Something in the Waters--a Cozy Mystery (with Dragons) by Kim M. Watt

Author:Kim M. Watt [Watt, Kim M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781067011666
Publisher: Kim M. Watt

It didn’t take them long to get back to Toot Hansell, and Alice skirted the centre without thinking about it, shying away from the yawning, unseen gap and heading straight for the hall. The streets were even more flooded than when they’d left, everything awash in standing water, and every door was either sandbagged already, or it was in progress, chains of people passing the bags hand to hand across longer gardens, young people with wet hair and sloshing wellies hefting sacks effortlessly from the backs of cars and trucks to the steps of terraced houses and those closer to the road. Alice was grateful there were no basement flats in Toot Hansell. Plenty of basements, but none that anyone lived in, as far as she knew. Although she supposed there were plenty used for offices and suchlike. But that still seemed better than one’s whole home being below the level of those menacing waters.

She parked at the end of the row of cars outside the hall, all of which seemed to belong to the W.I. The street was a river flowing downhill as it circled the green and swirled past the hall, but the hall’s garden offered a little protection from the fast-moving flood, and while the grass in the front garden was partly underwater, the door was still clear. Sandbags were set in place anyway, waiting for things to deteriorate.

Alice pushed the door open, stepping onto the mat and shaking her jacket off. It was quiet inside, a number of tables pushed together into a long row in front of the stage and packed with cakes and biscuits and sandwiches and sausage rolls, plates and napkins and bottles of water. At a separate table, by the wall, the tea and coffee station waited, along with some glasses and a judicious selection of cordials. None of them seemed to be Gert’s, Alice noted with approval. That one was best not left out with the non-alcoholic drinks. The hall was scattered with tables and chairs, set up invitingly.

But despite the banquet that had been laid on, the only people in view were the W.I. Rosemary was sitting at one table picking somewhat disconsolately at a slice of tea cake, while Rose sat at another, rubbing Angelus’ belly with one foot. The rest of the W.I. were scattered around the hall, drinking tea and nibbling on biscuits or slices, all of them looking distinctly put out.

“What’s happened?” Alice asked, frowning.

“You’ve not been on the Facebook group, have you?” Gert asked.

“We saw the news about the well,” Miriam said. “How awful!”

“It is,” Priya said. “We’ll never fix it. It’s just gone.”

“Where were you?” Jasmine asked. Her thin hair was pulled tightly back, and dark shadows lurked under her eyes. “You were at Lachlan’s, weren’t you?”

“We went to apologise, as agreed,” Alice said. “What on earth’s going on?”

“We’ve been fired,” Gert said, taking a swig of what was almost certainly not non-alcoholic cordial.

“It’s Lachlan,” Pearl said. “He was posting first thing this morning about people sneaking around in the night, and Gareth put a response up.

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