Thicker Than Water. Lindy Cameron

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СКАЧАТЬ latest variation of the same thing. Unlike my hair, which Mum is partly responsible for, hers always looks good."

      "Yours is wonderful, Kit; it has character," Enzo proclaimed.

      Kit laughed. "Thank you Enzo, but my hair looks like some mini-yous - as in tiny Scotsmen, not sheep - are flinging Highland-like through it, on speed. Now, do you guys think we could get down to business? Please."

      Enzo responded immediately, with an eloquent flourish of his right hand that delivered an envelope into Kit's. She opened it and pulled out two official invitations to...

      "Oh no, what on earth is a Metro Blaazt?" she asked.

      "You're kidding!" Hector exclaimed, excitedly and with demonstrative wriggling. "It's only the coolest nightclub in Melbourne, O'Malley." He almost snatched the gold-embossed cards from her hand, but decided to lean over the table to ogle them instead. "Oh, mate! These are for the grand opening; they're for then, for that, for..."

      "For you, Hector," Kit smiled. "One of them is, anyway; so don't say I never give you anything. I'm not even going to ask how a place yet to be grandly opened, can already be the coolest in town. But Enzo," she groaned, "when you said 'an opening' I thought you meant an art gallery. I hate nightclubs."

      "Honeylamb," Enzo shrugged, "these invitations are not unlike hen's teeth. The junior-duke Gregor and his lady-love Vanessa, will be at this Blaazted thing, because come Sunday it will be the place to be. As I've no desire to be within miles of a thing so gauchely straight, I figured you and your sideshoot could trot along there and spy on our star-spangled lovers."

      "If they're so rare how did you get them?" Kit queried.

      "Comrade Tereshenko himself gave them to me yesterday, when I lunched with him, his paramour, and her Mummy-not-so Dearest."

      "I feel like I'm in a daytime soap," Hector said morosely; whereon Kit and Enzo filled him in on their job for Sarah Boyes-Lang.

      "Cool," Hector said, turning the invitation over and over to check for extra perks or hidden agendas. "Now, I have something for you, O'Malley. Hold your hand out."

      Kit did as she was told and Hector dropped a tiny clear plastic doodad into it. "Oh, that's lovely Hector, but you shouldn't have."

      "Stick it in your ear, O'Malley."

      "Really? Or is that like an insult?" she asked, putting the logical end of the extra-soft thing in her right ear... "Thank you Enzo, but my hair looks like some mini-yous - as in tiny Scotsmen not sheep..." Kit's own voice said to her.

      "Whoa!" she pulled the doodad out of her ear and stuck it in Enzo's. "Where's the mike?"

      Hector drummed his fingers on the table. "Is this a ring you see before you?"

      "Good god," Enzo said, raising his hand to his auricle.

      "No such thing, Lorenzo," Kit sighed. "So where's the tape recorder?"

      Hector unclipped a beeper-sized device from his belt and handed it to Kit. "It's a mini-disc not a tape, O'Malley. The mike to recorder range is about fifteen metres, so you can either wear it like this and get in close like I've been; or you can hide the recorder nearby, even outside a window. You place this bit," he pulled a tiny silver device from the centre of his ring to demonstrate, "in the best spot for picking up whatever it is you want.

      "It's noise activated and will pick up immediate-vicinity dialogue with ripper clarity. It'll also record voices or sounds for up to a five-metre radius from the mike, as long as there's no ambient noise like music, or too many voices like there are here. As you heard, our chat was crystal clear but we couldn't pick up Spick and Span over there."

      "I'm full of amaze," Kit grinned. "And so glad I've got you to find and understand all this stuff for me, Hector. So I don't ever have to. In fact, I'm officially retreating to the O'Malley Investigations Techno Vacuum, coz in this area I have no skills and I fear I'm one step away from future-phobia. Except, of course, that the future is sitting on this table."

      Hector squinted at her. "Did someone beam your mind out, O'Malley? You can't be future-phobic, you're an science fiction fan."

      "Yeah, in the abstract," Kit agreed. "As in the fi part, not the sci stuff; as in warp speed and transporters, not as in how TVs or mobiles work. And as for this, this spooky stuff of yours - or, you know, electricity..." She pointed at a small leather-cased thing, "Like I thought that, which is huge by comparison, was your new 'little' listening toy."

      Hector grinned, unzipped the case and pulled out a sleek silver thing, no bigger than a pack of cards . "This, my Captain, is my new little watching toy. It a digital video camera."

      "Okay, that's it. I'm going to live in a cave."

      "It's so cute," Enzo laughed. "Ooh, do me a favour and take a picture of Ding and Dong."

      "Haven't you done that yet?" Hector asked,

      "No. Why would I? I'm the one being investigated."

      Hector ran his thumb along one sleek, narrow side, flipped open the world's tiniest screen and placed the camera next to Enzo's glass. Glancing down casually, he adjusted the camera's position slightly as he spoke. "So, O'Malley, we have a date at the Metro Blaazt on Sunday?"

      "A date indeed," Kit nodded. "Before that, however..."

      "I know," Hector raised his palms, "you want me to trace the Russian's international movements. Man, I feel like the spy who came in from the rain."

      "I do want you to do that, yes," Kit agreed, "but I was also wondering if you're doing anything tonight. I mean this evening for an hour, or so."

      Hector scratched his head thoughtfully. "I'm meeting a friend for dinner later, but I can do whatever with you until 7.30, as long as it takes no more than half an hour to get home from wherever we're going. Does that help?"

      "It's perfect. I need back up when I pay a visit on Queenie Riley."

      Enzo raised his hands dramatically and said, "Um?"

      "What?" Kit queried.

      "What indeed!" Enzo declared. "What have you done with the Kit O'Malley who, just last night, said that checking out the Rileys was something no sensible person would do without a whole force of nice police persons covering their cute little arse?"

      "Ah well you see, that was last night before Queenie herself paid a visit to The Terpsichore wishing to talk to Angie about what she'd found. The cops wouldn't let Ma Riley do that but, in order to prevent a repeat visit, I'm going to head trouble off at the corner of Wessex and Vine, by dropping in on the sweet old thing myself. I can answer any questions she has about the finding of the very dead body of her sweet nephew Gerald."

      "O'Malley?" Hector said, extra-cheerfully. "I'm sorry, but I believe I've just remembered a prior, earlier, important engagement."

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