Aunt Dimity: Detective by Atherton Nancy

Author:Atherton, Nancy [Atherton, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-04-21T21:00:00+00:00

It was still raining. Nicholas and I stood beneath the peaked roof sheltering Mr. Wetherhead’s front door and contemplated the dense thorn hedge that shielded Briar Cottage from Saint George’s Lane.

“Our next stop,” said Nicholas. “I’m rather looking forward to meeting Ms. Morrow.”

“She won’t be bullied as easily as Mr. Wetherhead,” I muttered.

Nicholas took a deep breath. “I wondered when you’d get around to scolding me.” He scuffed his shoe against the doorstep. “I thought you knew what to expect, Lori. You’re the one who said we’d need dynamite to open Mr. Wetherhead’s mouth.”

“I know.” I hunched my shoulders as a gust of wind splashed rain against my face. “I just didn’t expect you to be so . . . explosive.”

“We’re dealing with murder,” Nicholas reminded me. “We can’t always afford to be polite.”

“I’d advise you to be polite with Miranda Morrow,” I warned, glancing up at him, “or she’ll turn both of us into frogs.”

“You’d make a fetching frog.” He smiled crookedly. “Am I forgiven?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” I admitted. “You got the information we wanted. I suppose I can’t carp too much about your methods.”

“Frogs and carp.” Nicholas dabbed a raindrop from the tip of my nose. “You’ve been in the wet too long, Lori. It’s coloring your vocabulary.”

I laughed, but as Nicholas turned up the collar of his trench coat and peered at the leaden sky, I couldn’t keep myself from worrying about his methods. I didn’t mind questioning my neighbors or surveilling them from a distance, but I wasn’t willing to shout at them or sneak up to their windows or threaten to sic the cops on them if they refused to speak with us.

Nicholas seemed willing to do anything. What had started as a casual pursuit had at some point become for him something far more serious. Why was he pushing so hard? Was he driven by a sense of duty to his aunt and uncle, or by a compulsion I did not yet understand? As we approached Briar Cottage I couldn’t help wondering just how far he’d go to find out who’d killed Pruneface Hooper.

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.