Finders Weepers by Tracy Harkin

Author:Tracy Harkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: T K Harkin
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Leslie put his paintbrush down as he heard the hollow tubes, positioned over the door, jangle, signalling the entrance of people into the shop. He smoothed over his colour splashed smock and walked out from the studio into the shop front. A couple, well-groomed and most probably in their mid fifties, were looking at the paintings that Ennor had recently hung for him. They both spun around on their heels as he entered.

“Hi there. My assistant has popped out for half an hour so it’s just me looking after the shop at the moment. I’m the artist; usually keep myself hidden away at the back. Is there anything in particular I can help you with?”

The man came forward and smiled at him in greeting.

“You might be able to. We’re not looking for art though I’m afraid, even though these are really good.” The man gestured towards the paintings.

“Thank you.” Leslie acknowledged the compliment shyly. The man continued:

“We’re trying to find out about the recent container spillage that happened near here. We know that a number of residents went down to the beach to salvage what they could and that a fair few of them took items from the containers away. We’re not the police or any kind of authority, just to reassure you of that. We’re chemists and the reason we’re interested in these containers is because a sample of prototype face cream was in one of the boxes that went missing. It was being sent to my wife for further testing from a fellow chemist in Switzerland. The box did eventually turn up, sent by post to my wife at our home, but we have reasons to suspect that the cream was tampered with; it looks as if somebody opened the package and extracted part of the sample for their own use. The problem we’ve got is that we’ve conducted initial tests on the remaining cream and we’ve reason to believe that the sample is toxic. Anybody applying it to their own skin is likely to experience serious health issues unless we can warn them and make sure they get the help they need to prevent any long-term damage. We’ve already notified the police; they’ve sent out various flyers explaining the situation and offering a reward for any leads. To date though, no information has come in and both my wife and I felt that our consciences couldn’t just leave it at that. So we’ve come down here to ask around and to satisfy ourselves that we have done what we can to forewarn whoever it is who has the cream. My name’s Paul Hibbard by the way and this is my wife Angela.”

Paul Hibbard extended his hand to Leslie.

“Yes, I heard about the spillage. I didn’t go down to the beach though, far too early in the morning for me, and I’m not actually aware of anybody who did. I don’t think I can be of much help to you.”

Paul looked disappointed.

“Ok, well thank you for listening. We’ll

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