A City of Strangers (30 page)

That afternoon Carol Southgate and Bob McEvoy had a date to go back to Bob's flat. Bob said he had had enough of braving the evil eye of Daphne Bridewell, but both of them knew he meant that he did not wish to go to bed with Carol for the first time with the evil eye of Daphne Bridewell hovering in the upstairs regions. Carol, in fact, heartily agreed. They began the walk still talking over the events of their day, really thinking about something else altogether.

“Miss Southgate! Mr. McEvoy!”

They turned and saw Michael Phelan darting out of the school gates, anorak half on and half off, and hair disheveled in properly schoolboy fashion.

“Mr. McEvoy, when did you say the auditions were for the school play?”

“December the first. The day after Speech Day.”

“Right. Do you think I'll be all right at Speech Day?”

“You'll be fine. If you don't get nerves.”

“I don't
think
I'll get nerves.”

“And there are auditions in January for
Saint Joan.
That'll be for all the schools in Sleate, but there's a jolly good part for a younger boy.”

“Well, I'll try for that too.”

“No problems at home now?”

“Well, not about that. I'll just tell my Mum. My Dad would have kicked up a fuss, but I don't suppose my Mum will be interested.”

“Isn't she out of hospital today?” Carol asked.

“That's right. That's our new home, over there.” He pointed to the Snowcroft Estate, where brick houses identical to those on the Belfield Grove Estate stretched out from the main road. “We'll be practically sleeping on the floor, and eating off it too, but I suppose we'll manage. I'd best go home now and see what's she's been doing.” He grinned with a touch of self-derision. “I suppose you realize I'm the man of the household now? How about that!”

He raised his arm in farewell and ran off. They stood watching as he kicked a can along the gutter, weaved his way through traffic across the road, looked back at them in a frankly salacious way to see if they were holding hands, then danced off into the Snowcroft Estate, through the cans and the chocolate wrappings and the pizza cartons, dodging the strays and crunching on broken glass, touched by God's grace or explained by the theories of educationalists, racing forward to a future of normality, decency, and niceness almost beyond human comprehension.

They watched him till he was out of sight. Then they turned and resumed their walk up the hill.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Death of a Salesperson

Death and the Chaste Apprentice

At Death's Door

The Skeleton in the Grass

The Cherry Blossom Corpse

Bodies

Political Suicide

Fête Fatale

Out of the Blackout

Corpse in a Gilded Cage

School for Murder

The Case of the Missing Brontë

A Little Local Murder

Death and the Princess

Death by Sheer Torture

Death in a Cold Climate

Death of a Perfect Mother

Death of a Literary Widow

Death of a Mystery Writer

Blood Brotherhood

Death on the High C's

Death of an Old Goat

Robert Barnard (1936-2013) was awarded the Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement and the Nero Wolfe Award, as well as the Agatha and Macavity awards. An eight-time Edgar nominee, he was a member of Britain's distinguished Detection Club, and, in May 2003, he received the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement in mystery writing. His most recent novel,
Charitable Body
, was published by Scribner in 2012.

C
OPYRIGHT
© 1990
BY
R
OBERT
B
ARNARD

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

Scribner

Simon & Schuster

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

ISBN: 978-1-4767-3397-5

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Christopher Lin