Murder In the Band Room by Patricia Snelling

Author:Patricia Snelling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: private detective, women sleuth, police dog, murder, clean read, cozy mystery
Publisher: Patricia Snelling
Published: 2020-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

He’s All Keyed-Up!

Ann dropped Martha at the gate and then headed off to drop the key off to Matt. He lived a few miles down the road from Martha’s house, and as she drove there, her shoulders couldn’t have dropped much further forward. Her bottom lip always jutted out when glum and the corners of her mouth turned down. ‘Darn, darn and darn!’ she roared, banging both hands on the steering wheel. ‘So close and yet so far away!’

She stepped out of the vehicle, hoping Matt hadn’t heard her ranting through the closed window of her car.

‘Hi, Ann,’ he chirped, greeting her with a smile of hopeful expectation. ‘How did you get on?’

She stopped on the path to his house, almost in tears of frustration. ‘No good, Matt. I can’t believe a hardware shop like that doesn’t keep records of what keys they cut. They have an account of purchases and transactions for that day, but it could have been any of them. No proof that your key has been duplicated. All is lost because of their poor record keeping!’

Matt looked at Ann’s wrought face with empathy.

‘The shopkeeper said that a man came rushing through the door last week all keyed-up handing him a bunch of keys—some idiot he said, who swore like a trouper saying that his wife had lost her hers again and could he have this lot cut asap. Cost him a packet!!! he told me.’

‘That’s disappointing, Ann, but you were on the right track. Maybe we can narrow it down to the four men from your band who were there that day, except that some of our youths are university students who drive to practice in their daddy’s cars or have one of their own. It could have been any of them.’

‘This is getting out of hand. Poor Martha—she’ll be thinking they must change the lock again, but it has only just been done. Perhaps it’s time to get a code or PIN. That will put the kibosh on everything,’ said Ann.

‘I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it. I’ll try to piece it all together again and see what I can come up with.’

‘Thanks for the loan of the key, Matt, and your support. Whoever it is has got us flummoxed. But people like that eventually get themselves into a corner. Let’s just hope the band can still perform well at the contest on Saturday. I feel so sorry for them all.’

‘They’ll pull through. They weathered the storm when the old band room burnt down, and they are a determined lot. Ah yes—I forgot to say that Detective Yule rang to say he is dropping by tomorrow. He too is trying to narrow it down, and he and his associate will also interview band members.’

‘That’s okay, we’re working together on this, but we both have unique approaches.’

‘Excuse the cliché, but many hands make light work, and the sooner we find the mongrel, the better.’

‘Well, I’ll get off now. Thanks for everything. I’ll keep in touch,’ said Ann, stepping into her vehicle.

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