6 The Queen of Scots Mystery Read Online Free Page B

tea,’ he said, mainly in order to get rid of Jock for a few moments. But it wasn’t anything like long enough.
    ‘Here you are,’ said Jock. ‘I’ve given you that mug with the skull. Is that all right? Only I couldn’t find any other clean ones except this.’
    Jock himself was drinking his tea out of a novelty mug with rabbit’s ears that Christopher’s niece or nephew had received with an Easter egg years ago. Even the fact that he looked utterly ridiculous didn’t cheer up Christopher. He sipped gloomily from the skull.
    ‘When did you say Amaryllis was due back?’ said Jock. ‘We need her to get Neil Macrae out of jail. There isn’t another pub for miles around that sells Old Pictish Brew.’
    ‘It’ll be a while,’ said Christopher, putting the skull mug down with a bump on the coffee table. He had hoped it would shatter, sending tea flying in all directions. Then Jock might have stopped burbling on and rushed off instead to get a cloth to clean up the mess. But it sat on the table mocking him.
    ‘Shouldn’t you use a coaster with that?’ said Jock.
    ‘Coaster! Ha!’ said Christopher. ‘Life’s too short to worry about coasters.’
    ‘That isn’ t what you said the time I put the kebab down and got grease all over the place… Anyway, even if Amaryllis isn’t due back yet, why don’t we go round to the police station and get Charlie Smith to tell us what’s going on?’
    ‘Um,’ said Christopher. ‘Charlie Smith won’t be there.’
    ‘How do you know that?’
    Christopher shrugged. ‘I just do.’
    Jock gave him another of his looks. ‘I didn’t realise you were party to the police shift rota,’ he said. ‘When will he be there?’
    ‘He won’t be,’ said Christopher.
    ‘Why not? Is he away on holiday too? Has he run off with Amaryllis? Is that why you’ve got a face like a wet weekend?’
    Not for the first time, Christopher felt as if he was dea ling with a nosey four-year-old. But at least the idea of Amaryllis running off with Charlie Smith amused him for a few seconds, until he remembered where she really was.
    ‘He’s been suspended from the police. He won’t be at work for a while. Maybe never.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘I bumped into him yesterday. He’s staying with me for a bit. So that he’s on hand. For the enquiry.’
    It was easier to convey this information, he found, if he came out with it in bite-sized chunks. Maybe in due course he would be able to tell Jock about Amaryllis, if he broke it down like this. But not for a while.
    ‘So where is he now?’ said Jock.
    ‘Walking the dog. He’ll be back soon. I’m sure he’ll corroborate my story.’
    ‘I believe you. What’s he in trouble for?’
    ‘Wait a minute and you can ask him yourself.’ Christopher heard the front door opening again and then the steady, solid tread of a long-serving policeman, accompanied by the scratching of smaller feet on the laminate he had recently laid in the hall.
    Charlie Smith and the dog halted on the threshold of the front room, both watching Jock with almost identical expressions of suspicion mingled with displeasure. It made Christopher think of the saying about people looking like their pets. He wondered if the dog had studied Charlie’s face until it was confident about mimicking his moods, or if Charlie had been spending long periods staring into the dog’s eyes. The second option was a bit too creepy to consider.
    ‘Did you have a good walk?’ said Christopher.
    ‘All right,’ said Charlie. ‘I thought of going into the Queen of Scots for a drink, only there was a police presence so I decided I’d better not go near it.’
    Jock, who had stood up, possibly to make a swift getaway, sat down again and repeated everything he had already told Christopher. It was impossible to stop him, but when he eventually calmed down, Charlie Smith said uneasily, ‘I’m not sure you should be discussing this.’
    ‘But that’s what normal people do,’ said