Read Online Shadows in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope - Free Book Online Page B

the truth for sure? In straitened times, such expensive procedures were regarded as a luxury, to be used only when all else failed. But science trumped unreliable human testimony every time, and there seemed to be every reason to expect that it would have to be employed here.
    ‘Perhaps you could go back to your mother now,’ Gladwin said meaningfully to Thea. ‘Take Mr Meadows with you. We have things to do here.’
    Which was code for
We’re going to remove the
body now, and we need clear access to this entire scene for the rest of the day.
    Thea was opening her mouth to ask if she could just feed the birds first, when she realised that there would not be any birds visiting their feeding area today. Perhaps they had been frightened off for ever, and Oliver Meadows would be the one to suffer the greatest loss from all this. After Melissa’s actual parents, of course – whoever they might be. For surely she had some, somewhere, and surely they would soon note her disappearance with growing alarm.
    ‘Right,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and find Mum, then.’ She held out a friendly hand to Fraser Meadows, but he did not take it. Feeling foolish, she dropped it again. How ridiculous to think he might.

    Her mother was listening to the radio in the car, ignoring the persistent gaggle of curious neighbours who were craning their necks for a glimpse of the Thistledown entrance and the woods beyond. Several walked past, as if heading for Sudeley Park, only to pause self-consciously a little further on, hoping to get a better view from there. Police vehicles occupied a stretch of roadside, with the undertaker’s inconspicuous Renault Espace closest to the gateway. Thea wondered whether they would manage to reverse it past her car, but felt unequal to the task of moving it. Escape felt like the preferred option now, and she had no qualms about taking her mother and Fraser to the nearest pub. 
    ‘We’d better drive up to the high street,’ she suggested. ‘They might need this space for something.’
    ‘No, we’ll walk,’ Fraser said firmly. ‘We’d already decided where we want to go for lunch.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘A bit early, but that’ll be all right.’
    Thea looked at her mother, bemused by this new person who had apparently taken her over. Perhaps in the circumstances it would be too much to expect him to smile, but there was a dourness to him that was far from appealing. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’m hungry, anyway. I never had any breakfast. And if we’re walking, Hepzie can come as well, can’t she.’ It was a statement, made as firmly as Fraser’s had been.
    ‘Where is she?’
    ‘In the house. I’ll pop back and fetch her. I need to change my shoes as well.’ She looked down at herself, half expecting to see blood and other stains on her clothes. There was nothing visible, but she felt soiled, just the same. ‘And I think I might change. I’ll be five minutes.’ Without giving them a chance to argue, she went back up the track to the house.
    ‘Poor old Heps,’ she crooned to the abandoned spaniel. ‘What a rotten morning you’ve had.’ In fact the dog seemed to feel no resentment. From her point of view, events had been mildly interesting, although there had been an annoying spell in which she’d been shut in the kitchen. ‘Never mind, we’re going to the pub now with Granny.’
    Upstairs she found sandals and a clean shirt thatfelt more suited to a Sunday lunch in a pub that might well prove to be rather smart. In the Cotswolds, you could never be quite sure of the dress code. There could be mud-spattered hikers, or expensively turned-out celebrities, or a mixture of the two.
    The walk did prove therapeutic to some extent. The houses at the upper end of Vineyard Street were sufficiently characterful for comment. They had distinctive porches, which set Thea’s mother talking about a porch on the house she grew up in, where a Mermaid rose trailed memorably. ‘Funny the