CONSTABLE IN THE COUNTRY a perfect feel-good read from one of Britain’s best-loved authors (Constable Nick Mystery Book 31) by NICHOLAS RHEA

Author:NICHOLAS RHEA [RHEA, NICHOLAS]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller and cozy mystery suspense
Published: 2021-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Dogs of all shapes, colours, sizes and breeds are an integral part of country life, being used both as companions and workmates, in addition to those bred only for hunting and show purposes. It is not surprising there are many laws relating to them and, during my time at Aidensfield, doggy legislation covered everything from cruelty to boarding establishments. There were laws about collars, licences, the worrying of livestock, strays, rabies, dangerous dogs, accidents involving motor vehicles and even rewards for the recovery of stolen dogs. It was an offence, for example, to corruptly take any reward under pretence or upon account of aiding any person to recover any stolen dog. I have no idea why Parliament saw fit to make this a specific offence but it appeared in the Larceny Act of 1916, section 5(3), which was in force until 1968, covering the period I was at Aidensfield. I have to say I never dealt with such an offence.

I have recounted many tales of dogs in previous Constable books and there are probably hundreds more which could be told, but here is just another small selection. The first concerns a wandering dog which caused several traffic accidents. No one could catch it or identify its owner, and no one seemed to know where it had come from, or how long it had been roaming. There was a suggestion it was living wild, although we’d had no reports of raids on poultry, rabbits, butchers’ shops or even domestic kitchens or dustbins. If the number of traffic accidents along with their widely spread venues were any guide, it was clearly roaming across a huge tract of countryside in and around Ashfordly and Aidensfield. In spite of frequent sightings and accident reports, the only description we could muster was that it was ‘a biggish black dog, about the size of a Labrador.’

The first time I encountered anyone who had actually seen the mysterious animal was when I received a radio call one lunchtime to say a van had run off the road between Aidensfield and Elsinby. It had gone into a ditch, but the driver was not badly hurt, suffering only a few cuts and bruises. However, as he had demolished a few yards of railings and a reflecting post which was there to warn motorists of the impending corner, it was necessary to formally report the accident. The nearby farmer, owner of the railings in question, had rung me because he’d come across the hapless man in the ditch moments after it had happened, and so I drove to the scene in my official Mini-van.

When I arrived, I saw it was Alec Moore, a thirty-something self-employed gardener-cum-handyman who lived in Elsinby. He toured the district in his van which was always loaded with gardening tools, a wheelbarrow, lawnmower, hose pipe, apparently endless balls of string and rope, pruning shears and a host of other necessities. He never considered himself a real gardener because he knew nothing of the names or

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