Angel on the Inside Read Online Free Page B

flushed as pink as her satin dressing gown.
    â€˜They’ve banned me from going round there any more.’
    I wasn’t surprised. I knew they had warned her several times about taking dead, half-chewed birds and rodents round there in the hope that they could revive them after Springsteen had finished with them.
    â€˜That’s why I rang for an ambulance,’ she said sheepishly. ‘I couldn’t think of anything else to do. He’s obviously in pain and the only thing I’ve got is aspirin and even if I could get one into him I remembered what you said.’
    â€˜Well done. Never give a cat aspirin, they just can’t handle it. It kills them,’ I said, though I wasn’t too worried. Springsteen would have had her hand off before he’d take an aspirin from it. ‘I’ll go and see how he is. You go into the kitchen and get the bottle of brandy that’s on top of the fridge.’
    She rankled a bit at that.
    â€˜So aspirins can be fatal, but you don’t mind pouring bandy down his throat?’
    â€˜Who said anything about his throat?’
    Â 
    Springsteen wasn’t going to come out so I had to push the bed away from over him. His growling dropped a half-tone to a sort of sinister hiss and his eyes burned into me like a chestnut vendor’s coals whilst his tail did that slow-time flick from side to side that tells you the clock’s ticking. It was nice to be recognised.
    â€˜It’s not a fox,’ I said over my shoulder.
    â€˜Well it looked like one,’ said Fenella from the kitchen. ‘Is this it? It says something ending in Romana . Is that brandy?’
    â€˜It’ll do.’
    Springsteen did indeed have something long and brown hanging from his jaw. Something long and limp, like a pelt – until you got close, that is. In my case, I was still a good six feet away from where he lay on his side, which was quite close enough, even though I could see that his right front leg was twisted at an unnatural angle.
    The brown pelt was soaked with drool near his mouth and trailed off like a flattened snakeskin to his side, about four inches wide and some 15 inches long. I guessed it had stuck over his teeth and without the use of his right paw he couldn’t dislodge it.
    I felt a gentle tap on my right temple. It was Fenella, knocking a bottle against my skull. I relieved her of it, took a swig and handed it back. Although Springsteen, concentrating his stare on me, wasn’t moving or looking likely to move suddenly, she had positioned herself strategically behind me. She was learning.
    â€˜That’s gross,’ she said. ‘Whatever it is. Whatever it was. What is it?’
    â€˜Well, from this distance, without forensic examination, I’d say Mist or maybe American Tan or possibly Chiffon and probably about 60 denier.’
    She leaned forward to get a better look.
    â€˜You mean that’s a nylon stocking?’ she said as she focused, oblivious to Springsteen’s malevolent stare swinging full-beam on to her.
    â€˜Or one half of a pair of tights,’ I said reasonably.
    Fenella straightened up as if she had a spring in her.
    â€˜You mean he’s eaten a whole girl ?’
    â€˜That’s my boy,’ I said. It seemed to soothe him, as he stopped growling at me.
    I put my head back so I could whisper into Fenella’s ear.
    â€˜Go and get me a couple of towels out of the airing cupboard.’
    â€˜You haven’t got an airing cupboard,’ she hissed back.
    â€˜Your airing cupboard. Big fluffy ones. They don’t have to be new ones. In fact old ones that you wouldn’t mind not seeing again might be an idea. When you come back, hang them over your shoulder, like you were going to have a shower. You know, casual. Give them to me quick when I say.’
    â€˜Right.’
    She made to go, then leaned in so she could whisper in my ear.
    â€˜Why my towels?’
    â€˜Because