Agatha Raisin and The Vicious Vet by M. C Beaton

Author:M. C Beaton [Beaton, M. C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-27T18:30:00+00:00

'I've a torch in the car/ said Agatha, now determined to keep him out as long as possible.

'Oh, well, just a little longer.'

They drove farther up the road and got out again, Agatha taking the torch and James poking aimlessly now in the hedgerow.

When Agatha after half an hour of patient walking and searching suddenly cried, 'Eureka!' James said crossly, 'Look, is it another shoe or something? Freda will be -'

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'Come here! Look at this!'

He stumped over. Agatha pointed the torch at some tangled shrubbery and nettles in the ditch. Down in the bottom of the ditch was a little brown pharmacist's bottle.

'Well, I'll be damned,' he said, giving her a hug.

Glad of the darkness, Agatha blushed with pleasure.

'You wait here and guard it/ she said excitedly. I'm off to phone Bill Wong.'

James waited and waited. He glanced at his watch, noticing by the luminous dial that it was nearly eight. Then he thought, I don't really need to stand here. He took a stick which he had cut earlier from the hedgerow to help him in poking around, stabbed it down into the ditch beside the bottle and tied his handkerchief like a flag to the top of it. Now he could go safely off to the pub and the police and Agatha would easily find his marker. He strode off down the road.

Agatha waited on her doorstep, biting nails. Bill had said, 'Wait right where you are,' and so she had done just that. But James must be wondering what had happened.

With a sigh of relief, she saw the police car nosing round into the lane and ran out to meet it. Bill and another detective were in the car. 'Hop in/ he said, 'and take us to this clue of yours. We couldn't raise Fred Griggs. It's his night off/

Agatha could not believe it as they drove up

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the road and found no sign of James. Worse than that, she could not remember exactly where they had found the bottle and so they searched up and down the roadside for quite a long time before Bill finally found the stick with the handkerchief on top.

'At least he's marked the spot/ said Bill, squatting down. He shone a powerful flashlight down beside the stick.

'There doesn't seem to be anything there, Agatha/

Agatha peered over his shoulder. 'But it was there/ she cried. 'Oh, where is James? If he just calmly went off to the pub to meet that tart, I'll kill him/

Bill and the other detective searched slowly and carefully, but there was no sign of that bottle.

He finally straightened up with a sigh. 'Do you think Lacey's in the pub?'

'Oh, I'm quite sure he is/ said Agatha viciously.

It was a busy evening at the Red Lion. The whole village seemed to be crammed into the pub. James was surprised when he received a tap on the shoulder and a voice murmured, 'Police. Would you step outside, Mr Lacey?'

He followed the man out and started guiltily as he was confronted with an unusually serious Bill Wong and a baleful Agatha.

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