The Mystery of Doe Eyes by Nigel Plane

Author:Nigel Plane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2017-09-15T11:33:42+00:00

***

Covered only by a bathrobe, Sam sat on the settee, which he had pulled as close to the fire as he could. He stared absentmindedly at the figurines on the mantelpiece as they glowed red and yellow by the firelight, and simply reached out his hand as Theia handed him the warming drink that she had made.

“You OK now?” she whispered, more with a look of conspiracy than concern.

“At least I’ve stopped shivering.”

She drew the curtains across the French windows, thus enclosing the warmth and light. “And you’re sure no-one saw you at all?”

He shook his head. “Well, apart from whoever was in that red convertible. But you reckon that might have been Sophie?”

“I’m sure. She’d said she always wanted one. Bought from her ill-gotten gains from poor Freddy, I expect. And he hinted in a funny sort of way that she was here, didn’t he?”

“I just hope that no-one saw me from the row of cottages, that’s all.” He sighed and looked at the warm colours flickering on the mantelpiece again, and listened to the patter of rain spit and bubble against the glass behind the curtains. “It’s raining heavily now, probably continue through the night. Poor Freddy… out there in the dark. It could have been me…”

Theia sat beside him and placed her hand on his. He looked at her long, slender fingers, and then caressed them. “Sooner or later, they’ll find him,” he said. “His body won’t stay submerged for long, the shifting tides will see to that. A passer-by, or a boatman for sure, and then―”

“Then, we’ll tell the truth if we’re implicated.” She pressed reassuringly on the back of his hand. “We’ll say he came here, completely deranged, but we won’t say that you went after him. You’re sure you didn’t lose anything in the struggle?”

He nodded meekly.

“Then, at worst it will be an open verdict.” Her confidence restored, she picked the box up from the table. “This is all we need.”

She placed it on the floor by his naked feet. The card, sodden and muddy, had barely dried out, but the generous use of parcel tape had kept it intact.

“I’ve waited long enough, Sam. It’ll never dry out at this rate, and if there’s papers and documents inside, then they’ll begin to disintegrate before long. And the stink… I’ve had that with me ever since he put it on the kitchen table. What is that smell?”

She knelt down by the box and, alternating between a pair of scissors and a knife, began to cut away at the seals. An obstinate piece of masking tape impeded her progress, so she stood up with the box close to her chest and hacked away at the obstacle. But the base of the box gave way, and one solitary object that clearly filled the container fell onto the carpet with a plop.

For a microsecond, Sam thought it was a football, because it bounced, and then came to rest on his feet. But a microsecond was all that was needed for his brain to assimilate enough information to determine its true nature.

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.