Small Town Shock (Some Very English Murders Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

they left the cottage and walked briskly along River Street. She turned
right, heading south again. She felt restricted in where she could go, but it
was too risky to turn left and go through town to find the footpaths on that
side of the settlement. It would take too long, exposing her to too many
potentially unexpected dogs. So, south it was.
    They went past the Spinney and continued to follow the
road. On her left were the farmlands that she had trespassed on, where she had
found the dead farmer. She couldn’t help wonder how he had died. It was a funny
place to commit suicide, and how had he done it? There had been no gun near
him.
    Kali was keen to be out and she felt a pang of guilt that
she wasn’t letting her run off-lead. But she hadn’t had her long enough to have
built a proper bond, and she had no idea if Kali would come back if she called
her. And though she regretted taking the dog on, she didn’t really want her
running off and never coming back.
    They walked on, until she came to a path that left the road
and wandered along a field margin. It was marked with a green sign, so she
followed it, and slackened the lead so that Kali could ferret about in the
hedge to her heart’s content.
    The path was well-trodden and she began to feel nervous as
it disappeared around a stand of trees up ahead. Her palms were clammy and her
head began to feel like it was in a tight vice as she imagined thirty-two dogs
appearing and charging at them, and Kali ripping them all to bits, and Penny
ending up in jail for lack of control, and dying alone in a cell.
    Her heart was thudding and she realised she had stopped
walking. Kali was staring up at her in concern.
    “On my gosh, I am so sorry,” she said in a rush to the dog.
She shook her head and closed her eyes for a moment, repeating some calming
mantras to herself. She’d been sent on a business-related “de-stress” event
once, and now she was making use of the very things she’d once laughed at. “I
am calm. I am an ocean of light and peace. Good energy in” –she breathed in
deeply– “and bad energy out.”
    And this worked well until a male voice startled her,
making her shriek and choke. “Now then. Are you all right? Meditating or
something?”
    Her eyes flew open. She still wasn’t used to the way the
local people used “now then” as a way of greeting, and she certainly wasn’t
used to tall, sandy-haired strangers appearing on lonely footpaths while she
was fighting off what felt like a panic attack.
    “I! Oh! Yes!” she blurted like she had landed from an alien
spacecraft. “No!”
    “Good evening to yourself, too,” the man said. “What a
lovely looking dog. Is she a Rottie?”
    “Yes. The rescue centre had said crossbreed,” she added,
giving Kali a hard stare, as if she had been in disguise. “I think they thought
it would be harder to rehome her if they admitted she was actually a
Rottweiler.”
    “What a beauty. Can I say hi to her?” The strange man kept
his distance while he spoke, letting his gnarled hands hang by his sides. She
noticed that although he was complimenting her dog, he wasn’t looking at the
dog directly, which she thought was strange. He was dressed in faded jeans and
a fisherman’s jumper that was threadbare in places and hairy in others. It had
seen better days. Possibly in the previous century.
    “She seems to like people,” Penny said. “In that, she
lunges towards them, wagging her tail.”
    “Tail wags aren’t always a good thing,” the man said. He
turned to one side and cocked her head, glancing at the dog and then looking
away. He yawned. How rude, Penny thought.
    Kali looked at him, then up at Penny. Penny’s stomach
lurched. Was the dog asking for permission?
    Or reassurance?
    “Go on, then.” She nodded at the man. “Say hello.”
    Kali walked forward and sniffed at his feet, and then his
legs. After a few seconds, he patted the side of her neck very briefly, then
stopped. Kali leaned against