A Thoughtful Woman
Page 31
‘That’s not what I meant.’ said Peregrin. ‘It turns out that Tony’s parents were up there the day before the pursuit, taking photos before paying him a surprise visit on Wednesday. They remember seeing a big four wheel drive with a stunning redhead in it, wearing a very fitting white sweater.’
He laughed. ‘Well, his dad remembers anyway!’
Sally’s heart rate surged. ‘Did they get a shot of it?’ she asked, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.
‘Don’t know as yet. We’re having the film developed as we speak.’
Sally’s heart raced even faster, and she had to work hard to calm herself down, and not show anything to the others.
‘Do they at least know the kind of car?’ asked Felicity.
‘Land Rover.’ said Peregrin. ‘He’s a retired doctor, trained in detailed observation, so we’re assuming he’s right. We’ve got people out looking at every Land Rover with chunky tyres we can find.’
Sally began to relax. ‘Wrong car!’ she whooped inside her head.
Slightly calmer now, she replayed the scene in her mind. She was pretty sure that she’d been parked behind them as they took the photographs. ‘Oh well, no use fretting!’ her inner voice told her. ‘I’m either okay or I’m not. Nothing I can do about it now!’
‘So what did she do between killing Walker and Holmes? That was a long gap.’ asked Felicity.
Peregrin put down his club and began to polish his ball instead.
‘We suspect Walker was an opportunistic killing. She knew what he’d done, caught him on his own looking at the view, and gave him a shove.’
Sally kept her face impassive. She didn’t want to remind him that she’d painted Walker’s wife’s portrait the week before she was killed.
‘We think having found out that she could kill, she decided to do it again.’ Peregrin went on. ‘She chose her victims by extending the Walker case. Looking through Holmes’s other cases she found Dick Harland as the only other death. She tied Thomlinson to that as well, so she had her three targets.’
‘But it was Bob she killed–‘ interjected Alison.
Peregrin raised his hand. ‘I’m coming to that. She started stalking the three men, and at some point she found out that Holmes was a regular at Miss Helen’s establishment. She created Selina as an alter-ego so she could take up an apprenticeship with Miss Helen. That was solely to gain Holmes’s trust, so she could easily trap him when she was ready to strike. Thomlinson had a regular exercise routine, so he was easy to target too. She just needed to work out how. In the meantime, Bob Harland had followed in his father’s footsteps, and she found him to be an easier target than his dad.
‘Now she had all three targets ready to go. Holmes was as easy as picking up a hen in a nesting box. She used oil to knock Thomlinson off his bike, and Rohypnol to incapacitate him and get him to her killing ground. Harland we don’t really know. We suspect seduction, given his traces of arousal, but that’s a guess.’
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I assume she wanted Dick Harland as well, but she may have decided that leaving him with a dead son, and the fear that he was still on her list was enough. So she did a runner at that point.’
Felicity raised her finger. ‘You think she’ll kill again, and that Dick Harland’s top of her list?’
Peregrin grinned. ‘Dick certainly thinks that! I took great pleasure in telling him that if she’d bought Stella Artois instead of Guinness, it’d have been him dumped by the river, not Bob. He’ll never sleep with the light off again!’
‘So now you’re scouring the land looking for redheads?’ asked Alison.
‘And why not?’ said Felicity, taking up the arch seductress pose, head turned to the side, with one hand bunching up her hair to emphasise her own gorgeous locks.
The whole group burst out laughing.
When it died down, Peregrin clarified. ‘We’re taking no chances! We know she’s European. Beyond that I’m making no assumptions at all!’
He looked up at the green. ‘Well, Selina probably thinks she’s in the clear, but we’ll get her. The chase is still on, and for us too. The Flock are finally off the green.’
As the only one of the four playing off the men’s tee, Peregrin took first shot. He hooked it well off the fairway into the trees. ‘Oh– bother!’ he cried.
‘Could have been worse.’ commiserated Sally as she teed up.
Her own swing was almost perfect, but a sudden gust of wind caught the ball, dragging it off to the right. For a moment it looked as if it was going to end up in the sea, but at the last moment it landed on the rocks at the top of the promontory.
The four of them held their collective breath as the ball jumped back onto the green, bounced twice more, and rolled neatly into the hole.
‘A hole in one! Well done Sally!’ cried Felicity, throwing her arms around her.
‘Well done!’ said Peregrin and Hilary, joining in the hug.
When the celebrations had died down a little, Sally picked up her tee, and turned to Peregrin with a huge grin on her face.
‘You know, a gal can practise, plan, and practise again, but a little luck is always welcome!’
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
K.T. Findlay lives on a small farm where he dovetails his writing with fighting the blackberry and convincing the quadbike that killing its rider isn’t a vital part of its job description.
He’s worked in over a dozen different countries, and enjoys travelling at other people’s expense.
Also By K.T. Findlay
In Two Minds
AUTHOR Website
www.ktfindlay.com