A Crowded Coffin(45)

‘I’m glad to see you’re recovering, Walter,’ Harriet changed the subject as she looked across at the old man. ‘Your colour is much better and I notice you’re moving about more comfortably. Have you had any further thoughts about what happened the other night?’

‘No.’ Walter Attlin spoke sharply, then clearly felt the need to apologize. ‘I beg your pardon, Harriet, I know you mean well, but I don’t want to talk about it. No harm done in the end.’

His wife rolled her eyes at Harriet and turned the conversation to the Test Match, so cricket occupied them until Rory turned up, accompanied by Sam Hathaway. Sam shook hands with the Attlins while his eyes checked out his cousin. Satisfied with what he saw, he nodded to her and came across the room.

‘Silly idiot,’ was his fond greeting, as he bent to give her a hug. ‘I hope you weren’t playing detectives?’ This last was in a lower tone and he grinned at her indignant expression. ‘Okay, okay, keep your hair on. Rory told me what you said. It seems incredible but a lot of peculiar things seem to be happening around here lately. And you didn’t manage to get a look at the car or the number plate?’

She answered in a similarly low voice. ‘No, I didn’t, but I’ll tell you one thing, I think it was someone from the village.’

‘What?’ Mindful of the other people in the room, Sam’s exclamation had to be muted, but he frowned at her. ‘How do you make that out?’ he demanded. ‘And come to that, what were you doing near a quarry on some farm track anyway?’

‘Oh, of course, I forgot you wouldn’t know about it yet. It’s a short cut,’ she explained. ‘Hold on a minute, we can’t stay here whispering.’

She rose and spoke softly to her hostess who turned her head at the movement. ‘I’m going to lie down for half an hour, Penny, do excuse me. Sam will make sure I don’t fall over on the way.’

Safely in her room, she dismissed Sam’s attempt to make her lie down. ‘Nonsense, it was just an excuse, I’ll be fine sitting here in the quiet; I just didn’t want to disturb Walter and Penny. Now, what was I saying? Oh yes, the short cut. It cuts off a long meandering corner if you avoid the road to the village and nip across. It’s Walter’s land but he’s never minded and most people in the village use it to save time.’

She turned eagerly to him. ‘But that’s my point, Sam. Nobody else would use it, because it doesn’t go anywhere, apart from the village. And I know it wasn’t somebody who spotted me on the main road and for some reason decided to follow me, because I’d only just started up again when whoever it was came up over the brow of the hill. I had to stop to take a phone call from one of the people at the meeting I’d just been to in King’s Somborne. That took ages, so I reckon I was parked up there for a good ten minutes.’

Sam’s blue eyes were narrowed in anxiety as he sat, waiting for the end of the story. ‘I feel sick when I think about it,’ she confessed shakily and was glad of Sam’s warm hand clasping her own. ‘I’d just started up the engine and set off, still only doing about ten or fifteen miles an hour – it’s a bit rough up there – when this car appeared. It seemed to slow down for a minute, then the lights blazed at me and he came straight at me and hit the side of the Mini as he swerved away at the last minute. I’m quite sure it was deliberate.’ She paused and whispered, ‘You see what I’m saying? He wasn’t following me; he was heading for the village via the short cut and when he recognized me, he decided to kill me.’





chapter eight





‘Well?’ Edith nodded her thanks as Rory handed her a cappuccino. Winchester was always a popular call for tourists, particularly on a sunny morning in summer, and two or three coachloads had already crowded into the cathedral refectory. The groups of visitors were refreshing the body after traipsing round the city; shortly they would be disappearing into the cool, dark peace of the cathedral to refresh the soul.

‘What do you want to know?’ he hedged,.

‘We didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday,’ she said. ‘What with Harriet staying and Gran inviting Sam to stay for supper. He took you round the archive, didn’t he? Did you find out anything?’

Rory shook his head. ‘Nothing new,’ he confessed. ‘It was an interesting experience, though, and just a brief glimpse of some of the documents made me itch to get stuck in and delve deeper. I might volunteer to help with the research when I’m settled – they’re short-handed. Mostly though, Sam was worrying about Harriet and wondering what she’s got herself into that someone would go for her like this.’