Christmas Mourning by Andrea Frazer

Author:Andrea Frazer [Frazer, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783751495
Published: 2015-01-06T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Christmas Day – evening

The light had totally gone by now, and Carmichael produced a torch to light their way along Sheepwash Lane back to Jasmine Cottage, both perplexed and concerned at what they had just witnessed.

It had been a day of unpleasant surprises: from the finding of the body of Digby Jeffries in such bizarre circumstances first thing that morning, then had followed the surprise of the old clergyman’s unnatural death and the allegations against Jeffries of paedophilic tendencies. Finally, they had found Marian Warren-Browne in a state of great confusion, not recognising either of them, and believing that Kerry was still a baby. Maybe she was having some sort of a breakdown.

‘What am I going to tell Kerry, sir?’ asked Carmichael, in turmoil after their unsettling visit to his wife’s godparents. ‘If I tell her the truth, she’ll want to go straight round there, and I can’t have her going out in weather like this. She’ll fall over and hurt herself and the baby.’

‘I think telling her about Marian’s condition can wait until there’s been a thaw, then you can run her there in the car. And Alan said she had a doctor’s appointment in the New Year. It can’t do her any good to know what a state her godmother’s in: it might even trigger early labour, and there’s no way we can get her to the hospital in these conditions.’

Falconer was quite right, and Carmichael knew it. He’d just have to keep this to himself until such times as it was more sensible to bring up the subject.

To lighten matters, Falconer said, ‘I’m really glad you thought to bring a torch. It hadn’t crossed my mind that the Christmas tree lights would be out as well as the street lights. I guess I wasn’t thinking straight. Good work, man.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ replied Carmichael, but he didn’t seem any the more cheerful.

Kerry welcomed them back to the cottage as if they had been gone days, for it felt like that to her on such a special day. This was the first Christmas they’d been married, and this wasn’t what they’d planned at all. She’d even had reservations when Davey said he’d invited his boss, but she’d had no idea the day itself would end up the way it had.

As they entered the cottage Mulligan fell on Falconer as if he were a long-lost friend he hadn’t seen for years and gave him a damned good sniffing-over, licking his face until the inspector called for help. The boys were also over-excited because they’d been out in the back garden, where Carmichael had dug a path to the garden shed, and had had a very boisterous snowball fight until their mother had called them in before they got frostbite.

Kerry’s first words were not about their visit to the Warren-Brownes, however. She had other things on her mind. ‘It’s Mistress Fang,’ she opened the conversation. ‘She’s been whining now for about an hour, and I think she’s about to whelp. What on earth are we going to do? There’s no way we can get in touch with a vet.

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