The Dead Ringer by M.C. Beaton

Author:M.C. Beaton [Beaton, M. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Agatha left soon afterwards. She told Charles not to call the police. She’d had enough of questioning recently, she felt, to last her a lifetime. Also, everyone appeared to think that it had been Felicity Durne who had tried to throw the jar at her.

She trailed through to the kitchen. She had told Julian that she meant to go straight to bed. “Where are you?” she called to her cats. “Come on, furry rat bags. People food if you come now. Cat food if you don’t.”

Agatha had never thought of herself as an animal lover. Bill Wong had given her Hodge and she had picked up Boswell in London, mistaking the tabby for Hodge who had gone missing. James had chosen the names. Agatha was told that Dr. Johnston’s cat was named Hodge and his friend and biographer had been Boswell. Agatha loathed the doctor’s very name. He always seemed to be quoted in the Cotswolds by whippet-thin women who balanced with one hand on one hip, head thrown back, “As the dear doctor would say…”

Opening the kitchen door, Agatha called into the darkness. “Where are you?”

She experienced a sharp stab of fear. She ran down the garden, calling wildly. She ran back through her cottage, out the front door and banged on James’s door, shouting “Help!” at the top of her voice. A light went on in James’s cottage and he leaned out of the stair window.

“James,” pleaded Agatha. “Someone’s taken my cats.”

“You’re sure?”

“They’ve never, ever gone away before.”

“Go and phone the police. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

She was turning away when she heard a female voice call, “What’s going on, darling?”

“Neighbour trouble. Go back to bed.”

The idea that her ex might be involved with someone did not trouble her at this moment. She phoned police headquarters and then roused her whole detective staff. James arrived to find Agatha slumped on the kitchen floor, tears running down her cheeks.

He handed her a large handkerchief and then went out into the garden, calling for the cats. Normally the police would ignore a call about missing cats, but Bill Wong, first of them to arrive, knew if they had been taken, it was a threat against Agatha.

When her staff arrived, they soon left again to search the village.

A tall woman draped in a man’s dressing gown came into the kitchen. She had blonde hair, high cheekbones and grey eyes. Even in her distress, Agatha recognised James’s dressing gown. “Where is James?” she asked.

Mrs. Bloxby had just arrived. She went up to the woman and whispered something urgently and then sat down on the floor next to Agatha and put an arm round her shoulders. “Detective Wong is coming. I found him up the village. A note was put through my door.”

“What did it say?”

“Here he is.”

“Agatha,” said Bill. “This is a ransom demand. Either you pay fifty thousand pounds by eleven o’clock tomorrow or your cats will be sent to you in pieces. Instructions on where to drop the money to arrive later.

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