• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Fitz opened his mouth, then caught himself: it probably wasn't really smart to say something like 'Not more dead bodies, Doc!' in front of a homicide detective.

Anji said, 'How the hell did you get mixed up in a homicide, Doctor? We only left you a couple of hours ago.'

'It doesn't take long to kill somebody,' said Rust easily. 'But actually, he's not a suspect.'

'I found the body,' said the Doctor, almost proudly. He sat down. 'Will you join us, Lieutenant?'

Rust shook his head. 'I've got to get back to the station. Nice to meet you both.' His eyes lingered on Anji for a moment, then he edged his way back through the crowd and was gone.

'Not more dead bodies, Doc!' Fitz said, while at the same time Anji blurted, 'What have you got us mixed up in now?'

'The fellow I left the charm with is dead.' The Doctor looked around for a waitress. 'Throat cut.'

'And the charm's gone missing,' Fitz finished.

'I'm afraid so.' The Doctor signalled to a waitress across the cafe, miming lifting a cup of coffee. 'What are those powdered-sugar thingies?'

'Never mind about the powdered-sugar thingies,' said Anji. 'What about that charm? And what about your dream? How are they linked? Why are we here? What aren't you telling us?'

'I don't know the answer to any of those questions. I'm waiting to find out.

Something's been set in motion.'

'So we're just going to stand here and let it fall on us.'

'Well, I am,' he said mildly. 'Until a better idea presents itself. But, in fact, it might be a good idea for me to drop you and Fitz off on a nice beach somewhere for a while.'

'And then you get squashed and never come back for us. No, thank you.'

'A very nice beach,' emphasised the Doctor.'And in the here and now.'

He looked rather sober. Fitz said quickly, 'I'm not leaving.' Anji was silent.

She watched the Doctor smile up at the waitress as she handed him his coffee. The waitress beamed back. Probably he'd made her day, Anji thought ironically. If she only knew

'So who stole your charm?' said Fitz. 'Who'd want an old piece of bone?'

There was a phone ringing. It had been ringing for some time. The woman in the bathtub paid no attention. She lay stretched out with her eyes closed, the water nearly to her chin. Her body was small and slight, almost a girl's.

Beside her, on the worn enamel lip of the bath, lay a cheap pair of dark glasses.

The room's once-yellow wallpaper sagged with humidity and mildew. A fly found its way through the torn window screen and landed on the woman's bare arm. She didn't react. The phone had stopped. Outside, a number of dogs began to bark.

The front door banged. Steps thumped around.

'Goddammit! Goddamnit!'

The steps thudded down the hall. The door slammed open and a scrawny man with a long grey ponytail burst into the room. The fly buzzed up in alarm. The woman didn't move. He stopped at the sight of her.

'My damn answering machine's off.' She said nothing. 'Somebody's turned my goddamned answering machine off. Did you do it?' No response. He bent over her. 'It pretty much had to be you, honey, because there ain't no one else here.'

'Might be I bumped into it,' she drawled sarcastically. 'I can't see, you know.

I bump into things. By accident.'

'Might be,' he said softly, 'you turned it off on purpose.'

'Why would I bother to do that?'

'Because you're a little bitch.' He'd brought his face very near to hers. He had bad teeth. ‘Because you just love to screw things up for me.'

'I don't think about you,' she said indifferently. 'You think I think about you, but I don't.'

'That so?' He sat on the edge of the tub. 'Tell me, what do you think about, sweetheart? Lying here all day. You think about home?' No answer. 'I sure as hell don't know why you don't think about me. I was your knight in shining armour, baby.'

She snorted. He watched her for a moment, face softening. He touched her breast. She knocked his hand away.

'You're cold, honey. You're all cold from lying in that water' He jerked a thin towel from the rack and hauled