Relief Valve: The Plumber's Mate, Book 2 Read Online Free

Or, hang on, could he sell up without her, with this common tenants thing? Or—”
    “Yes, and yes. Well, theoretically. Although I can’t imagine who’d want to buy his half of the tenancy in common, and of course he wouldn’t have been able to buy a comparable house with the proceeds. He was better off staying in the property, as long as she was happy for him to do so.”
    “Could she have kicked him out, then?” Seemed a bit unfair if the house was half his.
    “Well, she’d have had to go to court and try to force a sale. It’s what I’d have done, though.”
    “Yeah, but court’s like a home from home for you. Not everyone wants to get into all that legal stuff if they don’t have to.”
    Cherry frowned. “It still seems odd she never tried. I suppose she mustn’t have needed the money.”
    “Maybe she was worried about legal fees, thought she’d end up worse off than she’d started. Or maybe she just didn’t want all the stress. Anyway, so what you’re saying is, Mr. M’s still living there, and we’ve got to go and pay him a visit, right? When’s the funeral, anyway? I know it’ll be up in Scotland, but I’d like to go. Pay my last respects, that sort of thing.”
    “Oh.”
    I had a bad feeling about that oh . “Oh, what?”
    “Well, it was a few days ago.”
    “A few days ago? And you didn’t think I might want to know about it? For fuck’s sake! Even if I couldn’t have gone, I’d have wanted to send flowers. Did anyone know? Or did you just tell them to bury her in the first hole in the ground they could find and not bother with a service or, you know, any sodding mourners?”
    “ I didn’t tell them anything. Mr. Morangie arranged it all with a local undertaker, up in West Lothian. She was cremated. No flowers.”
    “Was that what she said she wanted?” Auntie Lol had loved flowers. She’d had a garden full of them back when she’d lived in St Albans, and she used to let me pick bunches and take them back home to Mum.
    “She didn’t leave any instructions about the funeral, so her husband did what he thought best, I suppose.”
    “He wasn’t her husband. He was just some git she married and then thought better of it. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about it in time.”
    Cherry stared at me. “Well, if I’d known you were going to get upset about it…”
    “I’m not upset.” All right, maybe that was a lie. “Right. So when am I supposed to be going over to his place for this rummage, then? You coming too? Fancy a good rummage, do you?”
    “You’re so bloody childish, sometimes. I’ll set something up. All right?” She pulled out her purse and peeled off a couple of twenty pound notes that looked like she’d ironed them this morning. Nah, what was I thinking? She probably had all her money dry-cleaned. “That should take care of lunch. I’ll call you when I’ve arranged things with Mr. Morangie, but it may be a while. Some of us have work to do.”
    Whereas the rest of us, apparently, just mucked about with a set of tools from Toys “R” Us, tinkering with taps. I watched her clump off in her sensible black shoes and sighed.
    “Would you like anything else? Coffee? Dessert?” The waitress with the hips smiled kindly as she started to clear the plates.
    “Just the bill, thanks, love.”
    “Sure? The chocolate-and-hazelnut panettone’s on special.” The dimples were out in force again. “And it’s not like you need to worry about your figure.”
    I had to smile. “Sounds great, but I’ve got to get back to work. Maybe I’ll come in for it some other time.”
    “I’ll look out for you.” She balanced the plates with practised ease and swept off, swishing back with the bill a lot quicker than I was expecting.
    Cherry’s forty quid covered it easy and then some. “Keep the change. Have a panettone on me.” I winked at the waitress.
    “I wish. That stuff goes straight to my hips.” She slapped herself on the bum, then dithered a moment,