Free The Coercion Key by Catriona King Page B

sniffed, ever practical. “The mortuary’s full of dead people but most of them didn’t die in such an interesting way.” She warmed to her theme. “John told me about this one case where…”
    Katy stood up and Natalie stared at her in surprise. “I don’t want to hear it, Nat, at least not over lunch.”
    Natalie waved her down. “OK, OK, keep your hair on. What’s eating you?”
    “I was trying to talk to you about Marc Craig and you turned it into a diatribe about dead people!”
    Natalie thought back over the conversation then laughed aloud. Katy was right; she had. She leaned in with a mock-attentive look on her face.
    “OK, then, tell me all about Mr Wonderful.”
    “Don’t you like Marc?”
    “I like Marc fine. In fact I’d go as far as saying I like him a lot. He’s kind and he’s funny, when he’s not being anal about his work.”
    “But?”
    Natalie sat back and threw her hands up in the air. “But nothing. God, Katy, you can read something into nothing better than anyone I know. I wasn’t damning him with faint praise, I was telling the truth. I really like him.” She smiled knowingly. “Although not half as much as you obviously do.” She glanced around the canteen then leaned in like a conspirator. “I thought that you and Rowan…”
    Katy set her jaw. “Rowan and I are just friends.”
    “That’s not what I saw at the radiologists’ party last week. I’m sure I saw you slow dancing with him and there wasn’t much space between your lips.”
    “Natalie!”
    “I’m just saying. If you like Marc Craig then you should do something about it, before Rowan gets the wrong idea.”
    Katy shook her head shyly. Her long blonde waves fell across her face hiding her expression. Natalie reached across and pushed them back like a mother.
    “If I ever have a daughter I’m going to make her shave her head, or at least tie her hair back. I can’t stand people hiding behind their hair.”
    Katy smiled at Natalie’s long dark curls, they were pulled into a low ponytail down her back and Katy knew they wouldn’t dare try to escape. She returned to the subject of Craig.
    “I can’t ask him out.”
    “Why not? I practically did with John. He might like to think he did it, but really I made it impossible for him not to.”
    Katy gawped at her. “I wouldn’t have a clue what to do, and anyway…” She turned away and said something that Natalie couldn’t hear. She didn’t need to hear it, she already knew what it was. “I’m shy.”
    And she was. Terminally shy. She was worse than a teenage girl. Katy was still speaking. “He knows where I live and I gave him my card when we met last year at that art gallery, but he didn’t call. He didn’t even ask me to dance at your engagement party. So…”
    Natalie wasn’t listening, she was already making plans. If Mohammed wouldn’t come to the mountain then it would have to be vice versa, and two weeks in a hot country while she got married would give Craig no chance to escape. She interrupted Katy rudely.
    “What are you doing in August?”
    “What? I don’t know. It’s too far away to think.”
    “Well I do. You’re being my bridesmaid on an island. Somewhere that even Marc Craig, John’s best man won’t be able to escape from.”
    ***
    The C.C.U. 2 p.m.
     
    Craig swung his chair around to face the window, certain that he wouldn’t be disturbed for an hour. He’d promised Nicky one whole hour from three to four p.m. to go through her list of things for him to do. In exchange she wasn’t to allow anybody through his door until then and she had his permission to bite anyone who tried. He pictured her sinking her teeth into Liam’s leg and laughed. They flirted mercilessly with each other but so far it hadn’t gone further than that, leaving both their hearts intact. If it ever progressed Craig hoped he was long gone; he wouldn’t have a clue whose side to take.
    He turned his mind back to the case. Four deaths, four apparent