Upon a Dark Night Read Online Free

Rose. It’s not my real name. I was in an accident. I lost my memory.’
    ‘You don’t look like a Rose to me. Care for a snack? I do like a Danish for my tea.’ She dipped her hand into a carrier bag she’d brought in.
    ‘That’s kind, but no thanks.’
    ‘I mean it. I picked up five. I can spare one or two.’
    ‘Really, no.’
    Ada Shaftsbury was not convinced. ‘You’d be helping me. I’m on this diet. No snacks. Five Danish pastries isn’t a snack. It’s a meal, so I have to eat them at a sitting. Teatime. Three would only be a snack. If I was left with three, I’d have to blow the whistle, and that might be good for me. I’m very strict with myself.’
    ‘Honestly, I couldn’t manage one.’
    ‘You don’t mind if I have my tea while we talk?’ said Ada, through a mouthful of Danish pastry.
    ‘Please go ahead.’
    ‘I’ve tried diets before and none of them work. This one suits me so far. Since my mother died, I’ve gone all to pieces. I’ve been done three times.’
    ‘Done?’ Rose was uncertain what she meant.
    ‘Sent down. For the five-finger discount.’
    Rose murmured some sort of response.
    ‘You’re not with me, petal, are you?’ said Ada. ‘I’m on about shoplifting. Food, mostly. They shouldn’t put it on display like they do. It’s a temptation. Can you cook?’
    ‘I don’t know. I’ll find out, I suppose.’
    ‘It’s a poky little kitchen. If I get in there, which has to be sideways, I don’t have room to open the cupboards.’
    ‘That must be a problem.’
    Ada took this as the green light. ‘I can get the stuff if you’d be willing to cook for both of us. And you don’t have to worry about breakfast.’ Ada gave a wide, disarming smile. ‘You’re thinking I don’t eat a cooked breakfast, aren’t you?’
    ‘I wasn’t thinking anything.’
    ‘There’s a foreign girl called Hildegarde in the room under ours and she likes to cook. I’m teaching her English. She knows some really useful words now: eggs, bacon, tomatoes, fried bread. If you want a good breakfast, just say the word to Hildegarde.’
    ‘I don’t know if I’ll be staying long.’
    ‘You don’t know, full stop,’ said Ada. ‘Could be only a couple of hours. Could be months.’
    ‘I hope not.’
    ‘Do you like bacon? I’ve got a whole side of bacon in the freezer.’
    ‘Where did that come from?’
    Ada wobbled with amusement. ‘The back of a lorry in Green Street. The driver was delivering to a butcher’s. He was round the front arguing with a traffic warden, so I did some unloading for him, slung it over my shoulder and walked through the streets. I got looks, but I get looks anyway. They shouldn’t leave the stuff on view if they don’t want it to walk. I’ve got eggs, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, spuds. We can have a slap-up supper tonight. Hildegarde will cook. We can invite her up to eat with us.’
    ‘Actually, I bought my own,’ Rose said.
    ‘Good,’ said Ada Shaftsbury, failing or refusing to understand. ‘We’ll pool it. What did you get?’
    ‘Salad things mostly.’
    ‘In all honesty I can’t say I care much for salad, but we can use it as a garnish for the fry-up,’Ada said indistinctly through her second Danish.
    Rose’s long-term memory may have ceased to function, but the short-term one delivered. ‘It’s a nice idea, but I’d rather not eat until the police have been.’
    ‘The police? ‘said Ada, going pale.
    ‘They’re going to take some photos.’
    ‘In here, you mean?’
    ‘Well, I’ve got some scars on my legs. If you don’t mind, it would be easiest in here.’
    ‘I’ll go down the chippie for supper,’Ada decided.
    ‘I don’t want to drive you out. It’s your room as much as mine.’
    ‘You carry on, petal. If there’s a cop with a camera, I’m not at home. We’ll have our fry-up another day.’
    She gulped the rest of her tea and was gone in two minutes.
    The photography didn’t start for a couple of hours, and Ada had still