Book - A Shot in the Dark - P34

Part thiry-four.

This summary was deliberately written in the present tense (analyse it as if it’s taking place as you read it.)

After leaving a bewildered Vince standing alone in the middle of the street, Brunswick goes across town looking for Maisie. He first tries at Luigi’s, as Vince told him, but she is not there. By the time he finds her at her own booth shop at the seaside, he is livid. What it does not occur to him is that she might resent him herself as well - and indeed she does, - having been left on her own last night. As he approches the booth, she darts him an enraged look. Whether it was meant to warn him or scare him away, it failed. Two are the simple reasons: he finds her even more attractive when she is furious; he puts such behaviour down to regular juvenile reaction. To settle the matter, he offers to take her out again. It could have been a good way to make it up, had he not added “It wasn’t my fault anyway. There were two murders on the same evening.” She rightly snaps at him that he left her before that as well - that is, when he entered the hippodrome to pursue the dodgy red-headed woman. He moans that it was only ten minutes. Her fury mounts: “It was half an hour Jim!.....If it hadn’t been for Vince I would’ve had to catch a night bus home alone!” Bruwnsick is startled: “Was Vince there?” She mocks at him: “Ah..You call yourself a policeman, and don’t notice Vince right under your nose? He was behind us all along!” He reflects on this. Was Vince actually there? And if so, how come did he not spot him? Anyway, he renews his apology and offer of taking her out, adding that is all he can do. She rightly bursts out: “But you didn’t actually apologise! You didn’t say: I’m so sorry Masie. I apologise for last night.” Yet again, he does not hold back his thoughts*. Eventually, she tells him that it is over between them.

*is it clear I mean he told what he was thinking at that moment?