Death in High Heels Read Online Free

it?”
    “Nearly eleven. This is hell, Toria. Why did we ever take it on?”
    “We couldn’t very well help it, could we? After all, poor Doon, it would be a bit off if there was nobody at all to worry about her; her friends aren’t the kind of people who are much good in a crisis, and anyway, we’ve no idea where any of them live. It’s funny how little you can know about a person, even when you work with them all day long.”
    “All we really know is that she lived in a lousy room in Guilford Street and put up with an awful old landlady, because nobody minded what she did there.”
    “And we also know what she did there. She certainly made no secret about it. And we know that she came from Australia.”
    “New Zealand, darling.”
    “Well, New Zealand; she hasn’t got any relations over here, has she?”
    “Not a soul. We couldn’t have left her to die all by herself.”
    “Do you really think she’s going to die?” said Rachel.
    “The Sister seemed to think so, Ray, didn’t she? I feel awful about the oxalic acid.”
    “I don’t see how she could have taken any, Toria, honestly I don’t. It wasn’t as if we left it lying about; and we told her it was poison, so that she could hardly have eaten any by mistake…. I wonder what happened to the lot we gave her to do her white straw with. She couldn’t have taken any of that, I suppose? You don’t think for a moment she could have done it on purpose, do you?”
    “Why on earth should she, Rachel? She was perfectly happy; even if Bevan was sending Gregory to Deauville instead of her, it meant that she would get a rise and be kingpin at the shop, and she’d have been able to stay near him, which was all she really cared about just lately. There was nothing to commit suicide for .”
    “I suppose she was just as keen on the old swine as ever?”
    “Oh, I think so, darling, don’t you? or if she wasn’t it only meant that she’d fallen for somebody else; she never fell out of love for any other reason, and she was always doing it.”
    “Perhaps it was because Bevan’s going off her a bit?”
    “I don’t think so,” said Victoria, thoughtfully. “I don’t believe she saw it, any more than Gregory realized that she’d been completely cut out by Doon. Doon was awfully blind in that way—is, I mean—how awful! I keep talking about her as if she were dead already. What I was going to say was that she’s quite insensitive to other people’s feelings and reactions and things. After all, she goes blithely through the shop and never realizes that she isn’t beloved by everybody, and, when you come to think of it, she isn’t beloved by anybody.”
    “Oh, I like her; and you like her, don’t you?”
    “Well, I do, Ray. I can’t say I approve of her goings on, but I can’t help being rather fond of her and she can be the best company in the world. Macaroni loves her, of course, though even she’s a bit scared of her—but no one else. Judy’s never forgiven her for pinching her fiancé and Aileen detests her because she’s afraid of what she’ll tell her young man, and of course Gregory loathes her, since they stopped being so thick together; Mrs. ’Arris has never liked her and she’s foul to the old girl sometimes; Cecil hates her because she’s cruel and sarcastic and makes fun of his boy friend; and even Bevan the beloved is starting to make sheep’s eyes at you again. None of them really care for her, but I’m sure she’d be terribly surprised if you told her so. She goes barging through life and because she’s got rather a crude sort of mind herself, and no funny feelings to get hurt and no pettinesses like the rest of us, she never thinks that she may be hurting people, or that they may bear small grudges against her. If Judy had pinched one of her young men, she’d have been furious, but in a week she’d have got a new one and forgotten all about it—so she couldn’t understand that Judy hasn’t.”
    “Ah, but Judy