Daggers at the Country Fair by Catherine Coles

Author:Catherine Coles [Coles, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books

8

We enquired at the doctor’s surgery to be told, in no uncertain terms, by his wife, Vera, that her husband was far too busy to speak to us. In any event, he had spoken to the police, and so would have no reason to repeat himself.

She left us no alternative than to leave the cramped parlour that Doctor Reynolds used as his reception area. We exited the building and walked down the path. Annie was right. Vera Reynolds was very overprotective of her husband.

‘Now what?’

‘She said he was out visiting patients,’ I replied. ‘So I say that we loiter in this area and catch him when he returns.’

‘Loiter?’ Luke laughed. ‘That doesn’t seem a very suitable pastime for a vicar.’

Neither was choosing to spend an inordinate amount of time with a married woman, but the least said about that, the better.

The doctor’s surgery was in the centre of the village along the same small street that housed the butcher’s, the pub, the greengrocers, and the post office, to name but a few of the establishments. We walked past them all, leaving the shops, the vicarage, and the village green behind us.

At the end of the street, a small duck pond was set back from the path. Swans moved elegantly across the calm water. I pointed at a bench on the opposite side. ‘Look.’

‘Is that the doctor?’

‘I think so,’ I answered. ‘What a stroke of luck for us to find him.’

‘If he was hoping to hide from us, or anyone else for that matter, I don’t suppose there are many places he could manage it in a village this small.’

Lifting a hand to shade my eyes from the sun, I peered closer. ‘I don’t think he’s hiding.’

As we moved closer, we could see that the doctor was sitting forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He held a handkerchief over his eyes and his shoulders were heaving as though he was weeping.

‘We probably shouldn’t go any nearer.’ Luke stopped walking, a look of pity on his handsome face.

I was torn between pulling Luke closer to the doctor and returning to Annie’s house. It would highly embarrass Doctor Reynolds to be caught crying, yet we really needed to speak to him. I was certain that he was crucial to solving the riddle of Helen’s death.

As we dithered, he looked up.

‘Close your mouth, Martha, you’re gawping.’ Luke raised a hand in greeting. ‘Good morning, doctor. It’s another beautiful day we’re having.’

‘I thought tact was on the curriculum at vicar school,’ I murmured. ‘Did you skip that day?’

‘It’s certainly very sunny,’ the doctor said as we approached him.

‘I do apologise.’ Luke scrutinised the doctor’s face. ‘We’re disturbing you.’

Doctor Reynolds shuffled along the bench. ‘Not at all. Would you like to sit down, Mrs Miller?’

‘No, thank you.’ The man looked utterly devastated, and despite my wish to question him, my human decency won out. ‘We should carry on our walk and leave you to your thoughts.’

‘Actually,’ he said. ‘I’d rather like the company.’

‘In that case,’

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