Winding Up the Serpent Read Online Free

Winding Up the Serpent
Book: Winding Up the Serpent Read Online Free
Author: Priscilla Masters
Pages:
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If ’is time has come so be it.’ Her face was set and hard, unsmiling, her leathered complexion timeless, strong and unyielding. The moors toughened their women.
    Jonah nodded. ‘So be it.’
    The old man struggled to open his eyes. ‘Yes, Doctor. She’s right.’ He snapped the oxygen mask back over his nose and mouth. It steamed up with his breath and the wrinkled eyelids closed again wearily. His face was gaunt and grey with the struggle.
    â€˜I can give you an injection,’ Jonah said. ‘It’ll help the breathing.’ He looked again at the old man. ‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like a bed in the hospital – just to give your wife a break?’
    The old man clawed the doctor’s hand and he shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ll die if I go in there.’
    Jonah bit back the obvious answer. He took from his bag a syringe and an ampoule of Aminophylline. Carefully he put a tourniquet on the skinny arm, selected a prominent blue rope vein and drove the drug in. The old man’s eyes closed.
    By three in the afternoon the dog’s obvious distress was becoming more than Evelyn could bear. She stood with her cup of tea by the kitchen window, listening to the yowling.
    She was suddenly so sure that Marilyn would not appear in the doorway and climb into the car as she had watched her do a thousand times that Evelyn did an unbelievable thing. She took a deep breath, unlocked the front door, marched through the pink lions rampant on Marilyn’s gatepost, walked up to the front door, raised the letterbox and dropped it again, pressed the doorbell and shouted Marilyn’s name. Her voice bounced around the walls.
    But the dog bounded down the stairs with a fierce growl and it terrified her so she ran back to the house and rang the surgery again.
    â€˜Please,’ she spoke into the phone, ‘please, is Marilyn Smith there? Something is wrong with her dog.’ The words tumbled out and she replaced the receiver without giving the other end a chance to speak.
    In the surgery Maureen, who had taken the call, stood and stared at the telephone, blinking behind owlish glasses. She felt cold and uneasy. Dead hands stole up her back. ‘It was that person again,’ she said, ‘asking for Sister Smith.’
    â€˜Ring the police,’ Sally said decisively. ‘Ring them now.’ And when her colleague didn’t move she grabbed the phone. ‘Ring the bloody police.’

Chapter 3
    The slick white car with its fluorescent pink strip had been cruising near the market square, its occupants checking that inconsiderately parked cars were not blocking the narrow road and keeping an eye on a gang of youths clustered outside the video shop, when it took the call. It switched on its flashing blue light and sped up the High Street, turned right into Silk Street and arrived minutes later. The two uniformed policemen crunched up the gravel drive and in passing tried the door of the parked car. It was locked. They knocked at the front door and were rewarded by Ben’s frantic barks.
    They looked at one another uncertainly. ‘I don’t fancy meeting him face to face,’ said one of them.
    They shouted through the letterbox, feeling slightly foolish. ‘Hello! Anyone at home? Are you there, Miss Smith? He-ll-o! Hello, Miss Smith. Mar-i-lun!’
    Only the dog responded and they quickly dropped the flap. They walked around the back of the house, trying windows while the dog followed them from room to room, alternating mad barks with hostile growls. They watched him through the window, then went back to the car and sent a message over the radio.
    â€˜No one around, dog going mad. No sign of a break-in. Have to get in but need help with the dog.’
    â€˜Message received ... Over.’
    Detective Sergeant Mike Korpanski replaced the receiver, scribbling down the details in his notebook.
    He knew instinctively this was
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