Free Human Frailty, a Detective Mike Bridger novel by Mark Bredenbeck Page A

previous evening,
filling in a few more blank spots.
    The traffic lights changed from green to
amber then to red. He stopped his car, having to apply the
handbrake on the slight incline. Above him, spotlights were shining
on the Cathedral and Town Hall at the top of the Octagon.
    Bridger was no student of architecture but
he had read the plaques placed under the buildings. It was
something he and Laura had done when they had first arrived in
Dunedin. They had built the town hall in both the Neo Baroque and
Neo Renaissance styles for reasons long forgotten to him. St Paul's
Cathedral, he had read, was the mother Church of the Anglican
Dioceses of New Zealand, all useless information that seemed to
stick in his memory.
    The statue of Robert Burns was sitting
steadfast at their feet, both grand old ladies proudly watching
over him. I bet he does not have a hangover, despite spending his
life in the Octagon, he thought.
    Bridger smiled to himself at the thought of
the statue Robert swilling from the left over cans of intoxicated
revelers.
    There were fairy lights strung in the trees
lining the road through the middle of the Octagon on the main
carriageway, glittering in the winter twilight. At this time of
night, the Octagon had a more genteel feel about it as if it was an
older more civilized time in its history.
    He wondered what Robert Burns would have
made of the city and its inhabitants that now lay out before
him.
    The lights changed and he moved off as he
pushed a compact disc into the stereo system. It was something he
always looked forward to, a chance to unwind on the short journey
home. It was Gregorian Chants, the rich baritones of the religious
choir unaccompanied. Bridger was not religious in any way. He had
stumbled across the music one day but he had found the mellow tones
helped to relax him as he drove. It suited Dunedin's architecture
and history.
    He drove further from the Octagon letting
the music wash over him. He had installed a new sound system
recently and it had certainly made a difference. It was worth more
than his car, but it was well worth the expense, he could almost
pick out every subtle note.
    The Gregorian ’ s were in full chorus as he turned
right into High Street and started driving steeply uphill, his 20
year old Toyota crunching as it changed down a gear before
struggling on. He wondered how the electric trams used to grind
their way up the hill back in the early 1900's.
    The large Victorian homes that clung on to
the steep incline of High Street went by slowly, some of them
gothic in style, the music helping him to imagine the history of
them.
    They had converted many of these houses into
flats, but some remained large family homes, or bed and breakfasts
catering mostly to the tourists. He actually knew someone who owned
one of the bigger houses, but all he ever heard was complaints
about how much it cost to heat.
    For the most part, unsuspecting people would
only see the charm of the facade on these homes that they saw from
the street as they made their way uphill. A facade that was only as
thick as the walls shielding some of the occupants from view. They
were beautiful buildings housing many different people.
    Maybe it was the hangover but he was
thinking he had a rather jaded view of this area as he drove into
Mornington.
    The drive took just over five minutes but
when he finally pulled up outside his address, he was done in, the
hangover that had been hanging around all day finally starting to
win the battle. Parking on the road and looking at his darkened
house, he switched off the music. Silence invaded his head.
    He had been mentally rehearsing what he
would say to Laura on the drive home, but not having come up with
anything substantial he was partly relieved to see that her car was
not in the driveway. It would give him a bit of time to wash up,
maybe prepare a bit of dinner, and open a bottle of something nice.
That might help things a bit.
    The note he found on the kitchen