"Quintin, Jardine - Gallery Whispers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Quintin Jardine)

338 Euston Road
London NW1 3BH
www.headline.co.uk
www.hodderheadline.com

This is for Eileen, who shines her light into dark places.


1
'How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?'
She looked at him across the dinner table, with a light, indulgent
smile. 'Okay,' she said, quietly. "Let's have it.'
He beamed, in his small triumph. 'One.' He barked the word out,
and in that instant his heavy eyebrows seemed to slam together in a
frown. '. .. and that's not funny!'
Olive shook her head. 'You're not wrong there.'
Lauren, seated on his right, looked up at her father. 'I don't get
that, Dad.'
He grinned. 'No, I suppose you're still a couple of years short of
getting it.'
'Oh,' said the child. 'Do you have to be twelve before you can be a
feminist?'
Neil gazed down at her, bland innocence written on her small
round face, and realised yet again that if ever there was a mother's
daughter it was Lauren Barbara Mcllhenney.
A small hand tugged at his shirt-sleeve. 'Daddy, Daddy!' Spencer
shouted, eagerly. 'Did you hear the one about the Hearts supporter
who went into a pub with an alligator?'
He laughed as he ruffled his son's thick fair hair. 'Aye, I did,
Spence, often. The first time I heard it, it was a Celtic supporter that
had the alligator. Don't you go telling that sort of joke outside, though.
You could get into real trouble if the wrong lad heard you.'
'And you could get into real trouble if the wrong woman heard you
tell that other one,' Olive countered. 'Wherever did you pick it up
anyway?'
'From Karen Neville.'
'Neville? Isn't she the new DS in Andy Martin's office?'
'That's the one. Not so new now, though. She's been there a right
few weeks now.'
'Mum, can Spence and me leave the table? It's nearly time for the
Holiday programme.'
She turned to her daughter and raised an eyebrow. It was enough.
'Sorry. May Spence and I leave the table?'
'That's better. Have both of you finished all your homework?'
Lauren and Spencer nodded in tandem.
'Very well; you may.'
Neil Mcllhenney gazed at his children as they ran from the small
dining room and across the hall. 'A gentleman's family,' his father-in-
law, Joe Baxter, had pronounced after Spencer's birth. Son and
daughter. One of each.