Baking Bad by Kim M. Watt

Author:Kim M. Watt [Watt, Kim M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781999303716
Published: 2018-11-02T05:00:00+00:00

13 Alice

A lice bent down to look at PC Ben Shaw, his long legs tucked in underneath the steering wheel of his car. It was a baby blue Smart car, and she wondered how, exactly, he expected to give chase to anything in it.

“Hello, Ms Martin,” he said, giving her an apologetic smile.

She patted the roof of the car. “Cutbacks?”

His cheeks were normally on the red side, and now they looked positively painful. “We couldn’t really spare the patrol car, so I said I’d use mine. But then mine’s in the garage, so I had to use Jasmine’s. The inspector was spitting when I told her.”

“I expect she was,” Alice said, and offered him a bowl with a napkin neatly draped over it. “I only had salad planned for tonight, so it’s not very exciting, I’m afraid. But it does have hazelnuts and blue cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette.”

“Oh. Um—” His cheeks were so red now that Alice found herself wondering if they’d spontaneously combust. She knew it wasn’t a scientifically documented phenomenon, but, well. She’d never seen anyone go that colour before. “The detective inspector says we’re not to accept any food from any of you.”

Alice raised her eyebrows. “As I assume she means the W.I., she does realise that your wife is one of us?”

“Yes. Well. She’s not very impressed that I’m the one here, but everyone else was rota’d on in town. There wasn’t any choice. And I did tell her that Jasmine couldn’t have done it, on account of her terrible cooking.”

“Well.” Alice straightened up, neither entirely surprised nor entirely unhurt. The inspector was right to be cautious, but it irked her that she was still carrying around the weight of Harvey’s disappearance after all these years. She was quite certain that the only other person being watched would be Miriam, and that was probably only because they kept being discovered together. She sighed. “Very well. You do have some dinner, though?”

“Oh, yes. I stopped at the bakery. They still had some sausage rolls and a cheese pasty left.”

Alice gave him a severe look. “You’ll shorten your life, eating that stuff.”

“Not as much as eating Jas’ cooking.”

She smiled at him, aware that he was trying to make her feel better, and took the spare salad back through the little gate in her wooden fence and let herself inside. She put the bowl in the fridge for lunch the next day and leaned against the sink, looking out the window at the quiet green garden and its neatly mowed lawn. The house felt very still and full of anxious silence, and she could feel that horrible claustrophobia pressing down on her again, as if the police officer outside was only one of many, leaning over her too closely to allow her to breathe.

She pushed herself off the sink, took the shed key from its place on the key rack, and marched outside. There was still plenty of daylight. She’d do some pruning. Her rosebushes could do with a little tidying.

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