Read Online Hole in One by Catherine Aird - Free Book Online Page A

females was something he didn’t want to have to go into with the Superintendent now or, come to that, at any other time. Ridged brows or not, the man was never going to see eye to eye with the Equal Opportunities Commission.
    â€˜Ah …’
    â€˜And dead a matter of days rather than weeks, he says,’ hurried on Sloan.
    Leeyes pounced. ‘How many days?’
    â€˜He won’t say, sir. Not until he’s seen a bit more of the body. But not many. Dr Dabbe insists that any fine-tuning on timing will have to wait until he’s done a full post-mortem.’
    â€˜And I suppose,’ went on Leeyes sarcastically, ‘an opinion on the cause of death would be too much to ask?’
    â€˜At this stage,’ said Sloan diplomatically, ‘yes. It’s early days yet.’
    â€˜Identification?’
    â€˜That’s going to be difficult from the face,’ said Sloan, suppressing any remarks about not even the victim’s mother
being likely to know him now. ‘But Dr Dabbe has high hopes of the teeth.’
    Leeyes grunted and changed tack. ‘Missing persons?’
    â€˜All we can say for sure, sir, is that there’s been no one added to our list in the Berebury area for several weeks.’
    â€˜A stranger, then …’ The Superintendent was strong on the territorial imperative.
    â€˜Perhaps.’ That wouldn’t absolve the police from investigating the death, only make for more work, but Sloan did not say so.
    To his surprise Leeyes gave a deep sigh and said solemnly ‘I’m very much afraid, Sloan, that whoever put the body there isn’t likely to be a stranger. To the neighbourhood, perhaps, but not to the game or the course.’
    â€˜Sir?’ All information was grist to a detective’s mill. What was different was that grist didn’t usually come from the Superintendent.
    â€˜You’d be out of sight of anyone on the course there,’ continued Leeyes reluctantly, ‘unless they over-ran the green and actually sent a ball down into the bunker.’
    â€˜Which I gather the really good players don’t do if they can help it,’ said Sloan. The Superintendent was right. It wasn’t unreasonable to suppose that whoever had buried the body here had known that, too.
    â€˜The hole’s a dog-leg, as well,’ said the Superintendent even more reluctantly.
    Sloan looked up. Whoever had interred the body must have known that, too.
    â€˜You’ve got to play to the left of the big oak tree,’ explained Leeyes. ‘What you need is a good long drive and then a shorter, ticklish shot with a fairway wood. Too far and you’re out of bounds, too short and you can’t turn the corner with your next stroke.’
    â€˜So you need it to be just right?’

    â€˜Just right,’ countered the Superintendent, ‘and you probably hit the tree. Never up, never in, though.’
    There was a lot, decided Sloan, to be said for roses.
    â€˜And the green isn’t visible from the fairway,’ said Leeyes.
    â€˜I’ll make a note,’ promised Sloan.
    Leeyes grunted again. ‘I’m not dreaming, am I, Sloan? You did say teaspoons, didn’t you?’
    â€˜Yes, sir.’ He coughed. ‘Small paintbrushes come in handy, too, the curator said.’
    â€˜So, Sloan,’ Superintendent Leeyes came back smartly, ‘do facts and I’d like some more of them. And fast.’
    Â 
    Misery might make strange bedfellows but in the Ladies Section of the Golf Club it was keeping familiar faces together too. The women remained huddled in a group long after Helen Ewell had been borne away for sympathetic sedation. Held there in the Clubhouse by some common bond too deep for words, and grateful for the continued presence of Sergeant Perkins, none of them wanted to arrive home before their husbands got there.
    Instead they clustered round the long windows at the end of the room that