THE COMPLETE MALTRAVERS MYSTERIES BOOKS 1–6 six utterly gripping British murder mysteries by Richardson Robert

Author:Richardson, Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books Crime, Thriller & Mystery, A Joffe Books Company
Published: 2023-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Two

Spontaneous song burst through the public bar of the Steamer, baritones and basses combining in a chorus of West Country defiance in support of a Bishop of Bristol imprisoned by James II for opposing legislation granting greater religious tolerance for those who did not share his grace’s image of God; the Porthennis Male Voice Choir — including several Nonconformists whom the bishop would presumably have hanged given the opportunity — were relaxing after their Friday night rehearsal.

And do they know the where and when?

And shall Trelawny die?

There’s twenty thousand Cornishmen

Will know the reason why.

The singing did not interrupt relentless chatter and clamour between stone walls and dark panelled wooden partitions beneath a low anaglypta ceiling pickled nicotine yellow by years of pipe and cigarette smoke. Beer gushed from taps beneath decorated porcelain hand pumps, glasses clinked, dominoes clattered as they were shuffled on a table in one corner. Coarse laughter at a joke involving the unlikely sexual encounter of a monk and a female trapeze artist mingled with a barmaid yelling the number of someone’s food order and the rattle of falling coins marked the computer-regulated appearance of three pears in the windows of the fruit machine. Behind customers crammed round the bar, people shouted drinks orders above the racket. Visitors and locals jostled together, a liberal attitude towards children on licensed premises adding the raucous crying of a baby and an adolescent argument over some board game brought along to amuse teenagers while the adults enjoyed themselves. Squeezing between bodies with his pint and Helen’s vodka and lime, Maltravers indicated the door leading outside with a movement of his head and took their drinks across the narrow street to where an iron rail topped the harbour wall.

The tide was in and gulls rode between rocking cabin cruisers, rowing boats and a two-masted yacht, dripping mooring ropes creaking as they tightened and fell slack again. A boy and girl paddled a blue and yellow inflatable dinghy, peering into the water for crabs. The sky was a translucent shell of ivory, mint green and pale turquoise as the sun gathered and flushed as it lay down behind the headland to their right. Holidaymakers on evening walks strolled past, tired after a day spent on beaches, walking moors or visiting theme parks. The muffled cacophony from inside the Steamer amplified the air of quietness.

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Maltravers swallowed a mouthful of beer as he gazed across to the entrance gap in the harbour wall. “Martha Shaw was killed when a half-finished statue fell on top of her and Mortimer instantly knew it had happened half a mile away.”

“All he knew was that someone had died suddenly,” Helen corrected. “He only knew it was Martha when I told him what we’d seen.”

“But all we saw was a police car outside her cottage,” he argued. “There could have been other explanations. It’s only in the last hour that you’ve managed to confirm it. But Mortimer wanders in and calmly announces that Martha is actually dead.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.