The revelation was a surprising slap to the face. He’d failed completely in his early assessment of the case, leaping to a conclusion that was entirely false. April accused Kate of being a homewrecker and he accepted it without question.
‘I’m sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘I appear to have misjudged things. Someone pointed the finger at Kate Harris, I thought it might have been you.’
Mrs Clement laughed again, a high-pitched tinkling noise that sounded false. ‘I have no quarrel with Kate Harris. I don’t know the girl. I’ve seen her once or twice; she’s rather plain looking, which makes her ideal for Joel. Or did, I should say. I can’t imagine her killing him – he wasn’t worth the effort.’
Albert nodded his head, giving Rex’s lead a quick shake to make him get to his feet. ‘I’ll leave you to your day, Mrs … um’
‘Solomon,’ she provided. She stepped out of her house, pulling the door shut behind her and making sure it was locked. ‘I suppose I should wish you luck. I didn’t love Joel. I don’t think I ever did, but he didn’t deserve to be murdered. If Kate didn’t do it, then I hope you can clear her name.’ It was the first heartfelt thing she had said in the five minutes he’d been on her doorstep.
By the time he made it back to the pavement beyond her property, her vehicle gate was sliding open and she pulled out and away without a glance in his direction. It felt like a wasted trip, but it wasn’t. He’d been questioning his motivation for continuing given how many bad marks were stacking up against Kate. But now he had to view her in a different light. If she wasn’t guilty of stealing a husband, what else wasn’t she guilty of?
Accusation
The sky was darkening again, Albert’s walk back through the town of Biggleswade one that was fraught with the danger of getting soaked to the bone if the heavens chose to open. He kept his pace as fast as he felt he could easily maintain and told his knees to stop creaking.
Rex was loving the outdoors, there were so many new smells to sample. This was so much more fun than sitting around in his human’s house hoping for something interesting to happen. Before they came away, he would spend most of the day sleeping, and when he wasn’t sleeping or hanging around the kitchen in the hope his human might drop something, he was patrolling the garden for the squirrel mafia, keeping his borders safe and his standards high. He wasn’t going to be known as the dog in his village who couldn’t keep the squirrels out. These things were okay to pass the time but not as interesting as the last few days had proven to be. He had been allowed to chase and bite people which was the best part, but in addition there had been things to eat, bowls of the tasty black stuff to drink that made his head go a bit swimmy, and they were out for walks all the time. It was great.
They were heading somewhere now, his human walking as if he had a purpose, but Rex couldn’t work out if they were trying to solve a crime this time or not. He thought they were, but he hadn’t smelled any blood, or … well anything his police handlers had taught him to alert for. He watched yesterday when a female human was taken away by the humans who wore uniforms and that was fine; he was used to that. It meant they’d found the person they were trying to find, the game was over, and he got to play with his ball. At least, that used to be what it meant. Of course, he hadn’t been the one to find this particular human, so he hadn’t earned the reward.
His human was up to something though; trying to uncover something but Rex didn’t know what it was. He suspected the two men he’d smelled numerous times now were somehow involved in whatever it was; they were around and trying to stay out of sight. The concept made Rex chuckle; he loved that humans thought he couldn’t find them if they went around a corner or hid under something. It demonstrated just how dumb humans were. They might be nothing to do with whatever his human was up to, but Rex found their behaviour suspicious and was keeping his nose alert for them.
Walking beside Rex, Albert was getting a niggling pain in his left hip. He rubbed at it with his hand but didn’t let it slow him down. The draw of the unknown was pulling him onwards. That and the belief that he’d figured a part of this out now.
A church tower clock bonged to his right, a single clang of its giant bell. Albert was shocked that so much of the day had already slipped away. Visiting the police station, a late breakfast, and then walking everywhere had eaten through the morning. A quick check confirmed it was indeed one o’clock though either his watch was a little slow or the clock tower was a few minutes fast.
He was close enough to see the Clanger Café, the light coming through the front windows showing just how dim the sky was. Turning his collar up against a cool breeze which he felt certain was being pushed by a storm front, Albert made it to the café and into the beckoning warmth.
From under the door in the counter, Hans growled, ‘You again?’
With his human making his way to the counter, Rex didn’t rise to the bait. Instead he asked, ‘Have the two humans been back in this morning? The ones we could smell following us.’
Hans had to think
