Read Online The Death Chamber by Sarah Rayne - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sarah Rayne
Ads: Link
Chad merely said, ‘I expect you’d prefer to sit in the front, wouldn’t you?’ opened the car door and left Jude to find his own way in,
and grapple with the seat belt by himself. Then he said, ‘Are you set to go? The journey’s a good five hours, although once we’re clear of London quite a lot of it’s
motorway. I thought we’d stop off for some lunch about halfway, and we’ll probably reach the destination about five. Is that all right with you?’
‘Fine.’
‘I usually have a tape on while I’m driving,’ said Chad, and Jude felt the movement as he reached forward to slot a cassette into the tape deck.
‘That suits me. I shan’t have to listen to the other drivers sounding their horns when you cut them up. I suppose you still drive as badly as ever.’ He listened for
Chad’s reaction to this, and was absurdly pleased when he picked up a ruffle of amusement. This sensing of other people’s responses and emotions was not something he could do with
everyone and it really only worked if it was someone with whom he was properly in tune, but he was getting better at it. He was sufficiently pleased at picking up Chad’s amusement to say,
‘I won’t probe for clues about the destination because that might spoil your experiment, but I already think we’re travelling north.’
‘Why do you say that? Magnetic pull of the north pole or something?’
‘No, the timing’ said Jude. ‘If we drove for five hours due south or east we’d end up in the English Channel or the North Sea.’
‘Holmes, my dear fellow, you never cease to amaze me. But how d’you know we aren’t going due west? Into Cornwall or Devon.’
‘We might be, but I don’t think so. I don’t care where we’re going, anyway. It’s just a pity five hours isn’t long enough to take us into Scotland.’
‘Why the sudden yearning for Scotland?’
‘Single malt, dear boy. I may be blind, but I can still drink you under the table.’
‘And have done so on several occasions. We’ll put it to the test when this is over,’ said Chad. ‘I liked your new flat, by the way.’
‘Mortgaged up to the hilt,’ said Jude carelessly, but he was pleased because finding and buying the lease of the big airy flat in Little Venice had been difficult, and then
furnishing it without knowing what he was buying or how the rooms looked, had been bitterly frustrating. ‘I’ve only been there for three months but it costs the absolute earth, in fact
I suspect the bailiffs are already gathering, and— God Almighty! what’s just thundered past?’
‘A juggernaut.’
‘Are you sure that’s all it was? It felt more like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or at the very least a herd of Valkyries. Listen, would you mind not playing hopscotch with
pantechnicons? I don’t much care if you prang your car, but there’re six bottles of wine on the back seat, to say nothing of two jars of caviar, and I’d like them all to arrive
intact.’
At first sight, the deed boxes with their printed legend of
Kane
on the lid did not appear to contain anything of very much interest. Georgina, curled up on the floor,
meticulously sifting papers, thought that Walter, rather than becoming clearer, seemed to be getting more obscure.
There was some correspondence about a house he had bought in the early 1950s a few miles outside Lucerne; most of this was in German, but Georgina managed to make out a few phrases of what
appeared to be the Swiss equivalent of an estate agent’s advertisement, from which it seemed that the house had been attractive and had lovely views and lush gardens. This could probably be
taken with a pinch of salt, and stripped of estate agent’s language it might just as easily have been a poky cowshed or directly under a ski-lift mechanism.
His daughter, Georgina’s grandmother, did not seem to be mentioned anywhere. Why? Was it simply that nothing about her had found its way into the boxes?
But after a time a faint
and grapple with the seat belt by himself. Then he said, ‘Are you set to go? The journey’s a good five hours, although once we’re clear of London quite a lot of it’s
motorway. I thought we’d stop off for some lunch about halfway, and we’ll probably reach the destination about five. Is that all right with you?’
‘Fine.’
‘I usually have a tape on while I’m driving,’ said Chad, and Jude felt the movement as he reached forward to slot a cassette into the tape deck.
‘That suits me. I shan’t have to listen to the other drivers sounding their horns when you cut them up. I suppose you still drive as badly as ever.’ He listened for
Chad’s reaction to this, and was absurdly pleased when he picked up a ruffle of amusement. This sensing of other people’s responses and emotions was not something he could do with
everyone and it really only worked if it was someone with whom he was properly in tune, but he was getting better at it. He was sufficiently pleased at picking up Chad’s amusement to say,
‘I won’t probe for clues about the destination because that might spoil your experiment, but I already think we’re travelling north.’
‘Why do you say that? Magnetic pull of the north pole or something?’
‘No, the timing’ said Jude. ‘If we drove for five hours due south or east we’d end up in the English Channel or the North Sea.’
‘Holmes, my dear fellow, you never cease to amaze me. But how d’you know we aren’t going due west? Into Cornwall or Devon.’
‘We might be, but I don’t think so. I don’t care where we’re going, anyway. It’s just a pity five hours isn’t long enough to take us into Scotland.’
‘Why the sudden yearning for Scotland?’
‘Single malt, dear boy. I may be blind, but I can still drink you under the table.’
‘And have done so on several occasions. We’ll put it to the test when this is over,’ said Chad. ‘I liked your new flat, by the way.’
‘Mortgaged up to the hilt,’ said Jude carelessly, but he was pleased because finding and buying the lease of the big airy flat in Little Venice had been difficult, and then
furnishing it without knowing what he was buying or how the rooms looked, had been bitterly frustrating. ‘I’ve only been there for three months but it costs the absolute earth, in fact
I suspect the bailiffs are already gathering, and— God Almighty! what’s just thundered past?’
‘A juggernaut.’
‘Are you sure that’s all it was? It felt more like the four horsemen of the apocalypse, or at the very least a herd of Valkyries. Listen, would you mind not playing hopscotch with
pantechnicons? I don’t much care if you prang your car, but there’re six bottles of wine on the back seat, to say nothing of two jars of caviar, and I’d like them all to arrive
intact.’
At first sight, the deed boxes with their printed legend of
Kane
on the lid did not appear to contain anything of very much interest. Georgina, curled up on the floor,
meticulously sifting papers, thought that Walter, rather than becoming clearer, seemed to be getting more obscure.
There was some correspondence about a house he had bought in the early 1950s a few miles outside Lucerne; most of this was in German, but Georgina managed to make out a few phrases of what
appeared to be the Swiss equivalent of an estate agent’s advertisement, from which it seemed that the house had been attractive and had lovely views and lush gardens. This could probably be
taken with a pinch of salt, and stripped of estate agent’s language it might just as easily have been a poky cowshed or directly under a ski-lift mechanism.
His daughter, Georgina’s grandmother, did not seem to be mentioned anywhere. Why? Was it simply that nothing about her had found its way into the boxes?
But after a time a faint
Similar Books
