Scandal at Six(4)

“Yes, that’s it,” said Josie. “Here’s my keys. Could you lock up, while I run up to Mum’s and check when she wants to get going on the ads and posters?”

“For the flat tenant? Yep, of course. I’ll go straight down to the pavilion, and then come up to Meade House to pick you up when we’re finished with cricket.”

Josie disappeared, and Matthew went back into the stockroom for one last check. It had occurred to him that someone could have hidden upstairs in the flat when she had left the shop for a few minutes, perhaps to talk to a deliveryman. They could have nipped upstairs and then, when Josie had shut up shop on Friday evening, crept out and released the snake, hidden the toad in the drawer, and scarpered next morning when she came in. This unknown person could have been hiding in the flat all the time and got his kicks from hearing her scream! Why hadn’t anybody thought of that?

Then another thought struck him. Although Josie wasn’t sure that she locked the back door of the shop which led into the garden, it would still have been difficult to get into the flat. Surely that had been locked at the top of the stairs? But had it? Josie used to live there when a bachelor girl, and still had one or two of her things in cupboards. She could have been in and out and forgotten to lock it. Habit dies hard.

Thinking it might be a good idea to investigate upstairs right now, he fetched the flat key from where Josie kept it hidden, and started upstairs. It was dark, and about halfway up, he felt something soft and squelchy under his foot. Ye Gods! Not another one. He reached down and extracted from under his shoe the body of a very dead frog. Not as evil-looking as the toad, but very nasty when squashed.

“Thank goodness she’s gone up to Lois’s,” he muttered. “She’d have had hysterics!” He checked the flat door, and found it locked. Then he found a rag and cleaned the stair, dug a hole in the back garden and disposed of the frog, then set off for the playing field.

Was the frog mere coincidence? Frogs do sometimes venture indoors. He considered this and rejected it. This was a very deliberate campaign, and the obvious motive—to frighten Josie into a nervous state—was a slender one. He was already an experienced policeman, and knew that motives were often complicated and often rooted in past grudges or resentments.

He decided not to tell her about the frog.



*



Lois and Derek were lingering over a late Sunday breakfast, and Gran had joined them at the table. Conversation was desultory, but all three were thinking around the same subject. Josie and the reptiles. When they saw her passing by the window with a smile and a wave, they were all relieved, and looked forward to being able to immerse themselves in the doings of the rich and famous in the Sunday newspapers.

“Hi everybody,” Josie said. “Looks like rain. Matthew came with me to open the shop, and now he’s gone down to cricket. He’ll be disappointed if they’re rained off.”

“Never mind,” said Gran. “We can talk about the advertisements for a shop tenant. If you ask me, we’re going to have to take great care to get the right person. After all, they’ll be left on the premises and could help themselves to anything they fancied.”

Josie shook her head. “No, Gran. There’s a door we can keep locked between the storeroom and the stairs to the flat, so the tenant will use only the back door that leads only to the stairs.”

“Good gel,” said Derek. “I’m sure it will all work well, and you’ll have no more trouble. I’ll put a lick of paint inside the flat to smarten it up. We should get a decent rent, then. We’ve had several enquiries since you and Matthew got married, and you moved down to his cottage. We can follow them up. Should have done it months ago.”

“Should have done a lot of things, but it ain’t until something bad happens that we all get round to thinking about it,” said Gran. “But yeah, you’re right. It could be a nice little income.”

“We could get new curtains,” said Lois. “And we need to think about whether it will be a male or female tenant.”

“Oh blimey,” said Derek. “Does it matter, so long as they’re decent, honest people?”

“And is it going to be one tenant or two?”

At this point, heavy raindrops rattled against the window, and they saw Matthew running past. He came breathlessly in through the kitchen door.

“Rained off!” he said, sitting down heavily at the kitchen table. “But still, some good came out of being down there. The vicar came over soon after we started, and we had a chat. I mentioned a tenant for the flat, and he said he had just the right person. Or persons. I think there would be two of them.”