Cat Among the Pumpkins: A Hettie Bagshot Mystery (The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency) by Mandy Morton

Author:Mandy Morton [Morton, Mandy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-10-21T00:00:00+00:00

9

The room was uncharacteristically cheerless when they stumbled over the threshold: the November chill had crept uninvited down the chimney, and the fire had all but gone out. ‘Bloody marvellous!’ said Hettie. ‘After the day we’ve had, you’d think the fire would have stayed in to welcome us home.’

Bruiser put the food parcels down and sprang into action. ‘There’s still enough of a glow to get it goin’ again. Leave it to me - by the time you’ve dished up the pies, I’ll ’ave it roarin’ up yer chimney.’

Tilly dragged a pile of old newspaper from under the staff sideboard and Bruiser set about the fireplace, armed with kindling and coal. He was true to his word: by the time Hettie and Tilly had laid three places at the table for dinner and dished up the chicken pies, a healthy set of flames was licking the chimney breast and the room had begun to warm through.

Soon, there wasn’t a crumb to be found on licked-clean plates, and the cats retired to the fireside to indulge themselves in Betty Butter’s cream horns. Tilly switched the TV on to catch the local news. To their amazement, there seemed to be only one story. National and local TV stations were camped out on Mavis Spitforce’s doorstep, covering every possible aspect of the case. ‘Ooh look - there you are,’ squealed Tilly in delight as Hettie stepped forward to address the crowd.

‘I didn’t know they were filming me,’ Hettie said, admiring her first piece to camera. ‘And look - there’s Lavinia Spitforce. Doesn’t she look cross?’

The chaos in Whisker Terrace seemed to have brought out the worst in those lucky enough to be caught on film, and many from the assembled crowd seemed keen to push themselves to the very front of the story. Balti Dosh had changed into her Dosh Stores sweatshirt and was holding court on the state of Mavis Spitforce’s last days; Delirium Treemints could be seen in the background doing a roaring trade in beverages, and – as a trade-off for the constant supply of boiled kettles from the Dosh stores - had added a new line in hot samosas; and perhaps most significantly, Marmite Spratt had set her own table up, piled high with Strange But Trues. The camera panned across to her, focusing on the open page which detailed the story of Milky Myers.

‘I don’t believe it!’ shouted Hettie at the television. ‘They’re actually going to interview her.’

Marmite Spratt stepped forward as one of the reporters forced a microphone into her face and shouted his question so that she could hear him above the crowd. ‘Miss Spratt, what can you tell us about the connection between this murder and the Milky Myers case?’

Marmite cleared her throat as another dozen microphones were shoved towards her, obscuring her face almost entirely. She spoke up clearly and precisely. ‘As the town’s historian, I have followed up a number of interesting cases in the area, all of which are still available to buy in my Strange But True series of books.

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