Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton Read Free Book Online Page B

it open. She studied the photograph of Mr Horrington and then
cautiously approached the service hatch and looked through.
    She saw Mr Horrington just getting to his feet and helping a comparatively young woman into her jacket.
    Toni darted out of the kitchen and said to the startled maître d’, ‘I’ve left some equipment outside.’
    She positioned herself outside the restaurant. There would not be much point photographing the pair if they stood apart and showed no signs of affection. Mr Horrington could just claim it was a
buyer.
    He emerged with the woman. Toni raised the camera. He whispered something in her ear and she giggled. Toni snapped a picture, glad the sound of the shutter was drowned by the traffic. Then Mr
Horrington looked hurriedly up and down the street, not seeing Toni, who had crouched down behind a parked car. Toni rose to her feet again just in time to witness Mr Horrington and the woman
engaged in a steamy kiss.
    ‘Gotcha!’ she muttered, clicking the camera and taking as many photographs as she could.
    Later, Agatha said, amazed, ‘You are lucky. I’ve followed him for days. Damn it. I concentrated on the evenings. He always seemed to be working late.’
    ‘Then she probably works at the shoe factory as well,’ said Toni.
    ‘Good. I’ll go and see Mrs Horrington. Do you want to come with me?’
    ‘No, I’ll leave it to you.’
    ‘Had lunch?’
    ‘Not yet.’
    ‘Go out and get something and we’ll go to that flat when I get back.’
    When Agatha had gone, Toni asked Mrs Freedman, ‘When do I get my pay? I’m running low.’
    ‘On Friday. I gather you don’t have a bank account so you will be paid cash until you set one up. But you haven’t yet claimed any expenses. I can give you some money out the
petty cash for just now. Take an expenses sheet with you and fill it in. You can put down for lunch at that posh restaurant.’
    ‘I don’t have a receipt.’
    ‘We’ll assume you lost it. Here’s forty pounds for the moment.’
    Toni was determined to keep as much of the money as possible, so she went to the nearest Burger King. She was just finishing a burger when she looked through the window and saw her brother,
Terry, lurching along the street. He looked drunk. She bent down and hid until he had passed.
    Later that afternoon, Agatha took her to see the flat. It was very small: one tiny living room, a small bedroom, a minuscule kitchen and a bathroom. The bathroom was
surprisingly the largest room in the place.
    ‘I’m buying the furnishings as well,’ said Agatha. ‘They’re pretty horrible, but you can change them as you go along. You’ve got a bed at least and I put
bedclothes on it and some towels in the bathroom. Now I’ll take you home and you can collect your bag. Everything went through quickly and so instead of waiting a fortnight, you can move in
right away.’
    Toni was choked up with gratitude as Agatha handed her the keys. She had an impulse to hug her but reflected that one probably didn’t hug such as the formidable Agatha Raisin.
    Agatha, as she drove towards Carsely, was prey to mixed feelings. It was all right to think that Toni was just lucky, but she herself should have thought of that restaurant. Toni’s black
eye was fading fast. How wonderful to be young again, thought Agatha. How marvellous not to suffer the indignities of approaching old age: spreading waistline, moustache, hair dye and aching hip.
She resolved to go back to the beautician’s, Beau Monde, in Evesham and get Dawn to work her magic on her face before the weekend.
    The weekend! It all seemed a rather silly waste of time the more she thought of it.
     
Chapter Four
    Agatha set out with Charles for the Manor House on Saturday morning feeling low in spirits.
    ‘What’s up with you?’ asked Charles. ‘You’ve gone all moody.’
    ‘It’s these divorce cases. I hate them. The two that Toni wrapped up weren’t too bad.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘No children involved. But there