06 Murder on a Country Walk by Katie Gayle

Author:Katie Gayle [Gayle, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Cozy, General, Thrillers, Crime
ISBN: 9781835250990
Google: 7Vjb0AEACAAJ
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2024-09-14T23:00:00+00:00

20

As Julia approached the Padel courts, the traffic slowed almost to a standstill. There was some sort of hold-up in the road.

‘Are they doing roadworks?’ Tabitha craned her neck to get a better look.

‘I don’t know. We’re very early though, we’ve got plenty of time before our lesson.’

Julia edged the car forward. ‘There’s someone with a sign. It looks like a one-man protest.’

A small and unprepossessing fellow was holding a sign with what appeared to be a picture of a large spotted frog on it. Being sixty-ish, neither of them could make out the wording at that distance.

‘A three-man protest. Or three-person, more like,’ said Tabitha, as they drew up in line with them. As well as the small fellow, there were two women. Julia could read the signs now. The frog sign read: Protect our habitat. CROOOAAAK! The others said: No more development and Nature for nature. That last was rather confusing, but Julia got the idea.

‘It must be to do with the proposed expansion. The plan to build more courts,’ said Tabitha.

‘Will Adamson was complaining about how every development is stopped by something like this,’ said Julia.

Tabitha shook her head at Julia. ‘We agreed that you’d be focused on the Padel this morning.’

Julia laughed. ‘I am, I am.’

As Julia turned the car into the driveway leading to the club, she found herself feeling unaccountably guilty, as if she was personally kicking frogs out of their comfy, damp homes.

Sandy was waiting for them, dressed, as before, in minimal amounts of bright Lycra, racket in hand. ‘Glad you made it into the club okay, what with the protest outside.’ She said this as if they had braved hundreds of violent protesters to reach their destination.

‘It was all quite peaceful. The cars were slowing down to look, but we had no trouble getting in. Who are the protesters?’ asked Julia.

‘It’s mainly a chap called Hamilton Cunningham-Smythe. He’s a nature boff. He had a show a while back.’

‘I remember!’ said Tabitha. ‘It was a quirky sort of nature programme all about those little animals that you get in the woods and fields and hedgerows, frogs and rats and voles and so on. What was it called now?’

‘Cunningham’s Cunning Critters, it was called,’ said Julia. ‘Jess used to like it when she was about eight. She called him the Frog Dude.’

‘That’s him. He’s the main force behind the protest,’ said Sandy.

‘Jess’ll be tickled when I tell her that we had a sighting of Frog Dude in the wild. She absolutely adored him. So he’s trying to stop the expansion of the courts, is he?’

‘Yes. The owners are trying to get permission to build more courts and some other facilities on the adjacent field, and he wants to stop them. It’s a tough one.’ Sandy sighed. ‘Look, I love the game, and it’s my livelihood, so I get it. People want to play, and there’s more demand than there are courts. If they build more courts, the players will get bookings more easily. The owners will make more money.

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