‘Wouldn’t have hurt to have had that earlier,’ sniffed Frost. He pulled the inventory from his pocket. Now to face Mullett.
A cry of recognition from Jill Knight. ‘So that’s where it’s been. I’ve been looking for it everywhere.’
Frost could only watch and wonder as she took the blank inventory return from him and began pounding the computer keyboard. At her side, the dot-matrix printer clunked, then the print-head screeched as it shuttled back and forth, hammering out columns of figures on continuous stationery.
‘Inspector Allen put the inventory details on computer before he went off sick,’ she explained. ‘I’ve been hunting high and low for that return.’
Frost pulled out his cigarettes and poked one in her mouth. ‘Will it take long?’
She leant forward to receive a light. ‘You can have it now.’
She tore the sheets from the printer, clipped them together and handed them over.
Frost wound the scarf round his neck and buttoned up his mac. ‘I don’t know whether to kiss you or the bloody computer.’
With a happy, off-key whistle hampered by the cigarette in his mouth, Detective Inspector Jack Frost sashayed up the corridor. Gilmore, a thin look of contempt on his face, watched him go. Thank heaven Inspector Allen would be back on Monday and he’d be working with a real copper for a change.