Death by Indulgence by A B Morgan

Author:A B Morgan [Morgan, A B]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-12T22:00:00+00:00

25

Moments later

Turning the corner of the avenue leading back to Buxham’s driveway, with her head full of thoughts, Ella almost ran into two women in long overcoats barring her way. One wore a navy blue full-length wool coat topped off with a red beret, and the other, a camel coat matched with a knitted beige beany hat pulled over long straight dark hair. They took up most of the pavement, leaving Ella no choice other than to step into the road. It was only when the woman in the woolly hat took hold of her elbow, did Ella realise who it was she was trying to avoid.

‘Leonora? What are you doing here?’ She took a better look at the shorter of the two ladies, the one in the classic blue overcoat. ‘Trudy? Is something wrong?’

There was hardly any need to have asked that question. Both women had their chins jutted forward and Leonora’s nostrils flared as she breathed out her undisguised anger. ‘Walk with us a while,’ she said, her voice deep and doom-laden. ‘We have matters to discuss with you in private.’ Ella found herself being frogmarched between them, back in the direction she had come from, but before reaching the railway station the trio made a left turn. Through the grey of the winter morning the lights of MacDonald’s beckoned, and sure enough Ella was directed to sit at a table in the corner with Trudy, while Leonora ordered drinks and muffins.

With steamed-up windows and a noise level to rival a departure lounge at an international airport during silly season, the place was heaving. Parties of exhausted parents and their irritable offspring took up almost every seat. Some families were accompanied by pasty-looking grandparents at the end of their polite patience. At other tables were groups of foul-mouthed youths escaping the niceties of spending the festive season incarcerated with ancient relatives and overbearing adults.

To any onlooker, Ella, Leonora and Trudy were just three overweight ladies having a morning coffee together. At the table, however, Ella was feeling decidedly apprehensive. Trudy reached into her handbag and when she produced the camera torch that Ella had lost the previous evening, the nerves became worse. She wasn’t certain how to react and her words came hesitantly.

‘Oh, brilliant. You found my torch.’

Trudy gave a half-smile, the sort that never reaches the eyes, and pressed the button causing the torch to shine at Ella. ‘Yes. A nice little torch with five LED bulbs.’ She switched it off again, holding Ella’s gaze. ‘But what, we have to ask ourselves, is the pinhole for? The one in the middle of the ring of LED bulbs.’ The long glittery fingernail of Trudy’s left index finger revealed a minute hole in the centre of the torch head.

‘Well … I …’ Ella had no answer to give, and she noticed that Trudy’s slight lisp, previously so appealing, had disappeared. The woman had looked so angelic until that moment and now she harboured a dark menace that Ella couldn’t understand.

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