to ensure the minimum of complications.
“Well, most bitches whelp as easily as shelling peas. They know what to do, they follow their instincts, there’s really no need for a vet to be involved until you get to the point of injections for the puppies. But every now and then you get a really complicated birth, and the one I had that Sunday was the most difficult I’ve ever encountered. I was up all night that night.”
“What, here in the surgery?”
“God, no, you can’t move a whelping dog, particularly one who was in as bad a state as this one was.”
“Did she survive?”
“Yes, I’m glad to say she did. As did her six puppies. She’s now the proud mother of four dogs and two bitches. All doing well. But it was a long night.”
“Did you have to go far?”
“No, just outside Fedborough. It’s…You probably know them. Ricky was at Jude’s party.”
“Ricky Le Bonnier?”
“Right. It was their Dalmatian, Spotted Dick – which is a bloody stupid name for a bitch.”
“So you were actually at their place – Fedingham Court House – all through that Sunday night.”
“Yes, the call came in from Lola – that’s Ricky’s wife – around five-thirty. I was there within half an hour, and finally left just before eight the following morning.”
“And was Lola there all the time?”
“Yes. Poor girl, I felt so sorry for her, because she’d got the problem with the dog whelping, and then one of her kids had an ear infection…between the two of them, she didn’t get a wink of sleep.”
“And you were with her right through?”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“She didn’t leave the house, didn’t go out anywhere?”
Saira Sherjan was starting to look at Carole rather curiously. Casual conversation seemed to be transforming into interrogation. “She didn’t leave the house all night,” she replied almost brusquely.
No power on earth could have stopped Carole from asking the next question. “And was Ricky there all the time as well?”
“No,” said Saira Sherjan. “He went out a few times.”
? The Shooting in the Shop ?
Twenty-Two
“But Saira had no reason to lie,” protested Carole, irritated to find Jude in one of her rare nit-picking devil’s advocate moods.
“No reason that we know of.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Simply that neither of us knows Saira that well. She may have history with the Le Bonniers about which we have no idea. She could have been another of Lola’s Cambridge contemporaries…or one of Ricky’s many flings with younger women.”
“Well, the way she talked about the birth of those Dalmatian puppies, I believed every word she said.”
Jude grinned. “You’re probably right.”
“I’m sure I am.” Carole was feeling irritable. Partly she was hungry. In the panic of Gulliver’s injury and the rush to the vet’s, she’d missed lunch and the sugar from the buttered teacake she was eating in the sitting room of High Tor hadn’t yet got into her system. Also, though she would never have admitted it even to Jude, she was uncomfortably aware of Gulliver’s absence. More than that, she was actually worried about him. However minor the operation, he was having a general anaesthetic. And anaesthetics could go wrong with dogs just as they could with humans. She couldn’t wait till ten o’clock tomorrow morning when she was due to go back into Fedborough to collect him.
“So…” Jude mused, “if Saira was telling the truth…” she caught the look in Carole’s eye – “which I’m sure she was, Lola could not possibly have been in the Mercedes 4?4 near Fethering Yacht Club around eight o’clock on that Sunday evening.”
“Whereas Ricky very definitely could have been.”
“Yes, but Kath said he was with Lola. So either Kath’s lying or – ”
“From the account you gave of her conversation, I’d be disinclined to trust a single word she said.”
“Yes, all right, Carole, she
“Think back to her exact words, Jude. Did Kath actually mention Lola by name?”
“No, she said she wasn’t interested in the names of Ricky’s Devil Women.”
Carole snorted. “And you describe her as someone capable of logic.”
“But she must have been talking about Lola. Kath said she was the latest Devil Woman to seduce Ricky away from her.”
“Well, maybe, given his reputation as a philanderer, he’s moved on to another Devil Woman since he’s been married to Lola.” Carole sniffed contemptuously; she’d made the suggestion as a bitter joke against the male gender. But when she thought about what she’d said…Carole’s blue eyes fixed on her friend’s brown ones and she came to the realization first. “Do you think he might have started up an affair with someone else?”
“It’s possible, I suppose. But who…?”
“I think I know,” said Carole with quiet confidence.
“Who?”
“Anna.”
“What do you base that on?”
“The way she behaved, things she said when I talked to her on the beach on Boxing Day. I didn’t really notice at the time, but she kept defending Ricky. She said he had talked to her about Polly. Somehow, the way she said it implied she talked to him quite a lot. And then when her mobile rang, she grabbed it like she was desperate for a call. And when I told her about Polly having been shot, she said that must have got Ricky very preoccupied. She seemed obscurely pleased about that…maybe because it explained why he hadn’t called her.”
Jude looked sceptical. “You’re making a few rather big leaps of logic, Carole.”
“No, I’m convinced I’m on the right track.”
“I wonder if there’s any way of confirming your thesis…” Jude tapped her chin as she tried to think of something.
“You don’t have a phone number for Kath?” asked Carole suddenly. “She’d be able to tell us who was with Ricky in the car, wouldn’t she?”
“Yes, but I don’t have a number for her.”
“Might Ted have one?”
“I doubt it. Can’t think of any reason why he should. I suppose I could ask him to alert me again next time she’s in the Crown and Anchor, but I think she’s mostly there at lunchtime, so there’s no chance till tomorrow.”
“What about contacting her at work?”
“Well, I know she does the books for Ayland’s, the boatyard. But they would shut up for the full Christmas break, wouldn’t they, Carole?”
“I don’t know. A lot of people keep their boats there, people who don’t like all the snobbery attached to the Fethering Yacht Club, so there must be someone on duty over the holiday.”
Carole found the number of Ayland’s and passed the handset to Jude. They were in luck. The call was answered by Kath herself. She seemed unsurprised by the enquiry, and confirmed that the Devil Woman she had seen with Ricky in his car at the relevant time had heavy lipstick and peroxide blond hair. Jude asked whether she knew if the two of them were having an affair, but all Kath would say was, “She’s his latest Devil Woman, the one from the shop.”
As soon as Jude switched the phone off, Carole, who had pieced the conversation together from her end, announced triumphantly, “I knew it. That Anna is far too glammed up for her age.”
