“I don’t know what the interactive bit means. I can’t think that visitors are going to be encouraged to hug a tiger!”
Lois laughed. “Thanks for ringing, anyway, Diana. I’ll keep you posted if there are any juicy developments; then you can have a scoop!”
As soon as she signed off, the phone rang again. This time it was Inspector Cowgill, and his tone was brisk. “Morning Lois,” he said. “Perhaps you’d like to come and see me this afternoon? I have to go up to Cameroon Hall first, but perhaps we could say half past three?”
“I presume it’s important?” said Lois.
“Could be,” he answered, and that was the end of the conversation.
Dot Nimmo was first for the New Brooms meeting at midday, and she was in a very good mood. “Guess what, Mrs M,” she said.
“What?”
“The zoo van, the one with the tiger draped all over it, drew up outside the Brierleys’ this morning, and guess who got out of it?”
Lois shook her head. “Tell me, Dot,” she said patiently.
“Justin Brookes, followed by Ted Brierley. How unlikely is that!”
“Certainly is,” said Lois. “I wouldn’t have put Justin down as one of Ted’s bosom pals. Justin’s altogether too public school, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, well,” said Dot. “That whole business with the red paint smacks of stupid public school goings-on, d’you reckon?”
“You may be right,” said Lois, who had come to the same conclusion. “Oh, there’s the others at the door. Could you let them in, Dot?”
*
In the staff room at the zoo, Betsy and Justin were sorting through another pile of post that Betsy had collected. She was keeping the one she had opened until the end, and after junking most of the rest into a plastic sack, she handed the delivery note to him.
“It doesn’t say what the consignment is,” she said. “What are we going to do about it?”
Justin groaned. “I had hoped that there wouldn’t be any more of these,” he said, “but I suppose there could be several orders outstanding. I see they’ll let us know exactly when and what in due course. Have you found a later letter from them?”
They looked again at the small pile of envelopes that were not junk, and Betsy pulled out another with a foreign stamp. “This is the same,” she said. “Here, you open it.”
Justin duly opened the envelope and extracted a single sheet of paper. “It’s brief and to the point,” he said. “A consignment of bees—bees!—will be delivered to Cameroon Hall on Tuesday. That’s Tuesday of this week!”
“In other words, tomorrow,” said Betsy.
They stared at each other. Finally Justin said that until they could find out some more about them, he would transport them—safely, he hoped—to Farnden. “I’ve taken over the garden at the back of the shop, and they can go down the far end. Maybe in the pigsty, if they’re coming from tropical parts.”
“Bees!” said Betsy again. “I cannot bear them, Justin. Ted will tell you. I run screaming if one gets in the house. Are you sure about this?”
“We don’t have much option, do we?” he said flatly. “There’s no contact name, address or anything else. We have to accept them, and that’s that.”
“We could refuse to accept them?”
“And then what? We’d have officials from sundry authorities crawling all over the zoo. And probably another damaging story in the paper.”
“Did you put that other one in? Was it you what done it?” Betsy said.
“Of course not,” said Justin. “If it had been me, I’d have thought of something a bit more sophisticated to do to him.”
Betsy looked at his frowning face, dark with what she thought must be extreme dislike.
“So what did he ever do to you?” she said. “He was one of my best customers.”
“All water under the bridge,” Justin replied. “Best forgotten.”
“But not forgiven?”
“No, not forgiven,” he said. “Now we’d better arrange who’s going to be up at the house ready to receive the bees. Not you, obviously!”
“No, it’ll have to be you. Perhaps Dot Nimmo might take a turn. I believe she’s up there cleaning on a Tuesday.”
“I’ll ask Josie in the shop. Her mother will know. She’s New Brooms’ boss, isn’t she? Okay, Betsy, let’s get on with it.”
Fifty
“Morning, Mum,” said Josie, as Lois came through the shop door. “You missed a call. It was Justin. He’s in Tresham already, and wanted to know if Dot will be cleaning up at Cameroon Hall, and if so, would she be prepared to take in a parcel?”