The Coroner by European P. Douglas

Author:European P. Douglas [European P. Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ghost Creative
Published: 2022-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The next morning, tired from his night’s activities and his inability to get to sleep afterwards, Stirling met Jenny down by the docks.

“You don’t look like you had a good night’s sleep,” she said, looking at him. “What hotel are you staying in?”

“The hotel is fine,” Stirling said, “I just couldn’t get to sleep. A longstanding issue with me, I’m afraid.” He wondered did she already know what he’d been up to last night. He’d decided he wasn’t going to say anything until both Jenny and Jacob Spark were together.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, offering him a steadying hand as he stepped down onto the boat. His legs and back were stiff from the exertions of running away and he winced as he got down.

“Are you sure you’re up for a walk around the island?” she asked him.

“I’m fine, just some morning stiffness,” he smiled. “A curse of age.”

The crossing was fast and choppy; the wind freezing on his face. He pulled his coat around his neck, hoping he would not catch cold. He looked at Jenny as she piloted the boat, watching her hair flap about as he looked to see how her hands worked the controls. It didn’t look all that difficult, but he was sure it was harder than it looked. Wasn’t everything, after all?

When they were on Tarrow and walking towards the house, Stirling said,

“I didn’t realise when we last spoke how much land your family actually owns.”

“No?” she looked at him in mild surprise.

“No, I thought it was only the island itself.”

“Perhaps if Uncle Nick had lived another twenty years, that might have been the case,” Jenny said, looking back across to the mainland.

“How so?”

“Well, over the last twenty years he’s given away, or sold at a price that was practically giving away, about a quarter of the land he once owned.”

“Really, that seems very generous,” Stirling said.

“Yes, generous is certainly a word the locals would use to describe him,” she said. Stirling looked at her as she spoke. She was very hard to read and he couldn’t tell if she had disapproved of giving away the land or not.

“It’s a fine thing to be known for,” he said, to test her reaction.

“Once people don’t take advantage of that generosity,” she said, and there was no mistaking a sour note in this.

“Is that what has happened in the past?” he asked.

“I think many people around here thought of Uncle Nick as a buffoon with money. They were happy to take anything he offered, but then they’d talk about him behind his back in the bars at night.”

“What would they say?”

“I don’t really want to get in to it,” she said. “It boils my blood to think of it. Let's leave it as they said he had more money than sense.” Stirling nodded, but didn’t press any further.

Jacob looked extremely tired when he greeted them in the large kitchen to the rear of the house. Enormous windows let the room be bathed in morning sunlight and it was a very pleasant temperature compared to outside.

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