What Will Burn by James Oswald (ebook reader web .txt) 📕

everything’s fine and you’ll be whisked from airport to dig site without even seeing any over-zealous officials, but every single time I come to Africa it’s the same. You have to have all your paperwork done, sure. But you also have to pay every single pen-pushing, rubber-stamping bureaucrat who puts himself in your path. And it’s always him, never her. God save me from this . . .’ Turner trailed off just as McLean had assumed she was getting into full flow and taken a drink from his glass of beer. He swallowed it down too quickly and almost choked.

‘So the whole thing’s fallen through because you didn’t bribe the right people?’ he asked after a moment’s silent wheezing.

‘Don’t use the B word, Tony. Not on an open line.’ Professor Turner sighed. ‘And anyway, this time I don’t think any amount of money would have saved the day.’

‘What’s gone wrong?’ McLean counted the days, and the few phone calls from Emma, in his head. As far as he was aware they’d arrived at the dig site and started working weeks ago.

‘We had a visit from one of the local politicians. Well, I say politician, but mob boss might be a better description. Maybe tribal chief. He didn’t have a problem with the dig and the results we’ve had so far, but he couldn’t get his head around the fact that I was in charge and more than half my crew are women. Kept asking to speak to the boss man. Emphasis on the man bit.’

McLean remembered his conversation earlier in the day with Detective Superintendent McIntyre; her suggestion he take some leave and go out to join Emma after her work was finished. He’d dismissed the idea pretty much out of hand, but then why not?

‘I could always come out and pretend,’ he said.

Hattie laughed. ‘That’s a kind offer, Tony, but it’s a bit too late for that. Our invitation has been withdrawn, apparently. Emma will give you a call once she’s got the flights sorted out. She has the patience of a saint, that one. But then she’s put up with you all these years so that’s hardly surprising. Helps that she’s travelled through these parts before, too. She’s busy calling in a few old favours, which is why I got lumped with phoning everyone to let them know. Meg’s next on the list, so I’d better call her before she gets started on the booze. We’ll see you in a week or so.’

McLean thanked her for calling him, wished her well and then hung up. He looked at the congealed mess of spiced lamb, salad and sauces, glistening in its pitta bread and still contained by the environmentally disastrous expanded polystyrene box. It had seemed a good idea at the time, but now he felt too weary for food. He’d managed to grab a few canapés at the chief superintendent’s house, so it wasn’t as if he’d not eaten anything since breakfast. The beer on an almost empty stomach had given him a fuzzy edge that should at least mean getting to sleep would be easy, although the quality of that sleep might be up for debate. Draining the last of the pint, he closed the lid on the takeaway, then glanced over to where the two cats were staring at him like they’d never been fed in their entire lives.

‘You can have it for breakfast. And out in the utility room. It’s bad enough when you leave mouse entrails all over the kitchen floor. I don’t want to come down to kebab everywhere.’

McLean shoved the container back in the single use plastic bag, wrapped it tight and shoved it in the fridge. He rinsed out his glass and set it on the rack to dry, then took up his phone from the table and headed off for bed. As he walked up the stairs, he thought about Hattie’s call, the news Emma would be home soon. Much sooner than expected. Their relationship had been through a rough patch recently, starting with her miscarriage if not probably before. For a while now it had felt a bit like they were two people orbiting each other distantly, living in the same house but otherwise barely communicating at all. And yet, as he pushed open the bedroom door and switched on the light, he found himself sad to see the wide bed empty, and very glad indeed that it wouldn’t be so for much longer.

46

‘I’m very disappointed in you, Tony.’

Yet another early morning. McLean had hoped to be in his office and hard at work before the chief superintendent had even left her home. Given the state of the reception when he’d slipped out the night before, it had seemed a fair assumption she wouldn’t be in first thing. As it was, he’d managed an hour before the summons to her office, every one of the dozen or so steps along the corridor feeling like the walk of shame he remembered from his hated boarding school. Called up in front of the headmaster for some imagined misdemeanour.

‘Is there a problem?’ he asked, once it became clear Elmwood wasn’t going to tell him what had disappointed her. He knew, of course. Or at least he could narrow it down to two or three things, possibly a combination of all of them.

‘You sloped off without saying goodbye last night.’

‘An important phone call.’ The excuse was out before he’d fully considered the ramifications, but fortunately the chief superintendent wasn’t interested in details. At least not right away. She’d been sitting behind her desk, but now she stood, smoothed down her uniform, and gestured for him to join her in the casual corner.

‘You also upset poor old Reggie Bairnfather. Making unfounded allegations.’ As she spoke, Elmwood set about pouring coffee for two, which suggested this dressing-down wasn’t going to be too harsh.

‘I was just a little surprised to find out where you were living, ma— Gail. I . . . knew the previous owner, Alan Lewis.’

‘I know. Jane Louise told me