Scandal at Six(31)

“Can you come and see to it now? I’ll watch to see it doesn’t get away, though God knows what I shall do if it moves! Come now!”

When her cousin arrived, Dot had remembered the trick with a box and a piece of wood, and had trapped the snake where it still rested on top of the car. With a brick on top, it could not escape, and she said he should come in first and talk to her for a few minutes, then he could tackle it.

Mozzie said he knew Pettison quite well, though Pettison was the kind of bloke who kept himself to himself. Good talker, but when you thought about it afterwards, he had said nothing about himself.

“How did you get to know him then?” Dot asked, and her cousin was frank.

“It was all to do with her over the road,” he said, grinning. “Old Pettison rang me up one day, and said straight out that he needed a willing girlfriend. O’course, I’d known her over there for years. Not as a client, o’course, but she had been a prostitute before Ted Brierley took her on. He must have known she wouldn’t give up a lucrative business. He was said to have been her pimp, though I don’t know the truth of that. Anyway, I suggested contacting her, and she was willing. I don’t know whether he became her sole client, but it seems likely. Anyway, after that, Pettison and me met for a drink now and then. Sometimes I can do him a favour; sometimes he can do me one. And don’t ask me about that, Auntie Dot! You know better than that, I reckon.”

“Gimme a clue,” she said.

“This and that, buying and selling, importing and exporting—you know the kind of thing. Uncle Handy was in the same line. Nimmo style, you could say.”

“Mm,” Dot replied. “So do you think it’d be safe for me to work at Cameroon Hall, cleaning the house?”

“As long as you watch your back, you’ll be fine. Anyway, you’ve had plenty of practice in taking care of yourself, haven’t you?”

Dot saw him out, and watched as he gingerly carried the box and piece of wood across the road. There he lifted the snake with a practised hand, and eased it through the fancy woman’s letterbox. He was still laughing as he drove off, waving cheerfully to Dot.



*



The policeman on duty outside the zoo put up a hand to stop a smart sports car from going straight through the barrier at the gate.

“Sorry, madam, but the zoo is closed.”

“Okay. Then perhaps you’d like to take this and restore it to its rightful place?”

The policeman peered into the box the driver was holding. “Ah, yes. I see, madam. I think we can make an exception for you. Drive on please, and take the turn to the right for the zoo. I will tell them you are coming,” he added, putting his phone to his ear. Then he closed the barrier and resumed his place on guard. He looked at his watch. The woman shouldn’t take long handing over the snake, and then he’d be off home. What was she doing with the ruddy thing, anyway?

Twenty minutes later, the woman had not returned. He gave her another ten minutes, and then phoned through to check. There was no reply, so he opened the barrier and walked through, heading for the zoo. No doubt he would meet her coming out, but he had to make sure before he left.





Nineteen





Ted Brierley, from the house opposite Dot Nimmo, paused in his pacing up and down his small sitting room. He was worried. Betsy almost never went out without telling him where she was going or what time she would be back. This evening he was furious when he found the door locked on returning from work. He had let himself in the back way, and looked for a note on the kitchen table, where she always left it if she was going out unexpectedly.

As there was no note, he told himself that she would be back at any minute. Probably gone round to the neighbour’s for a chat, he thought. She did not have many friends, and he knew that it was because of what she called her home-entertainment business. In the beginning, their relationship was one of convenience. She needed protection, and he could give it to her. Then Pettison came along, and the arrangement with him was ideal. He would continue to visit her, but had said right from the start that he was to be her only lover, and if she strayed to her old game of prostitution, then Pettison would end the deal immediately.

Ted knew that Betsy enjoyed getting to know old Pettison, and they had settled down into a three-cornered relationship. Ted’s desires were satisfied elsewhere, and Betsy relaxed when off duty at home. It was a fact that if Betsy had gone back to the old game, they would be financially better off, but Ted had no wish to alienate Pettison, having built up lucrative business contacts with him, and so had agreed to his terms.

He watched the clock until eventually there was a knock at the door, and his fists tightened. She had obviously forgotten her key. He went quickly to open it, and when he saw Dot Nimmo, his anger escalated.