The Consultant's Italian Knight. Maggie Kingsley

reliable source, I’m also occasionally a complete and utter bastard.’

      ‘Then maybe it’s time you got out more,’ she said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm. ‘Opened your eyes, smelt the flowers, and saw what a beautiful world this can be.’

      ‘Despite all the wars, famines, drugs, unnecessary deaths and diseases?’ he observed.

      ‘Despite even that,’ she said stoutly, and to her surprise he smiled again, but this time it was the smile which completely softened his face.

      The smile which stupidly—ridiculously—made her wish she’d made time for that hairdresser’s appointment, lost some weight, maybe even bought herself a new blouse. Something pretty, feminine, and…

      She really had to get a grip. Good grief, her divorce had only just come through this morning, and just because this man was standing close to her—so very close—and smiling that smile…

      He was probably married, with umpteen kids, and, even if he wasn’t one look at him should have been enough to tell her she’d be toast if she ever got involved with him.

      ‘Look, can we get out of this cupboard now?’ she exclaimed.

      ‘What?’

      ‘This cupboard—I don’t think we need to be in here any more, do you?’

      ‘Probably not, but I was kind of beginning to enjoy it.’

      He was also enjoying wrong-footing her, she realised, seeing the glint of laughter in his blue eyes, but she wasn’t going to play. Not when she had the very decided feeling that she would lose.

      ‘If there’s nothing else, I really do have to get back to work,’ she said, reaching for the door handle only to feel an annoying jolt of sensation as her arm brushed across his chest.

      ‘There’s just a couple more things,’ he replied. ‘I’d prefer it if you didn’t tell anybody what you’ve told me, and I’d also prefer it if you didn’t tell your colleagues that Ralph Evanton and I are policemen. The fewer people who know anything about what happened here tonight the better.’

      ‘That’s fine by me,’ she said but, as she opened the cupboard door, and squeezed past him, her heart sank.

      Terri was standing outside in the treatment room, and it was all too obvious from the look on her face that she’d got completely the wrong idea of what she and Inspector Volante might have been getting up to in the cupboard.

      ‘Terri, this is…’

      Kate came to a halt. If she was not supposed to say who he was, then how on earth was she supposed to introduce him?

      ‘I’m Mario Volante,’ he declared, coming to her rescue. ‘An old friend of Dr Kennedy’s. A very old friend.’

      He’d said that deliberately, Kate thought angrily, seeing Terri’s eyes glance from her to Mario avidly. He’d said that on purpose, knowing full well that she wouldn’t—couldn’t—contradict him, but she wasn’t about to let him get away with it.

      ‘Shouldn’t you be going?’ she said sweetly. ‘You don’t want to be late for your over forties reunion.’

      ‘Oh, nice one,’ Mario said, his face lighting up with genuine amusement. ‘She’s just kidding,’ he continued, flashing a smile across at Terri. ‘She knows very well that I’m only thirty-eight, but she’s right about me having to go.’

      ‘Must you?’ Terri protested, and he nodded.

      ‘Afraid so. See you around, Kate,’ he added, and before she could reply he’d gone.

      ‘Wow, and double wow!’ Terri exclaimed. ‘Where have you been hiding him?’

      ‘He’s a friend of mine from…from med school,’ Kate replied, improvising wildly. ‘I haven’t seen him for years.’

      ‘So, you two aren’t an item, then?’

      ‘No, we’re not,’ Kate said firmly, and Terri looked disappointed.

      ‘Pity,’ she murmured.

      Not from where I’m standing, it isn’t, Kate thought as her pager went off, and she reached into her white coat to answer it. OK, so she couldn’t deny that every time Mario Volante had smiled that particular smile she’d felt odd, and hot, and totally unlike herself, but he was also rude, opinionated and arrogant, and any one of those three traits was a complete turn-off. Plus, he was also probably married, which made him a complete louse for chatting up strange women in cupboards.

      ‘You’ll never see him again, Kate,’ she murmured as she walked down the treatment room, ‘and you should thank your lucky stars you won’t.’

      ‘Did you manage to get anything out of the receptionist?’ Mario asked, pulling the parking ticket off his car windscreen, and tossing it indifferently onto the road.

      ‘Just the standard you’re-not-next-of-kin garbage,’ Ralph replied as he got into the car. ‘The one thing I did find out, though, was that your auburn-haired doctor is the consultant.’

      ‘Kate Kennedy’s head of A and E?’ Mario frowned. ‘Bright lady.’

      ‘Pretty, too,’ Ralph declared, shooting Mario a meaningful glance, but Mario ignored him.

      ‘Take a look at this,’ he said instead, extracting his notebook from his pocket and throwing it into Ralph’s lap. ‘Hamilton died before I could speak to him, but he told Dr Kennedy some very interesting things.’

      ‘Interesting?’ Ralph repeated as he read through the pages. ‘Mario, this is dynamite. Did you tell Dr Kennedy that what she heard could send down three of the biggest drug dealers in Aberdeen for a very long stretch, plus identify possible drug outlets?’

      ‘It’s better she doesn’t know,’ Mario said. ‘It’s better nobody knows for the moment.’

      ‘You think she’ll keep her mouth shut?’

      ‘I told her to, so we can but hope.’

      ‘Then, if your conversation with her was private—and I’m sure it was,’ Ralph declared, ‘we should be OK.’

      Mario had a flashback recollection of himself crushed up against Kate Kennedy in the store cupboard, of her hair smelling of flowers and hot summer evenings, and her full breasts gently rising and falling against his arm, and stamped on the image immediately.

      ‘The trouble is, her conversation with Hamilton wasn’t private,’ he observed. ‘Hospital cubicle curtains are notoriously thin, and you know as well as I do that the fixers have their spies everywhere which means I’m going to have to keep an eye on Dr Kennedy.’

      ‘Purely professionally, of course,’ Ralph said slyly, and Mario gave him a hard stare.

      For sure, it had been fun to keep wrong-footing Kate Kennedy, and to watch her large grey eyes grow more and more flustered by the minute, but it had just been a bit of fun at the end of a long and tiring day. He had no intention of taking it further. Not personally at any rate.

      ‘Ralph, all I want from Kate Kennedy is facts, and I want them while she’s still alive to give them to me.’

      ‘You think our lady doctor could be in trouble?’ Ralph asked as they pulled away from the kerb.

      Mario executed a fast U-turn in front of the hospital, completely ignoring the angry cacophony of car horns that greeted his manoeuvre, and nodded.

      ‘Yup, I do.’