The Serpent Pool
Page 28
‘Greg told me Denstone wasn’t lying about the cancer, after all.’
Fern nodded. ‘Yeah, he had skin cancer three years back in London and his GP gave him bad news a week before Christmas. Prostate cancer this time, and pretty aggressive.’
Across the room, laughter erupted at Greg’s table. Donna was loudest, her merriment raucous and uninhibited. A young, pretty woman, out for a good time. Hannah felt a pang of envy, then reminded herself about the disease that had wrought havoc inside Arlo Denstone’s body. As malignant and destructive as jealousy.
‘Come on,’ Fern said. ‘Give us a smile. We did a great job, you and me.’
‘You think so?’
‘All right, then – you did.’
Hannah finished her lemonade. ‘I’ll be off.’
‘See you in the morning. We’re going to be busy.’
‘Too right.’
Hannah didn’t have much in common with Scarlett O’Hara, except for a name. But that line in Gone With the Wind summed it up.
Tomorrow would be another day.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As usual, I would like to acknowledge some of the very extensive help and support that I have received while writing this book. It is, of course, entirely a work of fiction, and the characters, incidents, businesses or organisations which play an active part in the story are imaginary, other than Cumbria Constabulary, which I have again reinvented for my own purposes. Rupert Holmes, a songwriter (and crime novelist) of distinction, generously agreed to my reprinting a portion of the lyric of his song ‘Him’. I’ve admired Rupert’s work for thirty years, and I’m glad that The Serpent Pool has finally brought us into direct contact. Information, and several jokes, about the police and contemporary police work have come from Roger Forsdyke and various magazines. Rare-book dealers Mark Sutcliffe and James M Pickard have given me insight into the world of Marc Amos. Paul Flint, Bursar of Windermere St Anne’s School, and fellow writer Diane Janes supplied background about the Lake District generally (a night spent staying at Paul’s home near Windermere enabled me to picture Undercrag in my mind) and Arthur Ransome in particular. Ann Cleeves and Rosa Plant provided comments on aspects of the manuscript, and my agent Mandy Little was, as ever, a great source of moral support. My thanks also go to everyone at my various publishers who has helped to bring this project to fruition, as well as to my family and all those others who have contributed support and helpful information in countless ways. As usual, I emphasise that all the characters and incidents are imaginary, as are the named organisations, except for the Cumbria Constabulary (but my version of it is fictitious) and businesses. Any resemblance between people and events in this book and actual counterparts in real life is coincidental.
About the Author
MARTIN EDWARDS was born in Cheshire. He read Law at Oxford and then trained as a solicitor. He is married with two children, and is currently a partner at Mace & Jones law firm, based in Liverpool and Manchester. The author of the acclaimed series of legal mysteries featuring Harry Devlin, he is also a critic and has edited various short story collections.
www.martinedwardsbooks.com
By Martin Edwards
LAKE DISTRICT MYSTERIES
The Coffin Trail
The Cipher Garden
The Arsenic Labyrinth
The Serpent Pool
HARRY DEVLIN NOVELS
Waterloo Sunset
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
London W1T 4EJ
www.allisonandbusby.com
Hardcover published in Great Britain in 2010.
Paperback edition published in 2011.
This ebook edition published in 2011.
Copyright © 2010 by MARTIN EDWARDS
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Lyrics to the song ‘Him’ are used by express permission of its author, Rupert Holmes. ‘Him’ words and music by Rupert Holmes, copyright 1979, 2009. All rights reserved
ISBN 978–0–7490–1026–3