The Best of British Crime omnibus
Page 60
‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Don’t shoot.’
He knew what was going through Judy’s mind. Not just the pain he had inflicted on her, but Linda Wade’s ruined looks, Peter Newton’s callous murder, the sacrificial deaths of Tom Dawson and Arnold Conway.
‘For God’s sake, Dawson,’ he said as Harry got to his feet. ‘Get that gun from her.’
Harry moved round beside Judy.
‘I’ll take the gun, Judy. Don’t worry. If he gets up off his knees I’ll kill him.’
Twenty minutes later Judy and Harry stood on the pavement outside St. John’s Wood Station. They were silent as they watched Hubert Rogers, now handcuffed to a uniformed constable, being hustled quickly through the crowd and into the back of a police car. It drew away from the kerb and soon its flashing blue light disappeared among the thickening midday traffic.
The pavement was wet from a recent shower, but now the sun had come out again. Everything seemed very clear and gleaming.
Harry turned to Judy, whose injured arm was tucked under her coat, resting on the button for support.
‘Thank you, Judy. Without your help we’d never—’ He broke off. It was hard to find the right words. ‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I feel like a strong cup of coffee,’ Judy said. ‘Preferably with a tot of whisky in it.’
‘That’s not a bad idea. But I mean – after that?’
She stared up the street, not really seeing it. The wisp of hair had worked loose again and was playing over her brow.
‘I don’t know. I’ve been offered a job in Manchester, but I’m not sure whether to take it or not. I thought I might go away for a week or two. I feel I’ve earned a holiday.’
‘That’s a good idea. Why don’t you go to The Priory at Steeple Aston? It’s quiet, it’s a very nice hotel and as I told you, the manager and his wife are friends of mine.’
‘Yes. I might do that.’ She turned towards him, a slightly mischievous smile playing round her lips. ‘Steeple Aston. I suppose that would mean catching a train from Paddington?’
‘No,’ Harry said with mock seriousness. ‘Certainly not Paddington.’
‘Euston, then?’
‘No.’
‘King’s Cross?’
Harry shook his head again and they both laughed. He took her firmly by the arm, the good arm, and led her towards a coffee bar a hundred yards down the road.
‘You don’t take a train at all. Let’s go and have that coffee and I’ll tell you my plan for solving the problem.’
Crime List
ANDREW GARVE
Murder in Moscow
No Mask For Murder
The Cuckoo Line Affair
The Megstone Plot
The Narrow Search
The Prisoner’s Friend
The House of Soldiers
Murderer’s Fen
A Press of Suspects
A Hole in the Ground
A Hero for Leanda
The Golden Deed
The Sea Monks
The Ashes of Loda
A Very Quiet Place
The Long Short Cut
The Case of Robert Quarry
The File on Lester
Home to Roost
Counterstroke
The Galloway Case
DAVID WILLIAMS
Murder in Advent
Wedding Treasure
Divided Treasure
Treasure in Oxford
Holy Treasure!
Prescription for Murder
Treasure by Post
Banking on Murder
Murder for Treasure
“Copper, Gold and Treasure”
Treasure Preserved
Planning on Murder
FRANCIS DURBRIDGE
The Pig-Tail Murder
The Passenger
The Desperate People
My Wife Melissa
A Game of Murder
The Other Man
HESTER ROWAN
Overture in Venice
The Linden Tree
Snowfall
JOHN BUXTON HILTON
Death of An Alderman
Hangman’s Tide
No Birds Sang
Some Run Crooked
The Anathema Stone
Playground of Death
Surrender Value
The Green Frontier
The Sunset Law
The Asking Price
Corridors of Guilt
The Hobbema Prospect
Passion in the Peak
Moondrop to Murder
The Innocents at Home
Displaced Persons
Gamekeeper’s Gallows
Dead-Nettle
Mr Fred
The Quiet Stranger
Slickensides
JOHN GREENWOOD
“Murder, Mr Mosley”
Mosley by Moonlight
Mosley Went to Mow
Mists Over Mosley
The Mind of Mr Mosley
“What Me, Mr Mosley”
JOSEPHINE BELL
The Summer School Mystery
The China Roundabout
The Hunter and the Trapped
A Flat Tyre in Fulham
Death on the Reserve
A Hydra with Six Heads
A Question of Inheritance
The Upfold Witch
The Fennister Affair
Death at the Medical Board
Death in Clairvoyance
Bones in the Barrow
Hell’s Pavement
Death in Retirement
Double Doom
Easy Prey
The House Above the River
A Well Known Face
Adventure with Crime
The Trouble in Hunter Ward
Such a Nice Client
A Swan-Song Betrayed
Wolf! Wolf!
