Anne Perry's Christmas Vigil Read Online Free

’is patch.” She sniffed fiercely as if on the edge of tears. “Someone’s done ’im in.”
    â€œYer talkin’ daft,” Jimmy said dismissively, but his face was very pink. “ ’Oo’d wanter ’urt Alf?” He looked uncomfortable, not quite meeting Minnie Maude’s eyes. Gracie wondered if it was embarrassment because he did not know how to comfort her, or something uglier that he was trying not to say.
    Gracie interrupted at last. “It in’t daft,” she told him. “Wot ’appened ter Charlie, an’ the cart? ’E di’n’t go ’ome.”
    Now Jimmy Quick was deeply unhappy. “I dunno. Yer sure the cart’s not at yer aunt Bertha’s?” he asked Minnie Maude.
    She looked at him witheringly. “Course it in’t. Charlie might get lorst, cos this in’t where ’e usually comes. So why was ’e ’ere? Even if Uncle Alf died an’ fell off, which ’e wouldn’t ’ave, why’d nobody see ’im ’ceptin’ you? An’ ’oo took Charlie an’ the cart?”
    Put like that, Gracie had to agree that it didn’tsound right at all. She joined Minnie Maude in staring accusingly at Jimmy Quick.
    Jimmy looked down at the ground with even greater unhappiness, and what now most certainly appeared to be guilt. “It were my fault,” he admitted. “I ’ad ter go up ter Artillery Lane an’ see someone, or I’d a bin in real trouble, so I asked Alf ter trade routes wi’ me. ’E’d do mine, an’ I’d do ’is. That way I could be where I ’ad ter, wi’out missin’ an ’ole day. That’s why ’e were ’ere. ’E were a good mate ter me, an’ ’e died doin’ me a favor.”
    â€œÂ â€™E were on yer round!” Gracie said in sudden realization of all that meant. “So if someone done ’im in, p’raps they meant it ter be you!”
    â€œNobody’s gonna do me in!” Jimmy said with alarm, but looking at his face, paler now and a little gray around his lips, Gracie knew that the thought was sharp in his mind, and growing sharper with every minute.
    She made her own expression as grim as shecould, drawing her eyebrows down and tightening her mouth, just as Gran did when she found an immovable stain in someone’s best linen. “But yer jus’ said as ’e were alone cos ’e were doin’ yer a favor,” she pointed out. “If nobody else knew that, they’d a thought as it were you sittin’ in the cart!”
    â€œI dunno,” Jimmy said unhappily.
    Gracie did not believe him. Her mind raced over how it could matter, picking up people’s odd pieces of throwaway, or the things they might buy or sell, if they knew where. What did rag and bone men pick up, anyway? If you could pawn it for a few pence, or maybe more, you took it to the shop. She glanced at Minnie Maude, who was standing hunched up, shaking with cold, and now looking defeated.
    Gracie lost her temper. “Course yer know!” she shouted at Jimmy. “ ’E got done in doin’ yer job, cos yer asked ’im ter. An’ now the cart’s gorn and Charlie’s gorn, an’ we’re standin’ ’ere freezin’, an’ yer sayin’ as yer can’t tell us wot ’e died fer!”
    â€œCos I dunno!” Jimmy said helplessly. He swung his arms in the air. “Come on inside an’ Dora’ll make yer a cup o’ tea.” He led the way across the yard, weaving between bicycles, cart wheels, milk churns without lids, until he came to the back door of his house. He pushed the door wide, invitingly, and they crowded in after him.
    Inside the kitchen was a splendid collection of every kind of odd piece of machinery and equipment a scrap yard could acquire. Nothing matched anything else, hardly two pieces of china were from