Shadows of Deceit Read Online Free Page A

could hear classical music drifting down from above. He found Andrew sprawled out on one of the settees listening to gramophone records and reading the newspapers. Andrew looked up,
    “Well look at you!” He said inspecting the new hairstyle.
    “That’s enough of that, the sooner I get my own place the better.”
    “You’ve only been here three days.”
    Harry ignored the remark.
    “We need to talk Andrew; I want to know a bit more about this job you’re offering.”
    Andrew stretched his arms and yawned,
    “I’ll tell you what, let me get dressed then we can go down the club for a chat. It’ll be easier there, less formal than sitting face to face here.”
    “As long as this ‘club’ is not one of your usual haunts!”
    “That’s a deal, I suppose. I’ll get dressed. Help yourself to a drink if you want.”
    Andrew walked across the room and switched the gramophone off. He emerged from the bedroom ten minutes later dressed in slacks and blazer, white shirt and blue spotted tie.
    “We’re only going to a pub aren’t we?”
    Andrew pretended not to have heard the comment as he put on the shabby overcoat, his ‘disguise’ to blend in with the neighbourhood. As they walked to the ‘Royal Stuart Club’ about a mile away Harry began questioning Andrew.
    “Tell me something, why is it you were limping the night I first met you?”
    Andrew laughed,
    “Limping? – oh yes. For no other reason than one of my shoes had let water in. My sock had turned under my toes; I must look to buy a decent pair again”
    Harry smiled to himself,
    “And I thought the lameness was another part of your disguise, along with the overcoat?”
    “No, it’s only the overcoat I wear around here. If you appear too smart you could look out of place and get picked on.”
    “Well your overcoat didn’t help much the other night did it?” Harry continued,
    “Next question, why, in your comfortable financial situation do you need to use a pawn shop to obtain money?”
    “That’s all part of a sideline to my property business. You see I buy houses and you’d be surprised what people leave behind, especially if they have to move away quickly. Sometimes I discover abandoned items left in the loft or cupboards, you know, clocks, pictures, gramophones, mirrors etcetera. So I examine them and decide which is worth putting aside.”
    “You mean sell them?”
    “At first I thought of selling them through the trade, but I’m now trying to be a bit more, what’s the word, philanthropic!”
    Harry frowned in disbelief as Andrew continued,
    “You see I give the vendor the benefit of the doubt. I simply pawn them for a few months, and if on the rare occasions a vendor returns and remembers an item they’ve left then I redeem the goods and hand it over to them.”
    “What happens if the owner turns up later than that?”
    “Well that situation is very unusual, it did happen once though and I was able to buy the item back at full price from the pawn shop which luckily hadn’t sold it on. Of course I charged the vendor storage costs then, so I didn’t lose too much!” Andrew grinned.
    “You fucking amaze me.” Harry said as Andrew directed the way across a busy road.
    “Think about it, you either throw away the items found or you make them work for you.”
    At the club Andrew signed Harry in as a visitor. Once inside they ordered some beers and moved across to the window. The smoky lounge was quite full of people, a lot of them in uniform. Andrew took off his overcoat with a theatrical flourish and sat down on a window seat to get a better view of the room. A few R.A.F. Officers nearby stared across at the two newcomers and quietly made a joke amongst themselves.
    “It’s not that obvious is it?” Harry asked Andrew.
    “What?”
    Harry nodded towards the group sitting nearby,
    “Your kind of inclinations, I think they feel we’re together.”
    Andrew looked across to the Officers and smiled,
    “We’ve met haven’t we,