Frankie Abbott's Great Big Book of Horror Stories by Frankie Abbott & David Barry

Author:Frankie Abbott & David Barry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spooky, halloween, ghosts, witches, ghouls, trick, treat, quick, book, pumpkin, scare, fright, witch, zombie, mummy, bat, facts, jack, lantern, Frankenstein, vampire, vampyre, bats, Dracula, full moon, scary, frightening, hallows, eve, fright night
ISBN: 9781789828504
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2021-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

7: The Car from Hell

The incident happened at 10.00 a.m. one Saturday morning in early July, not long after PC Maggie Saunders’s patrol shift began. She was partnered by PC Kevin Hughes, who was inexperienced and had not long graduated from police training academy. Maggie, being more experienced and four years older than the rookie policeman, tended to take charge, even though they were of equal rank.

That morning there had been a spate of burglaries, most of them reported by early-risers, who had discovered their garden sheds had been broken into, and all kinds of tools were reported stolen, although nothing electrical had been taken. By 9:30 there were reports of twelve shed burglaries, and there could well be many more, yet to be discovered by those who hadn’t gone out to their back gardens.

Patrol car officers were told to keep a look out for any suspicious-looking vehicles, especially vans capable of carrying and concealing a substantial load of stolen goods. Alerted to the shed crimes, Maggie and Kevin, the latter driving, toured the area. but without much hope of arresting the culprit, suspecting that the thief – if it was a perpetrator working solo – would be long gone from the area by now.

Although they operated mainly in and on the outskirts of the town, and rarely cruised this far into the countryside, their rural excursion on this particular morning was in case they might light on any suspicious vehicles heading for the next county, the border of which was less than ten miles away and beyond their jurisdiction.

Maggie sighed deeply. ‘I think this shed burglar will be long gone by now.’

‘You think so?’ Kevin questioned.

‘Don’t you?’

Kevin shrugged. Being new to the job, he was reluctant to offer opinions which could turn out to be wrong. He was cautious, wanting to prove himself, which Maggie found frustrating. She needed to talk, theorise, and conjecture. She felt brainstorming was one of the most effective ways of dealing with the day-to-day practice of policing. Most of their incidents were routine, dealing with domestic arguments and small-town drunken assaults. But Maggie was ambitious and motivated, and she could see her career blossoming in the future, rising from uniform to plain clothes. She longed for the challenge of detection and the solving of an occasional rape or murder.

She heard Kevin clearing his throat and wondered if he was about to offer an opinion about the burglaries. Instead, he said, rather incongruously, ‘I’ve heard the Chateau Lyon is almost the same as one in France. Almost identical I’ve heard.’

‘What are you on about, Kevin?’

‘The hotel – half a mile up the road. Expensive it is. Over a fiver for a pint of ordinary. I wouldn’t see the point of driving out here for a pint at that price.’

‘The point,’ Maggie emphasised, ‘is that the Chateau Lyon is not like a pub, Kevin. It’s for weddings and conferences. And you always pay over the odds in those places.’

Not far from the entrance to Chateau Lyon, a car pulled out in front of them, causing Kevin to slam his foot on the brakes.

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