Gwen Moffat [Moffat - Miss Pink Investigates series Box Set Part Two

MISS PINK INVESTIGATES

PART TWO

Gwen Moffat

Gwen Moffat 2019

Gwen Moffat has asserted her rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in 2019 by Endeavour Media Ltd.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PERSONS UNKNOWN

Table of Contents

Chapter One

I had a dream, old Roderick said with heavy drama, and waited for his housekeeper to register interest.

Lets get you sitting up first.

Iris MacNally set down his breakfast tray and advanced on the bed: a big solid woman in a dress that had seen better days.

Roderick glared at her. Keep yer hands off me, woman! I can sit up on me own, and Im finished with breakfast in bed. Ive never in the whole of me life

Youve been having it in bed for three days now. The doctor said youd got to watch your

Hes a bloody quack! The old man was covered by nothing heavier than a sheet but the effort to sit up unaided was beyond his strength. Wincing, he sank back on his pillows.

You see, she said without triumph, you can still do with a hand. Youve strained those muscles and theyve got to tone up gradually; no sense in trying to hurry Nature.

Damme, Iris! She helped him into a sitting position and he drooped over his knees: a fierce little figure bristling at his own inadequacy. Iris plumped the pillows and eased him back with a large hand. He perked up at this and his eyes gleamed balefully.

Youre enjoying this. Yer like having me in bed, dont yer?

Its for your own good, Mr Bowen.

Im getting up today.

Of course you are: after lunch; you can sit by the window and watch your birds

Im getting up after breakfast. Its me birthday.

There! You took the words right out of my mouth as I came in the door. You and your old dreams. She had an accent which she might have termed refined but with traces of Liverpool and Ireland lurking in the corners. Many happy returns of the day, Mr Bowen, and if youll only look after yourself properly, Im sure therell be many more of the same. She beamed comfortably at him.

And I want champagne.

Ill be seeing to it.

With me breakfast.

Arent you a one? Now, heres your tea; look: why dont I throw out this awful old mug? Its cracked all

Wheres me bacon?

The fats bad for your heart.

Jesus Christ! Youre always saying people are as old as they feel. Im eighty-seven today and I feel like a two-year-oldorganically. He looked evil. And that dont mean what you think it means. Its all very well for you to primp yer mouth, but young men have falls too; Ive been in a lot worse state than this in me time: broken bones into the bargain. His eyes glazed. That time I came off the Breithorn I broke the femur in one leg, the tibia in the other, in two places. I was lying on the glacier for eight hours before they found me.

Gracious. You could have died of pneumonia.

Pneumonia, woman? Dont be soft. Its exposure in the Alps: what they call hypothermia these days. Kept meself alive by controlled shivering. Painful business: I could hear those broken bones grating together.

Now, now, Mr Bowen.

He grinned happily. Kept passing out from shock. Not much pain, yer see; when it got too bad, I passed out again. Quite a good night really. I wasnt alone at the end.

Im sure you werent.

Ha! Not in that way. This was some chap who came and sat with me, near me, just out of the corner of me eye: out of focus, I mean. Comfortable sort of feller.

Did he say anything?

Not a word. They dont, yer know. He just kept me company until the rescuers arrived. Quite a common occurrence in the mountains, specially when youre a bit under the weather. You wouldnt understand, of course. Youve led a sheltered life.

Now youre teasing.

So I know what serious injurys like, which is more than you do, for all youve set yerself up as me nurse. And Im just bruised this time. Youre fussing like an old hen.

Youre black and blue all down one side, and youve had a very nasty shock.

He put down his mug with deliberation.

Anyone would be shocked at an attempt on his life.

Anyone, Iris said serenely, would be shocked at falling fifteen feet down the granary steps.

I was pushed!

She crossed to the window and picked up a vase of tiger lilies. These dont last long in the heat. Ill pick some fresh.

Dont trouble.

You dont like lilies?

Theyre all right for funerals. Whats this on me cereal?

Its some of Rachels bran.

Horse fodder! And me bowels are me own business. Im coming down for me bacon.

Mr Bowen! If youll only stay in bed while I give the doctor a ring. Youre my responsibility, youre putting me in a very awkward

Her voice rose as the door opened. A young man with thick blond hair looked in.

Whats going on here? Many happy returns of the day, Rod.

Norman! Thank you, me boy. This bloody womans bullying me again.

Mr Bowen!

Stop laying down the law, Iris; its his birthday. Howre you feeling, Rod?

Fit as a flea, lad. Im getting up.

You do that. Well go for a swim. Work the stiffness out of the muscles.

The doctor said

Mr Bowen knows whats best for him, Iris, and hes got a constitution like an ox. Ill help you dress, Rod.

The two men exchanged glances. Iris backed to the door. I wash my hands of it, Mr Bowen; Im only thinking of whats best for you... and your own family have got no call to encourage you. She sniffed furiously, her hands rolling her apron. You shouldnt employ me if you dont trust me. You know its for your own good. The doctor said

Youre employed as a housekeeper, Roderick shouted as she opened the door, you ring that quack and youre fired!

The door closed behind her. Damn woman! He sank back against the pillows, exhausted. Lot of fuss about a bruise.

It was a bad fall, Rod.

I was pushed , lad.

Norman sighed. You trod on a branch.

And where did the branch come from?

It fell off the tree.

Therewasnowind. It was like a ritual exchangewhich it had become over the last few days.

Branches can come down at any time. Norman sounded tired. In this heat anything can happen.

Roderick poked at his cereal. I had a dream, he repeated hopefully.

The other sat down on the edge of the bed. Go on; I like your dreams.

The old man had found his audience. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the picture in his mind. The peninsula was covered with enormous structures: cooling towers, and those things like outsize balls, covered with em so you couldnt see a blade of grass; all made of aluminium and gleaming in the sun. And there was this pile near the middle, must have been sited right on the cromlech meadow. I was looking down on it all, a hawks eye view from the fort, and I felt the earth tremble as if something under the ground was waking up and turning over and rousing itself... and the building on the cromlech meadow started to crumble, like a quarry face after the shots fired. Then there were flames and the noise of an explosion and the whole bloody complex disintegrated: from Riffli Head right back to where Corn Farm once stood. White smoke, Norman, rising and, you know, that awful mushroom cloud?

Its all over, Rod.

And it went rolling up into an absolutely clear blue sky, folding over and over, and then the cloud started to move eastwards....

Weve all become obsessed with it, but stop worrying: you and Rachel together; youll drive yourselves round the bend. We won, old chap! They chose another site.

You know why the first building collapsed?

Why?

Theyd built it on the cromlech meadow.

Oh, I see. Thethe Longheads objected.

Roderick darted a glance at him from under jutting brows. There are more things in heaven and earth, lad; dont forget that.