Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye Read Online Free PDF Page A

Agatha, ‘we’ve got an odd case here.’ She told them about Mrs Tamworthy. Then she said, ‘Patrick, I’d like you to go to that pub in Lower
Tapor and find out just how angry the locals are and who the ringleader is. Phil, I’d like you to go to a newsagent’s in Upper Tapor and see what Jimmy Tamworthy is like. Running a shop
was his mother’s idea. If my mother was rich and possessed a large estate, I might think running a village shop was beneath me. See if you can get some idea. After that, I’d like you to
check out applications for planning permission. I can’t see the villagers getting so hot under the collar if she was just going to sell the village. They might hope for a more generous
benefactor. But Mrs Tamworthy likes making money. What if she hoped to get planning permission for more houses? Or planning permission for something the villagers would hate?
    ‘Also, Patrick, while you’re in the pub, get an idea of what the locals really think about Mrs Tamworthy. Any scandal. Do they think she’s mad? That sort of thing.’
    ‘There’s that divorce case,’ said Patrick. ‘We really should wrap it up. Mrs Horrington is paying a lot. Then there’s the one Phil is on. Mr Constable.’
    ‘I’ll take Horrington. I can’t be seen near that village before next weekend. I’m going as a friend of the family.’ Agatha turned round and looked at Toni, who was
sitting quietly on the visitors’ sofa. She was wearing clean jeans, a white T-shirt and sandals.
    ‘Toni, I’m going to throw you in at the deep end. Can you take photographs?’
    ‘Yes, I was in my camera club at school.’
    ‘Phil will give you the Constable file and a camera. Have you a car?’
    ‘I can’t drive. I’ve got a bike.’
    ‘That’ll do. No one will suspect a teenager on a bike of spying on them.’
    Phil handed Toni a file. Goodness, he was old, thought Toni. Must be in his seventies, though he seemed fit enough. ‘It’s the usual thing,’ said Phil, sitting down on the sofa
beside her. ‘The husband, Mr Constable, thinks his wife, Hetty, is having an affair. I’d only just started following her at the end of last week. There’s the address. It’s
out in the northern end of Mircester, where all the large villas are. But just at the end of the street is a supermarket with a big car park. If you go to the end of the car park, you can get a
good view of the house because it’s the one nearest the supermarket.
    ‘She drives a BMW, so I hope you can chase her on a pushbike.’
    ‘The traffic’s so bad in Mircester, I should be able to keep her in view,’ said Toni.
    ‘Right. I’ll give you a camera and a telescopic lens and a camera bag. The equipment is expensive, so take care of it. I’ll also give you a small powerful tape recorder in case
you get close enough to her to record anything.’
    Toni’s heart began to thump against her ribs. Mrs Freedman, who felt sympathetic in a motherly way to the young girl, had told her that morning just before Agatha arrived that her
predecessor, Harry, had found a lot of cats and dogs at the animal shelter and had never told Agatha the reason for his successes. So Toni had been looking forward to an easy first day.
    As Toni pedalled in the direction of the supermarket, she wondered nervously how she was supposed to remain unnoticed standing at the edge of a car park with a telescopic lens
fitted to a camera.
    She had an idea. When she got to the supermarket, she went in and bought a packet of chocolate chip cookies and a packet of sandwich bags. Outside, she tipped the cookies into a sandwich bag and
sealed it. Then she got straight back on her bike and pedalled up to Mrs Constable’s house.
    She rang the bell. She would say she was selling cookies for the Girl Guides. That way she would find out what her quarry looked like.
    When the door opened, Toni stared at the woman looking at her. ‘Mrs Mackenzie! What are you doing here?’ Mrs Mackenzie was her next