A Canterbury Crime by Brian Kavanagh

Author:Brian Kavanagh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-04-05T00:00:00+00:00

Seven

The sickening shriek of disgust and revulsion that Hazel gave echoed into the night and convinced a lone traveller, passing some distance away, that he had heard the wail of a Banshee fresh from the Otherworld bringing forth her prophecy of death. It encouraged him not to be tardy and so increased his speed, not to mention his heart rate.

In the bedroom, Hazel continued to have hysterics as she stamped her feet in a kind of riotous tap dance around the broken urn, shook her head to clear it of the ashes and continued to screech inventive obscenities. In a frenzy of distaste she tore off her clothing and rushed to the bathroom. In the shower she lathered soap until she had used almost the entire bar, letting the warm water wash away any sign of the deceased Professor. It was a good twenty minutes before she felt cleansed and was able to turn the water off.

Drying herself on a towel she realised that she would not be able to put her ash impregnated clothes on again and didn’t cherish returning to the hotel in the nude. It occurred to her that she might wear some of Miss Mowbray’s clothes that she’d seen hanging in the wardrobe, but her recollection of their drabness convinced her that the naked option was the better of the two. Luckily she saw a gaudy floral dressing gown hanging on a hook behind the door and wrapped herself in it. She began to dry her hair and edged cautiously into the bedroom.

Among the remains of the chair were the remains of the Professor. She realized it would be impolite, not to say cold-hearted, to leave them there and Hazel winced as she thought of yet another potential confrontation with Mrs Day, if that pain in the neck should discover her latest catastrophe.

A small brush and pan from the bathroom proved to be the only means of cleaning up the ashes so with trepidation and a feeling of nausea, Hazel began to sweep up the ashes. She was wondering what exactly she should do with them – dispensing them via the toilet did occur to her but she resisted that temptation as profane – when in the middle of the ashes, she saw a small clear plastic bag. She brushed ash away from it to get a clearer look. The bag contained a medium sized key and a much smaller one. Hazel was just reaching for it when she froze. From the passageway came the sound of approaching footsteps.

An instinct made Hazel kick the plastic bag under the wardrobe out of sight.

She stood erect and drew the robe tightly around her as she waited.

A shadow passed over the door and she saw the intruder.

It was Tommy.

Belinda received no answer when she knocked on Hazel’s hotel door the next morning. Thinking that her friend was possibly in the shower and didn’t hear, she went to meet Mark in the reception lounge where he was waiting before returning home to work.

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