Read Online Closer to Death in a Garden (Pitkirtly Mysteries Book 10) by Cecilia Peartree - Free Book Online Page A

been in a couple of days before. But even then, Christopher had suspected the dog’s adoring look was directed at the bone-shaped dog biscuit Charlie was holding up in front of its nose.
    ‘... don’t suppose they do their food shopping locally either,’ Keith was saying gloomily. ‘Nobody seems to know much about them.’
    ‘They maybe get it delivered,’ Ashley suggested. ‘But then, anybody can do that now. My Mum orders all hers on the internet.’
    ‘But can’t you just go and interview them if you need to?’ said Christopher, puzzled. ‘Like you did with me this morning.’
    ‘Sorry to have bothered you so early in the day,’ muttered Keith.
    ‘It’s all right. You probably wanted to catch me before I came into work.’
    ‘We can’t get any reply at the house,’ Keith admitted. ‘Nobody’s answering the door. The two constables who went round there didn’t think anybody was in.’
    ‘What about the alpacas?’
    ‘In the stables...’
    ‘Maybe they’ve gone into Edinburgh for the day or something,’ said Ashley. ‘You’d better send somebody round again this evening.’
    ‘Not sure if we can get the overtime authorised,’ said Keith.
    ‘That’s just stupid,’ Ashley commented. ‘You can’t expect to catch people at home during the day. What if they were out at work? Or away on holiday?’
    Keith sighed. ‘That’s just the way it works. I expect we’ll catch them in tomorrow. They won’t both be out at work all day every day with those animals to look after. Then there’s this Madeleine. When she comes back from holiday, that is.’
    Keith’s phone rang at that moment. He went out to the corridor to take it, and a few moments later they saw him out in the car park, pacing to and fro as he spoke. His face seemed to get grimmer and grimmer as the time passed.
    ‘Oh, dear,’ said Ashley. ‘I wonder what’s happened. I hope the alpacas are all right.’
    When Keith came back into the office, it was evident from his expression that the alpacas were the least of his worries.
    ‘Sorry, we’ll have to cut this short,’ he said. ‘Stay and finish your lunch just now, Ashley. I’ll see you later on.’
    Christopher went to the office door with him.
    ‘I can’t tell you anything,’ said Keith. ‘Thanks for the information, Mr Wilson. You’ve been very helpful. We may need to speak to you again at some point.’
    Christopher nodded, and Keith left, with one more apologetic glance at his girl-friend. She gave him a little wave.
    ‘It’s all right,’ she said to Christopher before he could speak. ‘I’m used to this.’ She picked up a few skinny muffin crumbs and tidied them away into an empty sandwich packet. ‘It comes with the territory. I wouldn’t have started going out with a policeman if I hadn’t known that.’
    He would almost have preferred her to burst into tears. Almost, but not quite.
     

Chapter 9 Grilled
     
    Jemima was cross with herself, and she had translated that into being cross with Dave.
    She still didn’t feel quite right after her night in hospital. In some corner of her mind she remembered reading about all the illnesses you might catch just by being in hospital, regardless of what was wrong with you in the first place. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with something like that.
    It was obvious that Dave wasn’t feeling quite right either. Neither of them had gone out of the house the day they came home, and now it didn’t look as if they would go anywhere the following day either. This was quite unusual for them. Even if Dave didn’t want to drive, they would still pop down to the fish shop or to the Queen of Scots. Maybe by this evening they would feel like going there. In the mean-time Jemima couldn’t summon up the energy to go out, but she deeply resented being trapped in the house.
    She was pleased to see Keith Burnet when he arrived on the doorstep halfway through the afternoon. That new Chief Inspector, the woman, was with him. It