The Innocent
Safety First
The Alien
No Escape
The Catalyst
The Wilberforce Legacy
A Hole in the Ground
Death of a Poison Tongue
A Pigeon Among the Cats
Victim
PAUL SOMERS
Beginner’s Luck
The Shivering Mountain
Operation Piracy
ROGER BAX
Death Beneath Jerusalem
Came the Dawn
A Grave Case of Murder
ROY VICKERS
Murder of a Snob
Gold and Wine
Murder in Two Flats
The Sole Survivor
The Kynsard Affair
Murdering Mr Velfrage
Find the Innocent
S T HAYMON
Death and the Pregnant Virgin
Ritual Murder
Stately Homicide
Death of a God
A Very Particular Murder
Death of a Warrior Queen
A Beautiful Death
Death of a Hero
SHEILA RADLEY
Death and the Maiden
The Chief Inspector’s Daughter
A Talent for Destruction
Blood on the Happy Highway
Fate Worse than Death
Who Saw Him Die?
This Way Out
Cross My Heart and Hope to Die
Fair Game
New Blood from Old Bones
Synopsis
Murder In Moscow (1951) Foreign correspondent George Verney, travelling to Moscow by train to report for his newspaper on post-war changes there, finds himself in the company of a pro-Soviet delegation from England. His aloof attitude towards his fellow passengers receives a jolt, however, when one of them is murdered in Moscow. He refuses to accept the official Russian explanation of the crime and, better versed than most foreigners in Soviet tactics of every kind, he does his own investigating – giving a shrewd and often amusing picture of life behind the Iron Curtain.
A Game of Murd
er (1975) A young Scotland Yard CIT officer is on leave when his father dies in a golfing accident. But Harry Dawson won’t let the mystery go, for mystery it is. Who is the young man seen on the golf links? Why is everyone so interested in a dog collar? What is the connection with the man in the pet shop? Is it really possible that the housekeeper’s nephew can be inept as he seems? And where is the housekeeper?
Francis Durbridge’s twisting, turning plot drips suspense on every page, quickening into a flood of action and mystery that keeps the reader guessing till the very end.
Prescription for Murder (1990) When a group pledged to stopping experiments on animals demonstrates at a Closter Drug Company news conference, set to make fortunes for the directors of the company, the action is seen as no more than embarrassing. But the kidnap of one of the Closter directors that follows cannot be so easily ignored, especially when, instead of a ransom, the kidnappers demand that the other directors sell their company shares at a crippling loss. No one understands what the kidnappers themselves are gaining by this, until banker Mark Treasure – the non-executive Chairman of Closter Drug – returns from an American trip and works out what’s really happening. Even so he is too late to prevent two murders and the stock market skulduggery that decimates Closter management and threatens to wipe out the company.
Copyright
Murder In Moscow first published in 1951 by Collins First published by Bello 2012 Copyright © Andrew Garve, 1951 The right of Andrew Garve to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Prescription For Murder first published in 1990 by Macmillan UK First published by Bello 2012 Copyright © David Williams, 1990 The right of David Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A Game of Murder first published in 1975 by Hodder & Stoughton First published by Bello 2012 Copyright © Francis Durbridge, 1975 The right of Francis Durbridge to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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