by Hazel Holt
We were approaching the runway. Instinctively I shut my eyes and held my breath. There was a slight jarring movement and the grinding sound of wheels on tarmac, then a deceleration and the great plane taxied almost demurely along the ground and we were safely down. Spontaneously all the passengers applauded, broad smiles of relief and congratulation, to the pilot for his skill, to each other for still being alive. I found that I was crying.
In the passenger lounge I knew immediately what I had to do. As I queued for one of the telephones I searched in my bag for the telephone number of Mike’s office. I had been given a second chance—Fate had made up my mind for me. I was going to clear my conscience.
‘Hallo, can I speak to Lieutenant Landis, please? It’s urgent.’
The voice at the other end was polite but uninterested.
‘I’m sorry, the lieutenant isn’t here right now. He’s had to go to Pittsburg on an inquiry. Would you care to leave a message?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘No message. Thank you.’
I sat down and opened my book and waited for the replacement plane that would take me home.
Mrs. Malory Mysteries
Published by Coffeetown Press
Gone Away, or Mrs. Malory Investigates (1989)
The Cruellest Month (1991)
The Shortest Journey, or
Mrs. Malory's Shortest Journey (1992)
Mrs. Malory and the Festival Murder, or
Uncertain Death (1993)
Murder on Campus, or Detective in Residence (1994)
Superfluous Death, or Mrs. Malory Wonders Why (1995)
Death of a Dean (1996)
Other Mysteries by Hazel Holt
Published by Coffeetown Press
My Dear Charlotte (2010)
Hazel Holt was born in Birmingham, England, where she attended King Edward VI High School for Girls. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. She also finished one of Pym’s novels after Pym died. Holt has also recently published My Dear Charlotte, a story that uses the actual language of Jane Austen’s letters to her sister Cassandra to construct a Regency murder mystery. Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her Mrs. Malory series. Her son is novelist Tom Holt.