'Well, I did, of course. I met him when Paul went into partnership with him and, as I told you, it was Peter who suggested I check out the site of this supposed veterinary hospital. I told him long afterwards how I had been cheated. After my divorce, we went out for dinner a couple of times, but there was nothing there and I really don't think there ever was anything there'
'Then how do you explain the scene when you told him you were going to marry Paul?'
'Oh, that. I think Peter is the kind who would have been jealous if any close friend, male or female, got married. He was a very solitary man. Come to think of it, I suppose I was the only friend he had in Leamington.'
'Why did he decide to open the surgery in Carsely?' asked Agatha. 'I mean, there are lots of villages closer to Mircester, and larger ones, too'
'Let me think. He said something about that when I met him one day in the square. He said, 'I'm finding that ex of yours something useful to do. I think it's better we work apart. I've told him to start up a surgery in Carsely. Keep him out of my hair.' I said, 'Why Carsely?' and he said that some friend of his who had a shop there said it was a good place for business.'
'Josephine Webster' said Agatha. 'So that's the connection. And I think I know where my cats are'
She got up to leave. She looked wild-eyed and her face was working.
'If you suspect anyone of anything,' said Greta, 'go to the police'
Agatha merely snorted and went out to her car.
She thought furiously on the road to Mircester. Josephine Webster could have tipped off Peter Rice about Mrs Josephs. She could have been in the pub to hear Freda telling everyone about the discovery of that bottle and warned Rice, or she could have removed the bottle herself.
Agatha flicked a glance at the dashboard of her car. Eight o'clock. Peter Rice would just be sitting down to dinner.
She drove straight to the veterinary surgery and parked outside. She got out and took a tyre iron out of the car. The surgery was a low building set at the back of a small car-park. A light was burning over the door. Agatha moved to the side of the building, which was in darkness but with enough light for her to make out a glass-paned side door. She had no time or expertise to emulate James Lacey's burglary techniques. She smashed a pane of glass in the door with the tyre-iron. A volley of hysterical barks greeted her ears. Grimly ignoring them, she tugged out the remaining glass with her gloved hands, reached in and unlocked the door.
Eyes glittered at her in the darkness and somewhere among the barks and yelps she heard several plaintive miaows.
'In for a penny, in for a pound' muttered Agatha and switched on the light.
'Shhh!' she whispered desperately to the cages of animals. Her eyes ranged along them. And there, together in a cage, were Hodge and Boswell.
With a glad cry, she undid the latch and opened the cage.
The barking and yowling suddenly died abruptly. Agatha, reaching in to get her cats, was aware of a heavy air of menace. She heard a soft footfall and turned around.
Josephine Webster smiled up at the waiter as he pulled out her chair for her in the restaurant.
Peter Rice sat down opposite. The maitre d' bowed over them and presented menus and made suggestions.
When their order had been taken by one of his minions, he gathered up the huge leather-bound menus and then suddenly said, 'Will the other lady be joining you?'
'What other lady?' demanded Peter Rice, and Miss Webster giggled and said, 'One of your harem, Peter?'
'A lady came in earlier and asked if you had booked a table for this evening.'
'What did she look like?' asked the vet.
'Middle-aged, straight brown hair, expensively cut, quite smart clothes.'
'No, she won't be joining us,' said Peter. 'Hold my order. I've got to do something in the surgery. Give Miss Webster a drink and look after her until I get back'
James Lacey was worried. He had called at Agatha's cottage several times without getting a reply. He had not been able to get much more out of Freda. Her friend with the silver hair stayed with her all the time, and James could not manage to get a word with her in private.
He decided to pass the time until Agatha's return trying to write his book, but instead he found himself writing about the case. He wrote on and then gave an exclamation, took out one character and tried to fit the evidence he had to it.
He was roused from his efforts by the doorbell. Bill Wong stood there with Inspector Wilkes. 'Where's Agatha?' asked Bill.
'Isn't she back? We were supposed to meet at six. Isn't her car there?'
'No, I'm getting worried. We'll need to ask around and see if anyone saw her leaving the village'
Til go out and try to find her myself' said James. 'Here, take a look at my notes, Bill, and see if you come to the same conclusion'
James went straight to Josephine Webster's shop. It was in darkness, as was the flat above, and he got no reply to his banging and knocking. A head popped out of a window next to the flat above the shop and a man's voice said, 'Ain't no use you ringing and banging, fit to wake the dead. Her goes to Mircester on half-day'
James went back and got his car and told Bill he thought Agatha might be in Mircester. He suddenly knew where Agatha had gone and prayed he would not be too late.
Agatha slowly straightened up.
Peter Rice stood in the doorway, looking at her. She was aware again of the strength of that body which supported the disproportionately small head. She had left the tyre-iron lying beside the shattered door. Her eyes flew this way and that, seeking a weapon.
'Don't even think of it' he said. He produced a small automatic pistol from his pocket. 'Through to the examining room, Mrs Raisin' he said. 'We won't be disturbed there'
Even though she felt weak with fear, even though she felt her bladder was about to give, Agatha gave the door of the cage with her cats in it a kick as she passed and tried to send them telepathic messages to escape. Rice switched off the lights in the room with Agatha's cats and the other animals and switched on the lights in the small examining room.
Keeping the pistol trained on Agatha, he asked, 'How did you know it was me?'
'I didn't really' said Agatha. 'But I guessed Josephine Webster had been the one to take the cats and leave that note. I followed her and saw her with you. You can't shoot me. The police will find my body and they'll know it was you'
'Mrs Raisin, you broke into my surgery. I saw the light and a figure inside who rose, I thought, as if to attack me. I shot you. I was defending my life and property'
'I left a note, saying where I would be' said Agatha.
He studied her for a few moments and then smiled. 'No, you didn't, or that Lacey fellow would be here. Anyway . . .' He raised the pistol an inch.
It was because of Greta, wasn't it?' said Agatha.
'In a way. But I didn't think of killing him then. I didn't even think of it when she told me how he had been cheating her. No, it was when he started cheating me, ah, then I began to get really angry. That famous veterinary hospital of his. So good for conning gullible women. We had a receptionist here, a nice girl. Paul got his claws into her. She was to persuade the customers to pay cash as much as possible and pass the money to him. Did she get a cut of it? Of course not. All was to go to that hospital which, of course, was to be named after the receptionist. I had taken a long fishing holiday. This is a wealthy practice. I had hired a young vet to stand in for me when I was away and to work with Paul because Paul mostly handled all the cases of horses and farm animals. When I came back, I remarked that trade had dropped by a considerable amount. I suspected the temporary vet, but then one day I was talking to one of the customers in the square and we were complaining about taxes and business taxes in general. 'I suppose,' says she, 'that's why you want so much money in cash. To avoid tax. The girl always asks for it.' Of course I got hold of the girl and she broke down and said she had only been stealing for the greater good, namely the founding of that fictitious hospital. I sacked the girl but not Paul. Oh, no. He was going to have to pay me back. But I wanted him out of my hair. Josephine said Carsely was a good place, and so I told him to set up a
