Lady Gold Investigates ~ Volume 5: a Short Read cozy historical 1920s mystery collection by Lee Strauss & Norm Strauss

Author:Lee Strauss & Norm Strauss [Strauss, Lee & Strauss, Norm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781774092538
Publisher: La Plume Press
Published: 2023-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

3

The next morning Ginger drove her white 1924 Crossley west towards Hampstead Heath. Boss, who sat next to her on the passenger side, sat on his haunches staring out the side window, his pink tongue extended.

As was her custom, she drove at a brisk speed. The Crossley was a joy to drive, and Ginger was always keen to push it to its limits of manoeuvrability.

“Almost there, Bossy.” Ginger honked her horn impatiently at a lorry that lumbered in front of them, forcing Ginger to step forcefully on the brake pedal. Poor Boss slid with a yelp onto the floor in front of the seat.

“Boss, are you all right?” Her pet jumped back onto the seat, his round brown eyes bright as if he’d already forgotten the excitement. When he panted, his little face always looked as if he were smiling, and Ginger smiled back. “No harm done.”

Once she reached the base of Shetlands Lane, she slowed considerably, ignoring the irony as two cars behind her now sounded their horns with impatience.

“Don’t worry about them, Boss,” Ginger said glibly. “I need to see if I can spot the tree where Mr. Henderson crashed his bicycle.”

About two-thirds of the way up she found an oak tree such as Eleanor Henderson had described, near a sharp curve. With a wave in her side-view mirror to the cars behind her, she pulled into a nearby alley.

After instructing Boss to stay, she climbed out of the motor car and walked towards the tree, which was a good twenty feet tall with a sturdy trunk rising from a grassy square in the pavement. Most of the upper part of Shetlands Lane was bordered on one side by a high brick wall that looked like it had been built after the war, protecting the traffic from the steep drop on the other side. This particular section of the hill, however, was not walled in. For safety, there were small metal posts erected in front of the break in the wall to prevent a motor vehicle from going through. A runaway bicycle, however, would not get any benefit from the narrow posts.

A thin, newly formed scar could be seen extending from the front of the tree, at the right height to have been formed by the handlebars of a man’s bike.

After closely examining the grass around the tree and the trunk itself for a few moments, Ginger made her way back to the car.

“Well, Boss. That tree stopped someone’s bicycle.” Boss looked at her with his head cocked to one side, as if asking if she’d learned anything more. Ginger was quick to let him know. “I found this button not far from the tree.” Opening her palm to further examine a brown button, she added, “Probably from a waistcoat or jacket. Could be anyone’s, I suppose.”

It was a short drive up the rest of the incline to the Hendersons’ home, a terraced house of red-brick construction. Ginger parked in front of the house and once again commanded Boss to stay.

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