Claude, Gord, Alice, and Maud: An English small town cozy mystery (Mrs Smith's Suspects Book 1) by Jinny Alexander

Author:Jinny Alexander [Alexander, Jinny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Over Spilled Ink
Published: 2024-07-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Dear Alice fetched me a ham sandwich and a cheese sandwich on a floppy paper plate, which she set carefully onto my lap.

“Would you like crisps, too?” she asked, which was thoughtful.

I don’t often have crisps these days, so it felt like a bit of a treat, which tickled me, considering the circumstances. Anyway, she fetched me a packet of ready-salted, because I didn’t want to have cheese-and-onion breath when I still had no idea how long we might be incarcerated in the salon, and I do find salt-and-vinegar a little … well, a little vinegary, which I suppose one would expect from that flavour, so I can’t complain.

She opened the pack with a rustle and a pop, but rather than hand them to me she suggested she rearrange me a little so I may avail of the shelf as a kind of table, and would that make it easier for me?

“It would,” I said, so she took up my paper plate again and set it down onto the shelf, and by the rustling of the crisp packet I could tell she’d put those down too. “Now hold tight to the arms, Mrs Smith, and I’ll push you in.”

I chuckled. “Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride,” I said, affecting the manner of a fair ride assistant, and Alice gave me a gentle shove and it was more exciting than one might think. “Ooh,” I said, with another little giggle, “we could go all around the salon, after our snack, if we are still in need of something to occupy ourselves.”

Alice laughed, and so did Josephine and Phyllis, so the atmosphere had been considerably lightened by the arrival of sustenance.

While Alice and Phyllis and Josephine and I appeared to be enjoying our sandwiches, D.S. Nasir asked Maud what she could get for her, and said they would eat theirs together in the staff room, along with D.I. Nelson, if Maud was okay with that. Really, what could she say? I am sure she would have preferred not to, but one can’t argue with the police, unless it’s Dougal Rufus, that is, so Maud went with the Detective Sergeant as meekly as a sheep following its flock, and said she’d like two ham sandwiches and a packet of cheese-and-onion please.

For a while after Maud went off with the two senior police officers, the salon was filled with the steady near-silence of several people trying to eat their sandwiches as quietly as possible. Of course, the efforts at eating with any level of decorum went out of the window as soon as we started on the crisps, and that made everyone laugh and loosen up a bit.

With the cold December air outside the salon, and the number of people inside, all of us breathing and eating, the air had become quite steamed-up and the whole salon had that vibe of a cosy gathering-space on a dark winter’s night. I’m sure if we had only been allowed to converse freely and mingle, the atmosphere would have been quite festive.

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