Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body

'Dear me. Why did you dislike your mother so much?'

He shrugged. 'She bitched my poor father to hell and gone. He died of a heart attack when we were small. Amy and I were brought up by a succession of nannies and then we were both sent to schools in Switzerland. Then universities in the States. We went home as little as possible. Believe me, it was a relief when she moved over here. I work as a lawyer.'

'So why have you come to see me?'

'Unfinished business. My mother left everything to Amy and me. Quite a lot. She was a bit of a miser. Not on the big things like expensive schools for us and so on but on niggling things like cheap meals or eating at other people's expense as much as possible, things like that. But I really want to know who killed her, and then I can get on with my life. I heard that she had hired you to find out who murdered John Sunday. I would like to hire you to find out who killed my mother.'

'I'll do my best,' said Agatha. 'I feel if I could find out who murdered John Sunday, then I would find out who murdered your mother. She said to a friend of mine the night she was murdered that she knew something.'

He smiled at her, a charming smile that lit up his handsome face. Agatha was even more painfully aware of the fact that not only did she have no make-up on but that she was wearing a tent-like blouse, a cotton skirt and slippers.

'Would you excuse me a moment?' she said hurriedly. She eased herself to her feet, always dimly afraid that the terrible hip pain would come back.

'Hip replacement?' he asked sympathetically.

'No!' lied Agatha. 'Just took a tumble.' Hip replacement, indeed. So aging.

Upstairs, she carefully made up her face and brushed her hair until it shone. She was just struggling into a trouser suit when her doorbell rang. Tom shouted from downstairs, 'Don't worry. I'll get it.'

As she finally made her way downstairs, she could hear laughter from the kitchen. She opened the kitchen door and went in. Toni was sitting at the table facing Tom. Her blond hair was been newly cut in a short elfin style, making her eyes look large. She was wearing jeans and half boots with a black sweater. A scarlet Puffa jacket hung over the back of her chair.

'Can I help you?' Toni jumped to her feet. 'How's the hip replacement? Healing up okay?'

'What hip replacement?' said Agatha repressively. 'Let's talk about something else. I gather you've introduced yourselves.'

'Indeed,' said Tom in his almost accentless English. 'I didn't know detectives were that pretty off the television screen.'

'You don't have an American accent,' said Toni.

'As I was explaining to Mrs. Raisin here, I was schooled in Switzerland so I missed out on the American accent.'

'Mr. Courtney,' began Agatha.

'Tom, please.'

'Right. I'm Agatha. Here's my card. If you call at the office on Monday morning, we'll draw up a contract for you. I'll tell you how far we'd got.'

Agatha succinctly outlined all the interviews. When she had finished, Toni said, 'You've forgotten the Beagles and the Summers. You sent me to interview them.'

'Right. But as I remember you didn't get much.'

'They were all so old and creaky.'

Tom smiled. 'Are you very sure? I remember at your age that people like me and Agatha here would seem creaky.'

I'd like to throw something, thought Agatha savagely.

'Oh, no,' said Toni, charmingly flustered. 'I mean, neither you nor Agatha are old.'

'Bless the girl,' laughed Tom.

'Had they put the Christmas lights up?' asked Agatha. She turned to Tom. 'You see, each Christmas their cottages were blazing with Christmas lights and John Sunday stopped them last Christmas. They were furious. Did they put the lights up after he was murdered, Toni?'

'They hadn't done when I called on them and then I never went back to Odley Cruesis.'

'Will you rebuild the manor?' Agatha asked Tom.

'No, I'm selling the wreck to a builder. He's going to bulldoze the ruin and then build houses on the land.'

'Was the place insured?'

'Yes, heavily.'

Agatha asked, 'Have the police enquired where you were the night your mother was murdered?'

'Of course. I was in the Cayman Islands on holiday. Plenty of witnesses.'

The doorbell rang again. 'You're a busy lady,' commented Tom.

'I'll get it,' said Toni. She came back followed by Roy Silver. Roy had once worked for Agatha when she had run her own public relations firm. He was still in PR. As a concession to a visit to the countryside, Roy was wearing a sports jacket, but underneath he sported a T-shirt with the logo Ready To Kill. He was a rather weedy young man with a weak, pale face and fine hair, cut short and gelled into small spikes all over his narrow head.

'Aggie, darling,' he said, kissing her on the cheek. 'I'll just pop my bag in the spare room.'

Agatha caught an amused look in Tom's eyes and said hurriedly, 'My young friend used to work for me. You might have phoned, Roy.'

'Came on an impulse. Read about all the Cotswolds mayhem in the papers and then nothing. I thought you might have asked me for Christmas. There I was on my little lone.'

'I assumed everyone I knew would be booked up for Christmas,' said Agatha defensively.

Roy went off upstairs. Agatha said, 'I'd like to get back to Odley Cruesis and begin again. I don't like the idea of asking you to work on your day off, Toni. I'll let you know on Monday how I get on.'

'Oh, I'm free,' said Toni blithely.

Agatha silently cursed both Roy and Toni. No chance of being alone with Tom.

When Roy came back downstairs, Agatha said, 'We're going detecting. You can stay here if you like.'

'Dear Aggie, remember all the times I've spent ferreting around with you. Are we going to start today?'

'I'll get my notes,' said Agatha, 'and then we can split up.'

When she returned, she said, 'First of all, Tom, do you want to go back to where you are staying and wait results? Where are you staying?'

'At The George in Mircester. But I'd like to come with you.'

Agatha brightened. She consulted her notes. 'Right. Toni, if you and Roy could go and see Tilly Glossop again, she might open up to you. Tom and I will go and see the Beagles and the Summers. Probably a waste of time but I would like to see them for myself.' The doorbell shrilled.

'Don't move. I'll get it.' Toni ran to the door.

She came back with Mrs. Bloxby. 'I hadn't seen you for a while,' said the vicar's wife, 'and wondered how you were getting on.'

Agatha, who did not want another remark about her hip, flashed her friend a warning look. Mrs. Bloxby focussed on Tom for the first time. Agatha introduced them.

She's off again, thought Mrs. Bloxby. I should be worried about her, but she needed some man to bring the sparkle back.

'We're all going detecting,' said Agatha.

'In that case, I won't keep you,' said Mrs. Bloxby. 'But why don't you all call at the vicarage for tea later and let me know how you get on?'

_______

Agatha elected to drive after a look at Tom's vehicle. It was a Range Rover and she cringed at the thought of climbing up into it. The day was still fine: blue sky, yellow daffodils, pink cherry blossoms and some purple stuff that Agatha didn't know the name of growing out of the old Cotswold walls.

'Young Roy seems a close friend of yours,' said Tom.

'I suppose he is.'