Brigade: The Further Adventures of Inspector Lestrade (25 page)

‘Mrs Manchester, I think it’s time I made an honest woman of you.’

‘What, Inspector Lestrade, you mean you’re going to pay me the back rent you owe me?’

‘Sshh!’ whispered Lestrade. ‘You’re supposed to be my housekeeper, not my landlady. The shame of it.’

‘Sholto.’ She was suddenly serious. ‘You won’t … won’t go away again, will you?’

‘No, Sarah, I won’t go away again.’ Do you hear that, Constance? Do you hear that, Daisy? He vowed to the night, I won’t go away again.

‘You know the funniest part of all this?’ Lestrade turned to the voluptuous Mrs Manchester again. ‘Nimrod Frost thinks you’re sixty-one.’

And they laughed together in the darkness ….