Small Town Christmas (Some Very English Murders Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page A

enough
of confrontation. What had happened to their lovely community at this most
special time of the year?
     
    * * * *
     
    Penny walked Kali along the lonely road to the south of
town. If anyone else had said to her that they were going to walk that
way, she would have advised them not to be so stupid. What, a woman, out on
her own at night? Are you mad?
    Such rules didn’t apply to herself, of course. Anyway, she
had a Rottweiler, and lately she’d been teaching her to bark on command. That
was the first step, apparently, in then teaching the dog to stop barking
on command. It seemed a noisy and backwards way of doing things, but it came
highly recommended as a technique.
    After the chilly walk, which had not involved having to
bark at anyone, she got home. She left her muddy boots by the front door, uncleaned,
and they flopped down together in front of the gas fire in the living room.
Penny wrapped herself in a comforting fleecy blanket, and Kali tried to creep
under it too. She thought about putting the television on, but it was ten
o’clock at night now and she had no wish to watch the news, which would only depress
herself further and cause her to go to bed angry at the state of the world as
well as the state of the local community.
    She told herself that it was simply the stress of Christmas
that made people act in such irrational and argumentative ways.
    She supposed she ought to plan her own Christmas
celebrations. She’d phoned her parents earlier but they blithely told her that
they were on a “Tinsel and Turkey Tour” which meant they’d be away for
Christmas, eating their way around the hotels of Scotland. “We can drink whisky
all day!” her father had told her merrily. “We’re on a coach!”
    She had half-hoped for some invitation to go to her
sister’s house, but she knew that with two children, it might be a little chaotic.
There was still time for an invite. She didn’t like to think she’d been
forgotten about.
    Penny wanted to be part of something, even if it was
chaotic, on that one particular day.
    Never mind. She put it out of her mind. As a
childless woman of a certain age, you had to stop thinking of what was never
going to be, she reminded herself. She half-closed her eyes and began to
drift into a warm, cosy slumber.
    Her phone ringing woke her with a start and she clawed
anxiously for the handset. When she saw that it was from Ariadne, she was still
half-asleep enough to assume she was about to be invited over for Christmas
dinner.
    “Open your door!” Ariadne said.
    “What, wait, why?” Penny stumbled to her feet, and Kali
leaped up to be alongside her in case this was a sudden new game.
    “I’m outside!” And to accompany the words, there came a
furious hammering on Penny’s front door.
    “Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Penny went and pulled the door
open but it jammed halfway, catching on her boots and coat which she had flung
to the floor.
    “You need to tidy up,” Ariadne said with all the lofty
judgement an adult sister – even if a younger adult sister – could muster.
    “I’ve only just got in,” Penny said.
    “Oh! Really? Really?”
    “Yes. I was walking the dog. Anyway, why the panic?”
    “Destiny has just told me that there is something kicking
off in the town centre.”
    “And how would Destiny know?” Penny said.
    “Online. Get your boots back on, let’s go and look.”
    As Penny got back into her outdoor clothing, Ariadne told
her that Destiny was a member of some social media groups that gossiped about
the local area. “Apparently,” Ariadne went on, “the police have cordoned off
the whole market area!”
    Penny threw a small dog biscuit to Kali, and the two
sisters hurried off into the night.
    They could see the blue flashing lights as soon as they
were halfway down their own street. By the time they came to the crossroads,
they could hear sirens and see the whole town centre lit by strobing emergency
lights and car headlamps. Every local