The Hawkshead Hostage
Page 26
‘That’s another amazing thing. She saw a date that Ben had scrawled on a dirty window, and she got in through the cellar and found him.’
‘Hang on!’ Melanie ordered. ‘Bonnie was in a cellar? Full of coal dust and cobwebs and dirt?’
‘Not sure about the coal dust. But plenty of the ordinary sort. She was filthy dirty, with blood from cuts on her hand and cobwebs in her hair.’
‘She must have been frantic. You think your dad’s got a phobia – what about Bonnie?’
‘Pardon?’
‘Haven’t you worked it out yet? She’s totally terrified of dirt. And blood. She keeps it under control these days, but it’s still there. I saw her freaking out, a year or so ago, when Corinne made her help with some car repair. She got engine oil on her, just a black streak on her arm, and she went into a real state.’
‘I didn’t know. I just thought she’d been anorexic.’
‘It connects, somehow. But the point is, being dirty is like walking through fire would be to you or me.’
‘Well, she did it for Ben.’ Simmy wiped away a sudden tear. ‘I said she was a hero.’
Again they sat quietly, each thinking hard. Then Melanie said, ‘Dan was a bit of a hero as well, believe it or not.’
‘Was he?’
‘I don’t know exactly, but he must have taken a stand with the Lillywhites, telling them he was going to the police, or something. He’d been googling them, and asking questions, until he’d got a fair idea of what they were up to. He’d actually got a sort of dossier on them. I found it today. They were up here sussing out likely places for running a … well, brothel, he called it.’
‘Where did you find it – this dossier? Didn’t the police take his computer on Tuesday? That must be routine, surely?’
‘They took his laptop, but missed his iPad. He’d left it in the office, so they didn’t realise it was his. I went through the history and everything else I could find. It explains quite a lot.’
‘How were things at the hotel today?’
‘Not too bad. Gentian and her mum leave tomorrow. Mr Ferguson’s there till Sunday. They seem to be friends now. I saw the three of them playing cards in the lounge.’
Simmy smiled at the image. ‘The news will soon get round – about the Lillywhites.’
‘Well, nobody liked them.’
‘Can the hotel survive all this publicity, do you think?’
‘Bodgett thinks so. He gave us all a bit of a pep talk just before I left. Oh – and he wants you to bring more flowers tomorrow. Those Americans might have gone, but there are plenty of people who still have to be impressed, apparently.’
Simmy put a hand to her mouth. ‘But I haven’t ordered anything. Where am I going to find enough for two more displays? I should go now and order something.’
‘Too late, Sim. You’ll have to improvise. It won’t be the first time.’
‘Like stealing dahlias from people’s gardens, you mean?’
‘Are dahlias in flower yet? I thought they were August. It’s all crocosmia and delphiniums at the moment.’
‘Don’t be such a know-all. I suppose I can scrape enough things together from the shop, if I have to.’
‘You’ll do a wonderful job. You know you will.’
Ben was released from hospital into the arms of his bewildered mother, just after eight that evening. ‘Can I use your phone?’ he asked her in the car.
Wordlessly, she handed it over.
‘Bon? I’m on the way home. See you tomorrow?’
‘Okay. I won’t be in the shop. My hands don’t work.’
‘What did you think of the message in the burial ground?’
‘Yeah. It was okay.’
‘What’s up?’
‘You nearly died, you idiot. And there you are thinking about the game, as if nothing happened.’
He paused, glancing at his mother. ‘The game saved us,’ he reminded Bonnie. ‘It’s going to be so mega, when we tell the story. Mum says there’s already a couple of reporters hanging about, wanting to talk to me. She says we have to wait until Moxo’s given us the go-ahead – but honestly, Bon, this is totally great. I was a real hostage. It’s given me so many new ideas. My head’s bursting with them.’
Bonnie’s silence slowly made itself felt.
‘What? What’s the matter?’
‘Nothing,’ she said at last.
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THE LAKE DISTRICT MYSTERIES
The Windermere Witness
The Ambleside Alibi
The Coniston Case
The Troutbeck Testimony
The Hawkshead Hostage
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A Cotswold Killing
A Cotswold Ordeal
Death in the Cotswolds
A Cotswold Mystery
Blood in the Cotswolds
Slaughter in the Cotswolds
Fear in the Cotswolds
A Grave in the Cotswolds
Deception in the Cotswolds
Malice in the Cotswolds
Shadows in the Cotswolds
Trouble in the Cotswolds
Revenge in the Cotswolds
Guilt in the Cotswolds
THE WEST COUNTRY MYSTERIES
A Dirty Death
Dark Undertakings
Death of a Friend
Grave Concerns
A Death to Record
The Sting of Death
A Market for Murder
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First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2016.
This ebook edition published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2016.
Copyright © 2016 by REBECCA TOPE
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–2071–2