He hung around to hear what Albert had to report, then had to hurry away with a promise to see Albert later.
Left to his own devices, Albert wandered back to the pub to get his breakfast. They stopped serving at ten o’clock and he was running the chance of missing out if he didn’t get moving.
He made it with time to spare, taking Rex in with him to save time. ‘Now listen, Rex,’ he made the dog look at him while he delivered a warning/request. ‘I would like to enjoy my breakfast in peace, okay? That means, no running across the room because you have spotted a crumb of toast. No flipping me off my chair because you’ve seen a squirrel outside the window, and no accidentally-on-purpose tripping the waiter when he brings me my food. I have ordered you some eggs which you will get if we make it to the end of my breakfast without incident. Is that a deal?’
Rex only heard the part about there being eggs for him. The rest of what his human said was just background noise. He wagged his tail and looked about for the person with plates of food. There were two other couples in the room, all of whom had finished eating and were either chatting or reading a newspaper.
The waiter arrived with the plates, a steady mist of steam rising from each as the man placed them on the table. ‘This one is yours,’ said Albert, tilting it slightly so Rex could see.
Rex was on his feet and poised to eat. Drool dripped from his lower jaw in anticipation of the four fried eggs he was about to inhale. Until his human took them away and placed them in the middle of the table, that is. ‘You get them when I finish mine,’ chided Albert.
Huffing with disappointment, Rex stared at the plate, focussing his thoughts, and concentrating hard. It refused to levitate. Irked at being outsmarted by his human, Rex harrumphed to the carpet and turned his back.
At the table, Albert was also drooling, though less visibly than his dog. His breakfast had two thick bacon chops, each of which were presented with a crispy, yet still glistening, layer of fat running around the outside. It was like having crackling for breakfast. Complimented by black pudding, sausages, fried eggs, meaty portabella mushrooms – oven baked and served whole – plus fried bread, beans, and grilled tomato. He kept telling himself to order the kippers for a change, but the tempting plates of evil breakfast goodness suckered him in every time. Besides, Arbroath was on his list of places to visit and they had arguably the best kippers in the world. He would eat the fishy delicacy there.
While he tucked into the sumptuous breakfast feast, he thought about what he needed to do next. The Joel Clement murder case was perplexing simply because there didn’t appear to be a thread to pull at. Kate could not present an alibi and the evidence against her was convincing enough to secure a conviction: his fresh blood in the kitchen of their home, no sign of forced entry, no witnesses to anyone approaching Joel which might throw some doubt on her guilt. If there were some question about where Kate had been at the time of Joel’s murder, or if there were a way to confirm she was home at the time of his disappearance, he might have a place to start. In theory, it might be possible to find someone who saw Joel after he left the pub, but to achieve that would either take a fat dollop of luck, or a massive number of manhours which he didn’t have.
The police would have done that leg work if they were trying to find the killer. Officers would have been drafted in to support the local effort as they traced his last movements, but they hadn’t done that. They’d gone straight to Kate.
Why?
Albert had to remind himself to continue chewing his breakfast because the question of what made the police go directly for Kate made him pause. It needed an answer, but he already suspected he knew what it was.
Rex popped up next to him, his tongue hanging over his bottom jaw as he panted with excitement. When Albert looked at him, the dog licked his lips and made solid eye contact.
‘Give me the plate of eggs,’ he commanded, doing his best to hypnotise his human. Much to his surprise, it worked, his human picking up the plate to place it on the floor in an absentminded way. The eggs didn’t make it to the floor, Rex licked them off the plate in mid-air.
Satisfied that there was unlikely to be anything else until his human was finished with his breakfast, at which point Rex would highlight his extensive experience in cleaning plates, he laid back down to rest.
Albert powered through the rest of his meal, polishing off ninety-five percent of it even though, much like his clanger yesterday, there was truly more food than he required. His brain was sparking; messages flashing up to suggest one scenario or another. Something had sent the police sniffing in Kate’s direction, but in Albert’s opinion, something was more likely to be someone and the pool of suspects was small.
Pushing his plate away, much to Rex’s disgust, Albert stood up and patted his belly. Were his trousers tighter than they had been two weeks ago? He had to acknowledge that he was eating richer food than he might usually and drinking more alcohol. Well, it wasn’t like he was going to live forever, and he had no aspirations to enter a swimsuit competition, so with another pat on his gut, he clicked his mouth at Rex and set out on his day.
His first stop was the
