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McCreadie says, “If you two gentlemen would watch the body for us, we would greatly appreciate it. One of you can stand guard in here and the other at the front door, please.”
“Dear God,” I say as I open another drawer and pull out a wrapped piece of hard cheese. “The man is a squirrel. There are stashes of food everywhere.”
I glance over to Gray, who is staring down into a desk drawer.
“More food?” I say with a sigh.
He slaps it shut. “No.”
“But you did find something.”
“Nothing that would have poisoned him.”
“Ah. Porn?”
Across the room, McCreadie chokes.
“Sorry,” I say. “Literature of a pornographic nature. Is that better?”
“Not really,” Gray says. “But yes, that is what it is.”
“Can I look?” I say. “I’m really quite curious about what constitutes pornography in this time. Pretty girls showing off their ankles?”
McCreadie chokes on another laugh. “You truly do have an interesting view of our world, Mallory. I am not certain whether to be amused or offended.”
“You personally prefer porn that shows more than ankles. Got it.”
His laugh turns to a horrified sputter as his cheeks redden.
“Adorable,” I say. “You are utterly adorable, Detective McCreadie.”
“Fine,” he says. “I deserved that. Now, can we focus on gathering this food please? There is quite enough of it to keep us occupied.”
“True, but on second thought, I actually am going to need to confiscate the porn. Remember what I said about Mrs. Young’s secret profession?”
McCreadie’s color rises again. “Er, yes. I suppose… That is to say, it could be a link, so we really ought to…” He clears his throat. “Duncan, would you say something, please?”
“I agree that we must take it,” Gray says. “And do not worry, Hugh. I will not fight you for the right to examine it more closely. You may do so yourself, in the privacy of your own home, with my blessing.”
More sputtering and blushing from McCreadie, which reallyisadorable.
“Do you guys want me to look at it?” I say. “I have a description of Mrs. Young, though it’d be better if I’d met her. We’re working on that, right?”
McCreadie says, “If by ‘we,’ you mean ‘me,’ I am not only working on it but have secured an interview for tomorrow.”
“Good lad.”
I get a look for that, but I ignore it and open the drawer. Yep, that’s porn, several chapbooks’ worth. I take them out and leaf through the first, which seems to be a mix of text and images. The text is so shoddily printedit’s almost unreadable, but as with modern porn, I suspect the story isn’t the point.
The pictures are the main attraction, and they are particularly interesting in a world that predates easy photography. Theyarephotographs, but grainy, with the women looking in the other direction, probably to disguise their expression, which after hours of posing, would not exactly be coquettish.
I’m turning the page when McCreadie clears his throat. “I believe you can do that later, Mallory.”
“When you’re not there to watch me reading it?”
When he sputters, I close the book and tuck the chapbooks into a box of food we are collecting. “There. Better? If it helps, half my modern-day male coworkers would have reacted the same way. Another quarter of them would have snickered and made lewd jokes.”
“And the fourth quarter?” Gray asks.
