Death in the Long Walk by Hilary Pugh

Author:Hilary Pugh [Pugh, Hilary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-19T23:00:00+00:00

20

Katya sat on a bench outside Marks and Spencer and bit into a jam doughnut. The town was bustling that afternoon with Saturday shoppers and colourful stalls selling food. Expensive food. She’d no time for olive oil at fifteen pounds a litre, French cheese that you could smell half a mile away or chocolates which, besides costing four pounds for something you could swallow in a single bite, were so dark in colour they were no more than a particularly bitter way of bankrupting oneself. One hundred per cent cocoa and no added sugar, they claimed. What was the point of that? Just to set your teeth on edge. Give her a nice bar of Cadbury’s milk any time. But the bakery stall, that had been okay. She wasn’t sure about focaccia baked with olives and rosemary, or sourdough with pine nuts, but good down-to-earth doughnuts were fine. She’d hesitated when she saw the price. She could buy a bag of four at Tesco for the cost of one here. But Tesco was way out of town and she’d no plans to go there unless someone gave her a lift. A couple of quid on the bus just to buy a cheaper doughnut was a non-starter. And this one that she had just taken a second bite of was delicious; the dough fresh and soft, a generous dollop of jam – some of which was currently making its way down her chin — and a crunchy, sugary coating. Scrumptious.

Finishing her doughnut, she chucked the paper bag into a litter bin and licked some sugar from her fingers. Then she sat back and paid attention to what she had come for, which was to listen to the music. Well, not so much to listen as to watch the band who were playing it. In particular the banjo player, young Mr Tommy Brooke, who right now was looking like the cat who had stolen the cream and got away with it. Which, in a way, he was. Not cream in this case, and not actually a cat. In fact, his thin face and whiskery chin reminded Katya more of a mouse. But he had apparently got away with the theft of one or more credit cards, which had provided him with several days’ worth of snacks and drinks.

They’d let him go. Lugs had been almost apologetic when he told her. Ivo had done an excellent job of tracking him down and the lazy so-and-sos, her ex-colleagues, so-called upholders of law and order in the area, had done nothing. Well, almost nothing. Brooke had been arrested and questioned. He’d spent all of half an hour at the police station proclaiming his innocence. Not him on the CCTV – Katya was convinced it was. Never been to the Long Walk – tell that to the marines. And he didn’t drink coffee. Oh yeah, what was in that cardboard cup he was taking sips from between numbers?

No evidence, Lugs had told her. He’d rounded up Brooke and marched him off to the nick, only to be told someone else would now handle the case.

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