Stilton Slaughter by Steve Higgs

Author:Steve Higgs [Higgs, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

Breakfast

The nightcap never happened, and Albert slept without the numbing aid it promised. Oxford drove him back to the pub, but by then, the yawning was almost uncontrollable and dictated Albert get straight to bed. There was no argument from Rex, not that he expected one, but pulling the covers up under his chin, Albert’s tired brain continued to spiral as it tried to connect the missing Stilton, the counterfeit money, the lockup full of stolen things, and a double murder.

The pub had a restaurant on the side which also catered breakfast for the guests staying upstairs. There were five rooms, each filled with guests in Stilton for the festival, Albert assumed. Coming into breakfast with Rex at his side, four couples lifted their eyes to see the newcomer. They were all middle-aged or older; man and wife pairings whose kids had grown up and left home already.

He nodded and murmured a brief hello as the landlord, Gerald, appeared through a door on his right with two heaping plates of breakfast. The rising steam carried the heady scent of freshly grilled salty bacon and peppery sausages. It made Albert’s stomach do a little flip of excitement and remind him that supper had never happened.

Rex looked up at his human sniffing the air. ‘You can smell that, can you? Hoorah, the human’s nose works! I could smell that upstairs in the room while I was still asleep.’ If he knew how to shake his head despairingly, he would have done so, but his human was paying no attention, and Rex had just spotted a piece of bacon on the carpet. It was beneath a table and between the feet of a lady having her breakfast, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be able to swiftly snag it on his way past.

He lined up on his prize as they wove between the tables.

‘Good morning,’ Gerald greeted man and dog once he’d delivered the breakfast plates to a hungry couple by the window. ‘Sit anywhere, please. I’ll be over to take your order shortly.’

Rex squinted at the bacon. His human was talking to another human, creating a delay that was undoubtedly unnecessary. ‘We are talking bacon here folks,’ Rex harrumphed to get his human moving again. They started forward again. This was it. He just needed a few more feet and the bacon would be his. His lead stopped moving, jerking his head unexpectedly when he reached the end of the slack. Spinning about to see what might have caused the latest delay, Rex found his human settling into a chair. ‘What are you doing?’ Rex asked, his whine of disappointment getting his human’s attention.

Albert looked down at Rex. His dog was puffing his cheeks out with each breath as if upset about something he couldn’t articulate, and glancing across the room. ‘What is it, boy?’ Albert leaned down to see if there might be another dog with one of the couples.

‘It’s right there,’ whined Rex. ‘Look at it. Doesn’t it look delicious? I can even see some fluff on it where it has been kicked across the carpet.

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