In a field beside the road ahead of them was the fairground, the lights sparkling against the night sky. They had passed it on their road out but it had been silent and deserted.
'Want to take a look around?' asked Jimmy. 'It's probably crawling with Francie Juddle's relatives.'
'I like fairgrounds,' said Agatha.
'Then let's go.' He drove off the road and into the carpark.
'Not many people.'
'Wrong time of year, and there was a terrible weather forecast.'
'I'm surprised it's open on a Sunday,' said Agatha as they walked between the booths.
'They are always open. They stay closed until late in the afternoon on a Sunday, the idea being that everybody's had time to go to church. What do you want to try? It's one of those old-fashioned fairs. Not much in the way of exciting rides.'
'There's a Ferris wheel,' said Agatha, pointing upwards. 'I'd like to try that.'
'It's late. Some of the things are closing already. But we'll try.'
The Ferris wheel was still operating. Jimmy paid for two tickets and they climbed into one of the seats. The man who had sold them the tickets fastened a safety bar across their chair.
'We're the only ones,' said Agatha. 'I wonder if he'll bother operating it. They sat for about five minutes with nothing happening. 'Let's get off,' Jimmy was just saying when, with a jerk, the Ferris wheel started up. The wheel sent them climbing higher. 'The wind's getting strong,' said Agatha, clutching Jimmy's arm.
Then, when their chair lurched and swung to the top, the wheel suddenly stopped dead.
'They often do this,' said Jimmy, putting an arm around Agatha. 'It'll start up in a minute.'
A great gust of wind sent the chair rocking. Jimmy leaned over the edge. 'What's happening?' he shouted, but the increasing wind tore his words away.
Agatha clung on to him. A blast of icy rain hit her cheek. Ahead of her she could see the lights of Wyckhadden and then, as if a hand had drawn a great veil over the town, it was swallowed up in the approaching storm.
The chair they were sitting on began to bucket and lurch. Down below, the lights of the fairground were beginning to go off one by one. Then the lights on the Ferris wheel went out, leaving them stranded in the increasing ferocity and blackness of the storm.
Jimmy held Agatha close and said, 'I'm going to climb down. You stay here and hang on like grim death.' He loosened the protective bar in front of them and lifted it.
'Don't leave me,' shouted Agatha.
'I've got to get down.' He shrugged off his coat and then kicked off his shoes.
He swung himself out of the chair and began to climb down the struts of the Ferris wheel. Agatha leaned over to try to watch him but the chair gave another huge lurch and she screamed and hung on with both hands.
What a way to die, she thought miserably. She wanted to drag Jimmy's coat over her but was frightened to loosen her grip on the chair. She prayed desperately, the soldier's prayer. 'Dear God, if there is a God, get me out of this!'
She was now drenched to the skin. How long since Jimmy had started to climb down? Ten minutes? An hour?
Why hadn't she worn gloves? Her fingers were becoming numb. What if she couldn't hold on any longer? She raised one hand and struggled to find the bar and fasten it back in front of her but the swaying of the chair was so violent that she gave up the attempt.
Oh, James, wailed her mind, will I ever see you again? What will happen to my cats?
And then she felt herself falling and let out a long wail of terror.
But then her panic receded. The Ferris wheel was starting to move. Down and down she went. Blue lights were beginning to flicker along the coast road. Jimmy had a mobile phone in the car. He must have called for help.
And then the Ferris wheel lurched to a halt and there was Jimmy with several fairground people. And suddenly the fairground was full of police cars and an ambulance.
'You're going straight to hospital,' said Jimmy.
'I'm all right,' said Agatha, through chattering teeth.
'You might be suffering from hypothermia.'
'What happened?'
'I'll let you know as soon as I can,' said Jimmy.
SIX
AGATHA awoke in hospital in Hadderton the following morning. The sleepy policewoman, Trul, was sitting beside her bed.
Agatha struggled up against the pillows. 'So what happened?' she asked.
'The man operating the Ferris wheel said it jammed and he went to get help.'
'What!' Agatha was outraged. 'I don't believe that for a moment. Inspector Jessop had to climb all the way down that Ferris wheel in a storm because we were up there for ages.'
The policewoman rose. 'Now you're awake, do you feel strong enough to make a statement?'
'I feel fine. What's the medical verdict?'
'You were not suffering from hypothermia but you may be suffering from shock. I'll get Detective Sergeant Peter Carroll. He's outside.'
Carroll came in. 'Now, if you will begin at the beginning and tell me in your own words what happened,' he said, drawing out a notebook.
'I'm hardly likely to tell you in anyone else's words,' said Agatha crossly. She described succinctly how the Ferris wheel had stopped when they were right at the top. 'Before the storm blotted everything out,' said Agatha, 'I could see the lights in the fairground below going out. To me it looked as if they were packing up for the night and going to leave us up there.'
'That will be all for the moment,' said Carroll, closing his notebook.
'Can I leave?'
'That's between you and the hospital.'
'Then send in a nurse!'
When Carroll had left and had been replaced by a nurse, Agatha said she wanted to sign herself out. There was a long wait for a doctor and then all the forms to sign before her still-damp clothes were produced. They might at least have dried them, thought Agatha huffily.
She went out of the hospital, where steady rain was falling, and waited for the cab she had ordered. She began to feel very weak and shaky but she was determined to get back to the hotel. She took out the tranquillizers they had given her and threw them in a waste bucket beside the hotel entrance. In Agatha's experience, all tranquillizers did was delay shock and misery.
The cab arrived and she was driven the short distance to the hotel in Wyckhadden. She went straight up to her room and ran a hot bath, stripped off her clothes, and soaked in it, wondering all the while if some of Francie's relatives were responsible for her death and had tried to get the inspector out of the way. But she decided, as she towelled herself dry, that did not make sense. The fairground people must know that had Jimmy been killed, then they would have been plagued with police investigations until the end of time, not to mention a charge of manslaughter.
She realized she was hungry and it was lunch-time. She went down to the dining-room.
The rest were just finishing their meals. 'We were looking for you last night,' the colonel called over.
'I was nearly killed,' said Agatha. She told them about her adventure on the Ferris wheel, half expecting them to shy away from the subject, but they all came crowding around her table, demanding details.
