‘Why bother with a letter when she knows I’ll be speaking to her today, anyway?’ ‘Manners, I suppose,’ suggested Karen. ‘And I think she’s got too much time on her hands, all these weeks of holiday from college.’ ‘I don’t remember that being a problem for you when you were teaching.’ ‘No, well I had you, didn’t I?’ she gushed playfully. ‘Penn doesn’t seem to have anyone to distract her.’ ‘I could phone her from the office, tell her everything we found yesterday. That could give her something to think about.’ ‘You won’t have time,’ Karen reminded him. ‘You’ve got all the preparations for Mr French’s funeral. They’ll want it this week, won’t they?’ ‘Thursday,’ he said distractedly. ‘I should think.’ ‘And it might be better to wait for her to phone you. Then she’ll be paying for the call.’ ‘Good thinking,’ he said, wishing they didn’t have to watch the pennies quite so closely. ‘Look, there’s Maggs,’ Karen changed the subject.
