‘Ugly to see women fight, Lovejoy. That Veronica is a virago.’
‘Is that it?’
‘And Daniella, your favourite sex pole therapist.’
‘What the hell for?’
‘Daniella’s the one who bought your cottage. Veronica had barricaded Daniella out and the police were called. Your past sins are starting to annoy us, Lovejoy. Straighten things out, soon. Have a pleasant stay.’
‘Joanna,’ I barked just in time to prevent her ringing off. ‘Look. Could I ask a favour? In the interests of, er, cooperation?’
‘Go on,’ she purred, enjoying herself. I shouldn’t have made that crack about speed-dating scrubbers.
‘Could you say you don’t know where I am? Just for a few days?’
‘Judging from the pleasant slumber you enjoyed with Jonetta Farnacott, you are fully recovered, Lovejoy. So, no.’
Gulp. The swine were watching me. Well, in for a penny. I wheedled, ‘I’ll help you with the antiques frauds, Joanna.’
‘Until all these combative women flit from your rafters, you mean?’
It took me three goes to say it. ‘Yes.’
‘Say “yes, please, Joanna”.’
Four goes this time, and a long swallow.
‘Good,’ she purred. ‘Want a lift back to Jonetta’s?’
‘No, ta. I know the way.’
She laughed and said, ‘Welcome home, Lovejoy.’
HISTORICAL NOTE
The ‘Faces in the Pool’ Lovejoy meets in this tale of antiques mayhem are no mere myth. They are features of history.
Called by modern chroniclers the ‘Last Colonials’, they were displaced from their homelands centuries ago yet remain the most staunchly independent of all ethnic groups.
The Germans of Jamaica, the Yiddish of Soviet Birobidzan, the Welsh of Uruguay, clusters of Old Confederates who took refuge in Brazil from America’s Civil War, the Poles sent by Napoleon to Haiti, or the resolute Basters of the ‘Free Republic of Rehoboth’ in Namibia, the myriad remnants survive in almost every corner of the world. They live uniquely independent lives.
In his years working and living overseas, the author encountered many such admirable peoples, and his memories of them are the inspiration for this story. If his tale offends any, he is sorry; if it pleases, he is glad.
The words of the modern historian Riccardo Orizio say it well: ‘But all of us, beneath our apparent normality, belong to a lost tribe.’ However bizarre the origins and opinions of the Lost White Tribes, Lovejoy admired every single one he met.
Jonathan Gash
About the Author
JONATHAN GASH is an award-winning author who has been writing for thirty-five years. A retired doctor, he worked for many years in the Middle and Far East.
AVAILABLE FROM
The Lovejoy Series
The Ten Word Game
Faces in the Pool
The Dr Clare Burtonall Series
Bone Dancing
Blood Dancing
Other Crime Fiction
The Year of the Woman
Finding Davey
Bad Girl Magdalene
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
13 Charlotte Mews
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2008.
This ebook edition first published in 2012.
Copyright © 2008 by JONATHAN GASH
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.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1184–0