Found Guilty at Five Read Online Free PDF Page A

station. And, of course, he had the connections countrywide. These might be needed, if, as Lois suspected, the theft of the cello was not a local crime.
    *   *   *
    T RESHAM WAS CROWDED, AS IT USUALLY WAS ON A M ONDAY. Shoppers were no longer starved of shopping opportunities over the weekend, what with supermarkets and even some town shops opening seven days a week. But in town, every Monday, local organic vegetable and fruit stalls gathered in the market square, together with farmers selling meat and milk products and marvellous baking done by their wives.
    Lois pushed her way through wonderful smells of fruit and herbs fresh from nearby gardens. Derek grew their own vegetables, and Gran would be offended if she went home with a cake baked by another woman. But the smell of new bread was too much for her, and she bought a small loaf, broke off the crust and ate it before she reached the police station.
    “Inspector Cowgill, please,” she said to the fresh-faced young policeman on reception duties.
    “Go straight up, Mrs. Meade,” he said, with a knowing smile.
    “You can take that smirk off your face,” she said, and marched towards the stairs.
    By the time she reached the second floor, Cowgill was standing by his door, beaming at her. “Good morning, mother of the bride!” he said.
    “Yes, well, good morning to you, too. It went well, didn’t it? Your Matthew was a star, and I thought they looked the perfect pair. Now we’ve got that out of the way, can we talk about my reason for being here?”
    She followed him into his office, and he buzzed reception to say he did not want to be disturbed for half an hour or so.
    “That’s how rumours get round the station,” Lois said. “Anyway, the thing is, Jamie’s colleague came to Farnden for the wedding, and she had her instrument with her. She has it with her if possible at all times. They went to play for Mrs. Tollervey-Jones at Stone House, and when they came back, by mistake left it in the car, which in theory was fully locked and alarmed overnight. In the morning the cello was gone. Jamie was up opening his window at one o’clock in the night, and it was in the car then. He could see it. That’s about it, so far.”
    “Was the car taken with the cello in it?”
    “No, of course not. The door had been opened, somehow without setting off the alarm. They could have forgotten to activate it, what with the excitement of the weekend. That’s what I think, anyway.”
    “No noises to wake up any of the family?”
    “No. Absolutely nothing. Unless Jamie had been woken by a sound without realising it.”
    “Right, Lois. Leave it with me, and I’ll get the chaps on to it at once.”
    “And meanwhile,” said Lois, smiling at him warmly, “I shall be contacting my new colleague to start ferretin’. Immediately, if not sooner, as my dad used to say.”
    “Did you say a new colleague? Paid help?”
    “You know me better than that. Anyway, my new colleague is on a one-case trial. If she’s no good, she gets the boot.”
    “So it’s a woman? I can’t see this new association lasting long, Lois dear. But be careful who you trust.”
    “I’m off now,” Lois said, making for the door. “Keep me in the picture.”
    She drove home thinking about her new ferretin’ associate. This was, of course, Mrs. Tollervey-Jones, who had proposed herself for the job, soon after she had sold the hall. Not happy with Stone House as it was, she had had builders and thatchers in for weeks, but now it was all finished, with the most beautiful Norfolk reed roof, and inside, all modern conveniences without spoiling the priceless features of the original structure.
    The house had been built in the year of the Armada, and had once been named after the famous rout of the Spanish in 1588, but a succession of owners had changed its name until Mrs. T-J came along, and she would on no account live in a house called Olde Timbers. “A good plain name is what’s needed,” she