Bad Blood by Lyndon Stacey

Author:Lyndon Stacey [Stacey, Lyndon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

Still waiting for a reply from Manning the following day, Ben could make no further progress and so, after a lie-in and a leisurely breakfast, decided to spend the day as a tourist. After all, he told himself, the businessman was paying for his stay in Yorkshire, and if he didn’t choose to give him the green light to approach Jago, then it made no difference to Ben.

The truth was, though, that it did make a difference. It was Sunday and that marked a whole week since Lisa had walked out and gone to stay with her mum. She had said she was working for the weekend, but Ben thought it likely that her assignment would end that evening, and although he had told her that he was in Yorkshire, he didn’t think his continued absence while their relationship was on rocky ground was likely to win him any brownie points. He considered messaging her but decided that if she was working, she wouldn’t want to be reading personal messages, however bland, whilst engaged with clients. He would do it in the evening.

That matter shelved for the time being, Ben spent the morning exploring the countryside with Mouse, visiting a waterfall, which impressed him more than her – she being a dog that didn’t like to get her paws wet – and following a moorland trail to an abandoned mine. This was more to her liking, and she so far forgot herself as to give chase to a sleepy grouse that she disturbed in the heather. The plump bird took forever to gain altitude and, after a lengthy pursuit, Mouse returned with a jaunty step, spitting out downy feathers extracted from the grouse’s undercarriage.

Ben fixed her with a disapproving frown. ‘Don’t look so pleased with yourself! I told you to leave it. You’re lucky there wasn’t a gamekeeper about!’

Mouse gave him a look which clearly indicated that lurchers in pursuit of prey were excused from obeying unreasonable instructions, and flopped down in the shade of a dry-stone wall to catch her breath.

Both he and the dog having had their fill of exercise for the day, Ben’s investigative genes kicked in again and he found himself driving towards Sedbergh, to have lunch at the pub belonging to Jeff’s friend. It wouldn’t hurt to see whether Eilidh was scheduled to appear there anytime soon, he reasoned, and as Rose Barry Racing was based only a few miles down the road, it occurred to him that she and Noah might very well be in the area.

Ben found Sedbergh to be an ancient Cumbrian market town, surrounded by fells; its solid, grey-stone buildings situated at the confluence of four rivers.

The landlord of the Weavers Arms was a huge man, both in body and character, with a booming voice, untidy hair and a pair of enormous sideburns. Ben thought he resembled some kind of modern-day Dickens creation.

When Ben revealed his interest in Eilidh McMahon, he beamed, saying, ‘Ah, you’ll be the talent spotter from down south.

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