killed Rose Harland.’
    ‘Have you made any progress with your suspects?’ He was looking at me the way he looks when he’s waiting for me to catch up with his mental processes.
    ‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘I’m pretty sure Istvan Fallok didn’t kill her.’
    ‘How do you explain his saliva on her jacket?’
    ‘I think you know what’s in my mind about that, don’t you?’
    ‘Maybe,’ said Burke.
    ‘Go on,’ I said, ‘say it.’
    ‘You’re wondering if someone else left Fallok’s saliva on Rose Harland’s jacket?’
    ‘That’s right. How could that have happened?’
    ‘And you’re wondering why Justine Trimble’s saliva on the 10th of January was a match with Chauncey Lim’s?’
    ‘OK, why was it?’
    ‘This is as new to me as it is to