Hire Me a Hearse (23 page)

‘Miss Hill has lived for some time past in the West Indies, where she won a trophy for water-skiing. She is not a career woman.

‘ ‘I shall endeavour to be a career wife,' she told friends recently. ‘I consider that a good vocation for any woman who takes marriage seriously, as I do.'

‘It is understood Mr Truncard met Miss Hill some years before the notorious Haven Bang.

‘ ‘It wasn't a case of love at first sight,' he confided. ‘More a case, perhaps, of love by second sight.'

‘The happy couple laughed as though enjoying a secret joke. They did not
explain on whom.'

Hazard took out his cigarettes, chose one with great care and studied it closely before deciding to light it.

‘You don't even get one guess at another name for Winifred Hill,' he told Drury through a cloud of smoke.

Drury nodded ponderously. Hazard's brows shot up.

‘You're not amused. You even look disappointed, and you've always been a strong advocate of marriage as a social institution to keep down the crime rate, although I doubt whether that was why you got married.'

Drury turned a blank stare on him.

‘I'm puzzled by that bit about second sight. Second sight of what?'

Bill Hazard was suddenly doubled over, trying to cough up a mouthful of smoke that had gone several wrong ways at the same time.

Piers Marlow
is one of the pen names of Leonard Reginald Gribble (1908–1985), a prolific English crime writer born in Barnstaple, Devon. In 1953 he was a founding member of the Crime Writers Association. He wrote thrillers, crime and mystery novels as well as non-fiction on criminology.

Discover books by Piers Marlowe published by Bloomsbury Reader at
www.bloomsbury.com/PiersMarlowe

Cash My Chips, Croupier
Hire Me a Hearse
Killer in the Shade

For copyright reasons, any images not belonging to the original author have been removed from this book. The text has not been changed, and may still contain references to missing images.

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Reader

Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP

First published in Great Britain in 1968 by Robert Hale Limited

Copyright © 1968 Piers Marlowe

All rights reserved You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

eISBN: 9781448214495

Visit
www.bloomsburyreader.com
to find out more about our authors and their books You will find extracts, author interviews, author events and you can
sign up for newsletters
to be the first to hear about our latest releases and special offers.