A Quiet Death Read Online Free Page A

A Quiet Death
Book: A Quiet Death Read Online Free
Author: Alanna Knight
Tags: Historical fiction, Historical, Literature & Fiction, Crime, Genre Fiction, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Crime Fiction, Thrillers & Suspense
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into his seat and thanked God that the note was scribbled in Vince's familiar hand.
    'I am urgently needed at the Infirmary. Will meet you for luncheon tomorrow at the Glamis Hotel (opposite the railway station).'
    As the countryside chugged past the windows, Faro felt he had plenty to keep his mind occupied after his conversation with McGowan. He had given his word to the boy's father. Without stirring any troubled waters with the Dundee City Police, he could make a few discreet enquiries into the death of Charlie McGowan, and his young wife's disappearance. He could verify that Simms' death had been accidental.
    A strange ugly business, with some decidedly sinister undertones. As the unfinished bridge retreated into the distance, Faro decided that if there was indeed corruption and fraud within Deane Enterprises and they were supplying the building materials, then a lot more lives of innocent unsuspecting people might be at hazard.
    The journey to Errol was mercifully short. He was met by Tom Elgin, limping across the platform. A former constable with the Edinburgh City Police, Tom had been injured in a riot in the Grassmarket and no longer fit for active service had returned to Angus to become gamekeeper to the aristocratic family his forebears had served for generations.
    To a man whose daily dealings were with violent death, the passing of a ninety-year-old who slips peacefully away in his bed at the end of a long and happy life was an occasion for gladness rather than bleak despair.
    The wake included a great deal of food and a considerable number of drams to speed Will Gray on his way. Truth to tell, Faro was in no fit condition to return to Dundee or anywhere else for that matter, even if a late train had existed. He was readily persuaded to stay the night with Tom.
    'The funeral? More like a reunion with old friends,' he told Vince when they met next day in the Glamis Hotel.
    'So it would appear,' said Vince whose amused glance took in his stepfather's somewhat shattered appearance. 'Well, I take it that you received my letter,' he added shyly.
    'I did indeed. My heartiest congratulations, lad. This is great news.'
    'I thought you would be pleased.'
    'And when am I to have the pleasure of meeting your fiancé?'
    'Even at this moment, she is waiting to receive us. Come along, Stepfather. The hall porter will get us a cab.'
    As they waited in the foyer, Vince asked: 'How was your journey from Edinburgh?'
    'A nightmare, as usual,' said Faro huffily. 'The sooner they get that bridge finished the better.'
    'Oh, we're coming on,' said Vince cheerfully as the cab arrived and from its windows they surveyed the skeleton of the bridge with its still wide central gap.
    'Any fool can see that the joining of those two piers from Wormit to Dundee is nowhere in sight,' said Faro. 'They're certainly taking their time about it.'
    'Oh, I gather there have been plenty of complications—and still are.'
    'Such as?' demanded Faro eagerly.
    Vince shrugged. 'Too long to go into at the moment.'
    'Hmphh,' said Faro and peering out he added: 'Doesn't look very substantial to me.'
    Rumours had reached the Central Office and filtered through the popular press of terrible accidents and of the wild war waged between the Caledonian and the North British Railways over monopoly rights.
    Tom Elgin had told him that the city of Perth had been far from pleased, jealous that the bridge might diminish their own river trade. And now he had also received, at first hand, hints of sinister goings-on from McGowan.
    'Will it ever be strong or safe enough to carry a train, I wonder?'
    'Safe as houses or, as they advertise, sound as Deane's,' was Vince's reply. 'The fact that they secured the contract puts a rather different complexion on the matter. Deane's stand for respectability and honest dealings.'
    'Sound as Deane's' had been a familiar phrase in Dundee for the past fifty years, ever since Sir Arnold Deane had set a new fashion of combining expertise in
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