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.It’s hard evidence you need, dammit.And this just isn’t hard enough.’‘Maybe this is, then,’ Jerry said mildly.‘Seeing it’s been spiked to within an inch of its life.’This time she heard him.‘What?’‘The vodka,’ Jerry said with obvious patience.‘It’s been spiked with absolute alcohol.The sort of trick crazy medical students used to get up to.Only, much, much worse.Anyone drinking even a mouthful of this would have been knocked for six in a matter of minutes.The question is, where did Gus get it from?’28‘Where did I get it from?’ Gus echoed.‘The obvious place.Tony Mendez’s hidey-hole.His locker.I thought, seeing what we’d found in Lally’s, it was the obvious place to start.’He had come back to the flat at shortly after eight, by which time George had had a chance to write up a brief account of her work on the insulin pen and the sandwiches, to attach to the report that Jerry had given her on the vodka.He was barely in the door before she jumped on him with a flurry of questions.‘His locker? Do you mean — Gus, that vodka, according to Jerry’s assays, had enough absolute alcohol in it to kill an ox.’‘Ah!’ He sounded deeply satisfied as he dumped the three plastic bags he was carrying on to the kitchen table.‘Had it, by God! Look, I’ve brought some Chinese to save time over supper.Noodles and the lotus fried rice, some prawns, some chili beef and —’‘Oh, Gus, forget your stomach for once, please!’ She was in a fever of impatience.‘Tell me all about it.Every word.All you can think of.’He sighed a little theatrically.‘I tell you what, you go and make a pot of tea — jasmine’ll be best — and I’ll set this stuff out and we’ll eat it while it’s hot.You know how yuk it is if you have to reheat it.And when I’ve got my chopsticks in my hand I’ll tell you every last detail.I promise.But I need some supper to loosen my tongue.’In this mood there was no arguing with him, she knew, so she scurried around the kitchen making the tea and collecting the little porcelain bowls and matching cups Gus had bought for her last year and insisted on using when he brought in a Chinese takeaway, and the ivory chopsticks he’d stolen years ago from a Soho restaurant that had served him indifferent egg foo yong for which he had reckoned he was entitled to a discount, even if he had to help himself to it.And once they were settled at the kitchen table, perching on high stools, he beamed at her, and with his mouth full of bean sprouts, began to talk at last.‘I went to the operating theatres this morning, complete with a warrant and young Hagerty.Oh, you should have seen his face! The smell of the place put him right off for a start, and when they made us dress up in all the gear before they’d let us in, well, he was one miserable copper.Not that it’s surprising.He looked a real guy in all that green stuff.Me, I looked rather dashing, I thought.Maybe I should have been a surgeon instead of a copper, come to think of it.I’d have pulled a better class of bird then.’He ogled her, expertly filling his mouth with another load of noodles, and then added a large prawn, after which he closed his eyes in ecstasy.‘This is what I call heaven.You can’t beat a nice bit o’ Chinese when you’re in the mood for it, can you?’‘I swear I’ll stick you with one of your own goddamned chopsticks!’ she cried.‘Tell me!’‘I am telling you! OK, we tog up and start looking.It seems there’s this big special changing room in the middle of the unit where they all get into their gear — outdoor clothes have to be plague spots the way they carry on.Everyone has a sort of share of a locker there.Not their very own, you understand.Just enough to put their street clothes in.Then if they need them, there’s a second lot of lockers in an adjoining room, and people can put stuff there that they want to leave all the time.OK, so Tony Mendez is one of the geezers that has a locker all to himself in this other section.’ He shook his head and speared another prawn.‘It’s really amazing to me [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]