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.'Chubby?' echoed Fitz, shaking his head.'Poor sod.''He was last seen at a club in Mercer Street we believe you frequent,'added Spotty.'I "frequent" a lot of clubs,' said Fitz, making it clear he resented the allegation.'Did you or did you not attend Molly's on Mercer Street last night?' said Dixon.'Er.yes,' Fitz conceded.Stupid! No more trying to be clever.Just answer their questions.'Eyewitnesses claim he was ejected from the club just after you left with a young woman,' enthused Spotty.Fitz gave him a withering look.'Yeah, I left with a young woman, but I never saw what happened to Chubby.We weren't exactly looking for aménage á trois , if you know what I mean.'Dixon nodded, gravely.'And this young woman is with you now?''Er.no.' Bugger, thought Fitz.'She left.''Did she, now? And when was that?''Look, she got a cab home.We had an argument.''Eyewitnesses claim the two of you had your argument with Mr Withers in Molly's,' piped up Spotty again with indecent enthusiasm.'Chubby had a big mouth and wandering hands,' Fitz protested.'It was nothing.' The policemen seemed unconvinced.'Look, officers, I left Molly's, I lost my bird, I came back home and slept the sleep of the just.''The just run out of luck,' growled Dixon, pushing past Fitz.'Think we'd better have a little look round, sir, don't you?'Sam sat awkwardly on a sofa, wishing that Roley would show up and join them.He may be a bit of a prat but at least he was.normal.He'd retreated into his study by himself.As for the others, Lucy and Watson were nowhere to be seen, Fitz's mum was still in bed after her ordeal of last night (why wasn't Sam in bed after her ordeal of last night?), Nurse Bullwell was up with the Doctor taking out Austen's lump and Cynthia was cleaning up somewhere.Which left Peter Taylor and Russell Waller for company, and some of the most stilted conversation she'd ever stumbled through.'At least you're out in the countryside,' Sam said.'Yes,' agreed Russell.'So what?' said Taylor.She shrugged.'Well, it's better than the city, isn't it?''Yes.''No.Nothing to do, is there?''Well.' Sam thought hard.'At least it's relaxing.''Yes.'Taylor shifted his bulk off the sofa and slunk out of the conservatory, slamming the door behind him.Sam sighed.So much for keeping an eye on the patients.'So, Russell, tell me.' He was looking intently at her, concentrating on her every word and nodding studiously, kiss curl concrete over his forehead.'Have you got any hobbies?'Russell considered this at length.'No,' he concluded.***Bulwell grimaced as the Doctor removed the growth from the incision in Austen's shoulder.It was about three inches long, black and glistening, enclosed in a thin layer of transparent mucus.'Would you sew him up for me, please?' the Doctor asked.Bulwell nodded."Thank you.' He peered at the lump, held gently by the steel forceps.'I want to study this straight away.'Bulwell threaded her needle, concentrating, trying to push the image of the cyst from her mind.It had looked for all the world like a leech.4.4Fitz sat on his orange amp, smoking furiously.He couldn't believe these coppers: they didn't have a warrant, he should've refused to let them in.Now they were going through his stuff.Thank God he kept his top drawer locked.He didn't think even these overzealous constables would resort to malicious damage.He had nothing to hide - at least, nothing from last night.Let them search.What harm could it do?His heart sank when he saw Dixon waving a bottle of his mum's pills around and Spotty triumphantly brandishing a shirt.It was the one Fitz had been wearing last night.'You doing my washing for me, now, are you?' Fitz inquired.'There's blood on it,' said Spotty, waving a sleeve at him.Eh? Damn, probably Sam's from the cut on her head where he'd dropped her.'I had a nose bleed,' he said, coolly.'What of it?''These pills yours, son?' asked Dixon.'They're my mum's.Old ones.''Your mum's.Right.And where's she then, eh? Her bed don't look slept in.''She's gone away,' said Fitz, his heart sinking.'People don't stick around long with you, son, do they?''I can give you an address!''What are these pills, then, sir?' chipped in Spotty.'Chlorpromazine.My mum's got.a condition.'Dixon walked over to him.'It's your own condition you'd better start worrying about, lad.You're coming down the station with us.'Fitz choked up a cloud of fag smoke.'You're joking me.''Am I laughing?'This was so unfair.Here was no cheery, genial copper, but a satanic Dixon who commuted to Dock Green from hell.Fitz sighed.'I'll get my coat.'As he walked past them, a wild impulse overtook him, and, before he'd even worked out what he was doing, he'd nipped through the front door, which was still ajar [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]