A Capital Crime: An English Cozy Mystery (The Charleton House Mysteries Book 7) by Kate P Adams

Author:Kate P Adams [Adams, Kate P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

22

It was a forty-minute walk to the Royal Geographical Society, just up the road from the Natural History Museum by the corner of Hyde Park. I chose a route along a path next to Rotten Row, a sandy track within the park for people to ride their horses along. Children ran in circles round trees, some shouted at by their parents as they got too close to some rather vicious looking geese. Couples took photos of one another or lazed on the grass.

Summer in London always felt like a holiday to me, whether or not I’d been at work or was on my way there, and it felt no different now. I’d spent the day on my feet with a mild hangover, and yet I found myself with an extra spring in my step. I smiled at everyone I made eye contact with and felt as though anything and everything was possible.

I walked out of the park onto Exhibition Road and entered a single-storey modern glass building that connected to an older red-brick one. This was the Royal Geographical Society. Built at the end of the 19th century, the older building had been extended in various directions over the years.

People were standing chatting in a white foyer, others gradually making their way into a theatre and finding seats ready for Fleur’s presentation. A large image of Fleur greeted the guests as they entered – or at least, I assumed it was Fleur as the figure in the image was covered head to toe in a down-filled one-piece suit, the hood pulled tightly around her face, a bright blue sky and the craggy top of a mountain reflected in her goggles, an ice pick held high in one hand.

I chose a seat halfway down the modern auditorium. This wasn’t just me trying to get more information, I was genuinely interested in what Fleur had to say. I had no plans to replicate her achievements; I didn’t have any desire to climb Everest or K2, and as far as I was concerned, snow was best viewed from the inside of a warm pub, a roaring log fire toasting my feet and a large plate of fish and chips in front of me. The idea of climbing to 29,000 feet and surviving on melted snow and chunks of chocolate did nothing for me. However, I enjoyed hearing other people’s tales of derring-do, so I was looking forward to this.

And Fleur didn’t disappoint. After a brief introduction by the Director of the Royal Geographical Society, she launched into the story of her various expeditions: the challenges the weather had thrown at her team, the lack of oxygen, the risks of frostbite. Passing the bodies of less fortunate climbers who had gone before, now frozen in place as a stark warning of the dangers ahead. The feelings of fear and exhilaration, and the disappointment of sometimes having to accept that you must turn around, the peak yet to be reached, the conditions too dangerous to continue.

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