Read Online Murder in the Telephone Exchange by June Wright - Free Book Online

voice.
    A Departmental car was at the kerb. Mac and I got into the back, while Clark slipped into the driver’s seat.
    â€œHome, James,” I murmured, leaning back and closing my eyes.
    Clark let in the clutch, and swung the car around in a big semicircle.
    â€œListen, you two lasses,” he said presently, driving swiftly through the deserted streets, “you’re coming to my flat for five minutes before you go home. I want to give you a dose of medicine that’ll fix your night’s rest.”
    â€œI’ve already been advised aspirin,” I said, without opening my eyes. “What’s your prescription, Clark?”
    â€œAspirin!” he said scornfully. “Who said that? The flatfoot who poured water all over you? Just you wait and see what I’ve got for you, my children.”
    â€œI must say I’d be glad of something stronger than aspirin,” Mac remarked, with a faint smile.
    â€œAll-in, Gerda?” asked Clark, glancing at her in the mirror over his head.
    â€œJust about. What about you, Maggie?”
    â€œI’ll make that five minutes, but no more. You must be rather fagged yourself,” I added to Clark. I could only see his profile but guessed he was frowning.
    â€œYou’re quite right,” he replied briefly over his shoulder, and then remarked on what was uppermost in our minds. “What a hell of a business!”
    â€œPerfectly bloody,” I agreed with accuracy.
    â€œShut up, Maggie,” said Mac, with a shudder. “Don’t be so callous.”
    â€œI’m not,” I protested. “It’s just that if I let go one minute I’ll have hysterics, or something equally idiotic.”
    â€œDon’t repeat your fainting act,” said Clark with a grin. “I think I’d be even clumsier at reviving you than our friend, the Sergeant.”
    â€œWhat happened exactly? I know that I went off into a genteel swoon, while Mac was yelling like mad for you. Then I came to after some time to find two strange men ministering to me. Don’t tell me that you let me stay unconscious until the police arrived without doing something!”
    â€œNo,” said Mac, smiling faintly again at the recollection. “He pushed you aside from the door, so as you wouldn’t be in the way.”
    â€œWhat!” I cried, leaning over the driver’s seat. “I’ll get even with you for this, John Clarkson.”
    He put up one hand to pat my check. “Sorry, my sweet. But what else could I do? Besides you in a swoon, as you term it, Gerda was still yelling her head off, trying to explain what had happened.”
    â€œI was speaking quite clearly,” interrupted Mac, “but you were saying ‘what’ so many times that I thought you couldn’t hear me.”
    We were turning off the highway into South Yarra, as Clark spoke jerkily: “It was rather difficult to grasp the situation.”
    â€œYou were great, John,” said Mac in a soft voice. “As soon as he saw Sarah was—what had happened, he pulled me out of the room and locked the door. By the way, you’ll be interested to know that the key was in the lock on the inside. John carried you into the sick-bay, while I went back to the trunkroom to ring the police. They arrived in less than no time.John had to deal with the situation alone, as I was being violently ill in the washroom.”
    â€œI’m glad that it affected you in some way, and that I wasn’t the only weak-kneed person.” We had drawn up outside a block of flats, and Clark said as he got out of the car: “I wasn’t so marvellous. I nearly followed Gerda’s example a couple of times. In fact I wish you’d shut up about it until I have that medicine.”
    I had been in Clark’s flat several times, but never by myself. That was one of the many things I liked about him; in spite of his air of a gay Lothario, he was, in the