Smoke and Murders by J.L. Blackhurst

Author:J.L. Blackhurst [Blackhurst, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Six

‘Babette?’ Tess called. She banged on the sage-green farmhouse door and stepped back to search the windows for movement. Sarah walked around to the side of the house and peered around the corner. Tess noticed the lack of noise from the machinery in the barns beyond; everything seemed remarkably still compared to the last time she had been there.

‘We’re not breaking in,’ Tess called to Sarah, who appeared to be testing the sturdiness of the windowpane. ‘So stop casing the joint.’

‘You wanna know how I see things you don’t see?’ Sarah called back. She was peering through the window, her hands cupped around her face to block out the glare. ‘Because I look in the places you don’t.’

‘You want to know why I don’t get arrested?’ Tess replied, pushing the doorbell again, a longer, more insistent ring this time. ‘Because I don’t go around breaking and entering.’

The door swung open and Tess stepped back, taken by surprise. Instead of Babette, a young man in his thirties was standing in the doorway. He was tall and sturdy, with muscular arms and the kind of permanent tan that came from working outdoors. He had short dark curls and eyes that Tess would call hazel. He was dressed in overalls and had a very distinct farm smell, to put it politely. He had one of those faces that didn’t quite manage to be model good-looking but was easy enough on the eye. He looked from Tess to Sarah, who had appeared at her side, with an expectant expression.

‘Is Babette in?’ Tess asked. ‘It’s Tess,’ she said, glancing down the hallway behind him. ‘I met your mum the other day when she found out about the cows. She was so upset, I wanted to check on her.’

‘So you’re the woman she was telling me about.’ He gave a nod. ‘Thanks for listening to her, I know she really appreciated it, she was ready to kill that Lily Donovan. She’ll be glad you came back today. I’m Martin, her son.’

He held out his hand and Tess took it. His handshake was firm, strong, a man used to manual labour.

Martin turned and called into the house.

‘Mum?’ He waited a beat but there was no reply and he turned back to them. ‘Let me go and find her. She’s been really spaced out since – the last few days. Now with the cows …’ He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. ‘I don’t know what to do to snap her out of it.’

‘Did she find out if it was foot and mouth?’ Tess asked. He shook his head, his brow furrowed in anger.

‘They don’t think it was, thank God, but Paul thinks they were poisoned on purpose, which is still infuriating. Why would anyone do that? Bastards. We’ll lose a few of them but at least the farm won’t be shut down, which is something, I suppose. Wait here. I’ll go and find her.’ Martin walked off into the house and Tess heard him calling his mother’s name.

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