Cooper and Fry Crime Fiction Series Books 1-3: Black Dog, Dancing With the Virgins, Blood on the Tongue. Stephen Booth

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СКАЧАТЬ She was wearing an apron, and her hands, which she was trying to wipe on a towel as she came to the door, were covered in flour. She patted Cooper’s arm.

      ‘Come in, and I’ll put the kettle on again. Won’t you stay for a bit, Helen?’

      ‘Sorry, must go.’

      Gwen stood on the step waving and smiling conspiratorially at Helen as she walked to her car. Cooper waited hopefully while Helen started the engine and fastened her seat belt. He was rewarded with a quick glance and a flash of her smile. The warmth that spread over his skin was due to more than the sun and the hot pavements.

      He was roused by Gwen Dickinson tugging his arm. ‘Are you coming in then, or are you going to stand out here gawping all day?’

      Cooper was embarrassed by her knowing twinkle and tried to slip back into his professional role. ‘Is your husband not at home, Mrs Dickinson?’

      ‘No, he’s not in,’ she said. ‘He’ll be up at Wilford Cutts’s place, if you want him. He’s always there, or at the pub.’

      ‘Perhaps I could have a few words with you, since I’m here.’

      ‘As long as you sit down for a bit and have a cup of tea.’

      Cooper followed her into the kitchen, feeling again the coolness of the cottage, with its thick stone walls to keep out the heat. On Monday, he had thought the chill was partly due to the circumstances, the sensation he had had of the close presence of death. But even today the inside temperature was enough to make him shiver as he left the sun behind.

      Gwen Dickinson boiled the electric kettle and heated a teapot. She opened a cupboard and emptied half a packet of digestive biscuits on to a plate.

      ‘I’m sorry they’re not chocolate ones,’ she said. ‘Young men like chocolate biscuits.’

      ‘That’s all right.’

      ‘Is Harry in trouble?’ she asked, turning to Cooper and looking him directly in the face.

      Cooper shook his head. ‘He’s an important witness,’ he said.

      ‘Because he found the shoe.’

      ‘The trainer, yes. But we have reason to think he may also have been on the Baulk at the time that Laura Vernon was killed.’

      Gwen stared at him, clutching the plate of biscuits. The kettle boiled unnoticed behind her, releasing a cloud of steam around her head, until it switched itself off.

      ‘What does that mean?’

      ‘He might have seen something,’ explained Cooper. ‘Or someone.’

      ‘Oh, I see.’

      She gazed absently at the kettle and at the plate in her hand. She put the biscuits down, switched the kettle back on, poured the boiling water into the teapot and picked the plate back up.

      ‘Won’t you sit down?’ she said. ‘Take one of the armchairs.’

      ‘Let me carry the tray,’ said Cooper, noticing the unsteadiness of her hands.

      ‘Has somebody said they saw him?’ asked Gwen, when they were seated opposite each other on either side of a small glass-topped coffee table. ‘Did they see Harry?’

      ‘Yes. At least, we think it might have been Harry. On the Baulk.’

      ‘But he goes there every day,’ she said, looking more comfortable. ‘To walk Jess. Every day.’

      ‘Does he go at regular times? That’s normal for a responsible dog owner, isn’t it? A regular routine.’

      ‘Yes, regular. Nine o’clock in the morning, after his breakfast, and six o’clock at night.’

      ‘He doesn’t vary?’

      ‘Regular.’

      ‘And on Saturday night?’

      ‘The same. Six o’clock. He sits down for his meal when he comes back. He says it gives him an appetite.’

      Cooper nodded, waiting while Gwen poured his tea. Her legs below the hem of her dress looked painfully swollen, and the lower sleeves of her blue cardigan were stuffed with bits of tissue, ready for the next onset of tears.

      ‘Did your husband mention seeing anybody when he was out that night?’

      ‘Do you mean the Mount girl?’

      ‘Not necessarily. Anybody.’

      ‘No,’ said Gwen. ‘He never said anything like that.’ She paused for a moment, and offered Cooper a biscuit. ‘You don’t know Harry very well, do you?’

      ‘No, I’ve only met him briefly.’

      ‘Well, you see, he wouldn’t say if he had, anyway. He’s like that.’

      ‘He wouldn’t tell you if he met somebody while he was walking the dog?’

      ‘No, he wouldn’t see any reason to.’

      ‘But since then? Since he’s known that Laura Vernon was killed down there? If he remembered seeing somebody, might he not mention it?’

      ‘Not to me,’ said Gwen simply.

      ‘I see. Did your husband go out again later, Mrs Dickinson? After his meal?’

      ‘He usually goes down to the Drover,’ she said.

      ‘And that night, did he go out as usual?’

      ‘Yes, I’m sure.’

      ‘What time would that be?’

      ‘I can’t remember,’ said Gwen.

      ‘After seven o’clock?’

      ‘Oh yes, he wouldn’t have finished his tea before that.’

      ‘After eight o’clock then?’

      ‘I can’t really say. It might have been.’

      Cooper heard the aggressive tone in his own voice and hesitated, seeing Gwen begin to tremble. He felt sorry for her and didn’t want to increase her distress. She was only one of those innocent people who got caught up in something they didn’t understand. He thought of his own mother, for whom things had got too much. He didn’t want to be even partly responsible for pushing someone else towards the edge.

      ‘Just a few more questions, Mrs Dickinson, then I’ll leave you in peace. I know it must be difficult for you.’

      ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘Those other men frightened me, but I don’t mind if it’s you.’

      He smiled, touched by the old woman’s faith, but not sure whether he could live up to it.

      ‘I СКАЧАТЬ