The Shooting in the Shop by Simon Brett

Author:Simon Brett [Brett, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Bolinda Digital Pty Ltd

‘He’ll have to have a general anaesthetic,’ said Saira Sherjan.

‘Oh dear, is it very serious?’

‘No, Carole, it’s not very serious. Simply that dogs don’t like having their mouths fiddled about with. And while I could say to a human patient, “Now I’m just going to give you an injection of local anaesthetic so that you won’t feel a thing when I stitch up your gum”, it’s difficult to get a dog to take that information on board.’

‘Yes, of course, I take your point,’ said Carole, feeling rather stupid.

But the vet’s grin cheered her. ‘Simplest if we keep him in overnight. You could take him home later today, but he’ll be a bit woozy and we’d rather have a look at him in the morning, if that’s OK with you . . . ?’

‘Fine,’ said Carole. She prided herself on not being one of those people who got sentimental about animals. But she was still surprised to feel a small pang at the thought of spending a night in High Tor without Gulliver.

‘I’ll just give him an injection now to calm him down – not that he looks too much as if he needs calming down . . . Would you mind just holding him?’

Carole did as requested and Gulliver, docile as ever, submitted to the injection. Saira led him out of the surgery and returned a moment later. ‘By the way, do pass on my thanks to Jude for her party last week. I will get around to sending her a card, but you know how it is over Christmas.’

For a moment Carole was tempted to ask how Saira had come to meet her neighbour, but she decided that the question would be sheer nosiness. Instead, she enquired, ‘Have you been busy over the holiday?’

The vet’s fine eyebrows rose ruefully. ‘And how! I know human beings tend to have a lot of illness over Christmas, and I can understand that, because for many people it is a very stressful time, though how that anxiety communicates itself to animals I don’t know. But it does. It’s been emergency call after emergency call for the whole of the last week. And because I don’t have kids like most of the partners, guess who tends to get lumbered with most of those emergency calls? Rhetorical question.’

‘So you haven’t had any problem in keeping to your no-alcohol routine?’

‘No, I haven’t. I tell you, I’ve forgotten what alcohol smells like. And I’ve forgotten what my bed looks like too. So, Carole, tell me all the Fethering gossip.’

‘I don’t think there is any, really.’

‘Oh, come on. You must have heard some dirt. You’re one of the Fethering Beach dog-walkers, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, I know for a fact that dog-walkers constitute one of the most efficient gossip grapevines in the world. Members of the Fethering Beach Dog-walking Mafia exchange all kinds of secrets on their early morning walks.’

Oh dear, thought Carole, something else I’m missing out on. The most she usually exchanged with another dog-walker was a curt ‘Fethering nod’.

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