Dead Man's Time

and watched the banner headlines. When he had finished eating he picked up another of the books on the history of the White Hand Gang and
turned to the index, looking for one name in particular. There were six different page references against it. He began to read through them; the further he read, the more he became convinced.
    Then he was distracted by Humphrey suddenly sitting up and giving a single bark.
    He turned to see Cleo standing at the bottom of the stairs, holding several silk ties in her hand and wearing nothing but a very horny smile.

70
    ‘What you smiling about, old timer?’ Glenn Branson asked.
    It was 8.25 a.m. Grace looked up from his desk, holding a half-eaten Trudie’s bacon sarnie in his hand. ‘The report from yesterday’s progress at the trial. It’s looking
good for us.’
    Branson swivelled around the chair in front of his desk, and sat astride it, placing his hands on the back. He looked like he had just bitten into a lemon. During the arrest of Carl Venner,
Branson had been shot, the bullet, fortunately, missing all of his internal organs. ‘Glad to hear it. Would hate to think it went any other way.’
    ‘How’s you?’
    ‘Full on damage limitation. Ari did a great job of poisoning my kids against me. I’ve got an unexpected ally in her sister, who turns out to be a great Ari fan –
not.’
    ‘What about the boyfriend?’
    ‘He had the nerve to come round for some of his possessions – and to give me verbal for changing the locks! Told him if he wanted his stuff, he’d better start looking in the
local skips. Can you believe it, the kids wanted to see him?’
    ‘I can believe it, matey. Of course they’re missing him. Remember, their lives have been turned totally upside down. For the past year or so he’s been their father figure.
You’re going to have to take it one step at a time. One day your kids will realize what a decent guy you are.’
    ‘You think so?’
    ‘Sure. Give ’em thirty years or so to adjust – you know – to the fact you left their CDs all over the floor and regularly forgot to feed their goldfish.’
    ‘I don’t know why I like you,’ Branson said. ‘You know, sometimes you remind me of that bastard Popeye Doyle in
The French Connection.’
    ‘Didn’t he handcuff his girlfriend to his bed?’
    ‘In the opening scene. Or maybe she handcuffed him.’
    Grace smiled.
    ‘That’s a very dirty grin.’
    Grace nodded, memories of last night still vivid in his mind. ‘Yeah. Very!’
    ‘Cleo’s a bit kinky, is she?’
    Grace gave him a shrug. ‘You’re a movie buff. You like Woody Allen, don’t you?’
    ‘Not everything, but some, yeah.’
    ‘So don’t you remember, in
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex
?’
    Branson frowned. Then he nodded. ‘Yeah! Someone asked him if sex was dirty. And he replied, “Only if it’s done right!”’
    Grace smiled, then tried to prise a bit of bacon free from between two of his teeth.
    Branson lowered his chin onto his folded arms. ‘Ari and me, we used to do it right, once. It goes; that’s the bummer. You have kids, and it goes.’ He raised a warning finger.
‘Don’t let it go – despite your age!’
    ‘Thanks for the advice!’ Grace looked at his watch. ‘Okay, two minutes,’ he said.

71
    Grace began the 8.30 a.m. briefing by launching straight into the hypothesis that had been churning in his mind all night. ‘Okay, team, Gavin Daly’s son Lucas went
to Marbella and, according to the airline’s passenger list, he was accompanied by a character named Augustine Krasniki. Our Interpol sources tell us Krasniki has a string of convictions for
assault back in his native Albania. In one of them, he gouged both eyeballs out of a male victim who had defaulted on a debt, leaving him permanently blind. But thanks to our bleeding heart liberal
European laws, we have to let this monster in and give him money and free health treatment. Our same Interpol sources tell us that two people were found dead on Sunday morning – Anthony
Macario and Kenneth Barnes.’ He looked at Annalise Vineer. ‘You have some information about them, I believe?’
    The indexer looked down at her notes. ‘Yes, sir. Both of them were employed as yacht crew by Eamonn Pollock, on his boat
Contented
, which is permanently berthed in Puerto Banus.
We know that Pollock has a record for handling stolen watches and clocks. Macario has a string of previous convictions for aggravated burglary, as well