Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by MC Beaton Read Free Book Online Page B

man would not. But now here it was. Proof. She forgot about his cancer. She only thought that he had cheated her. By God, she had to find him and tell James Lacey exactly what she thought of him. He could even be lying about having cancer! The police had checked every hospital in Britain without finding a sign of him.
    ‘Everything all right?’ called Mrs Bloxby.
    ‘Yes, sure,’ muttered Agatha. ‘Just some bills to pay.’
    ‘You do those and I’ll get on with this.’ Mrs Bloxby thought it would be better if she scrubbed out the blood-stains herself.
    Agatha took out James’s cheque-book. No reason to pay the damn bills herself. But of course she could not sign one of his cheques. They didn’t have a joint account. Bastard. She should let his gas, water and electricity get cut off.
    She went to her cottage and collected her own cheque-book and returned. ‘Don’t you think James would need money?’ she called over her shoulder. ‘I mean, the police must have been watching to see if he cashed any cheques or used one of his credit cards.’
    ‘Mmm,’ was the only reply she got. Mrs Bloxby scrubbed busily, thinking sadly that if James did not need money, then James was dead.
    Agatha finished signing cheques and joined Mrs Bloxby in cleaning and dusting.
    Then they went back to Agatha’s cottage for a coffee. ‘Have you seen anything of Melissa lately?’ asked Mrs Bloxby.
    Agatha flushed, well aware of that crumpled letter in her handbag. ‘No, and I don’t want to.’
    ‘Perhaps she is feeling very guilty. She did not attend the ladies’ society meeting last night. And she’s usually always there. No one has seen her for over a week. Her car is still outside.’
    ‘Why don’t you phone her?’
    ‘I tried, but there was no reply.’
    I’ll go and see her the minute I’ve got rid of you, thought Agatha, engulfed by a wave of anger.
    The phone rang. Agatha looked startled and then remembered she had plugged it back in before they had left to clean James’s cottage as a sort of gesture to belonging to the world again.
    ‘You answer it. I’ll be off,’ said the vicar’s wife.
    As Mrs Bloxby waved goodbye, Agatha picked up the phone. ‘Hello, Aggie,’ said Charles’s voice. ‘How are things? I’ve been trying to get you.’
    ‘I’m all right,’ said Agatha. ‘Still miserable and shocked, as a matter of fact.’
    ‘No news?’
    ‘None.’ Agatha thought about that letter and the desire to tell someone overcame her. Sometimes she found Mrs Bloxby almost too good. Mrs Bloxby might have sympathized with Melissa and Agatha could not have borne that.
    ‘Well, just one thing,’ she said. ‘I went along to James’s cottage to clean up and found a letter from Melissa on the doormat. It was delivered last week. They had been having an affair.’
    ‘I thought you’d accepted that.’
    ‘NO, I HAD NOT!’ howled Agatha.
    ‘Careful. You’ll break my ear-drum. You said –’
    ‘I know what I said. But James assured me they had not been sleeping together and I believed him. More fool me. I’m going to find him.’
    ‘That’s more like the Agatha I know. I’m bored. I’ll be over in half an hour or so.’
    ‘But –’ Agatha had been about to put him off because she was dying to confront Melissa, but he had rung off. May as well wait for him.
    When Charles arrived, he found the cottage door open and walked in. Agatha was in the back garden, playing with her cats.
    ‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said, getting to her feet and brushing grass from her skirt.
    ‘You don’t look too bad,’ said Charles, surveying her critically. ‘I was afraid you might have gone to pieces. So where do we start? With James’s family?’
    Agatha shuddered. ‘I’ve had enough of James’s family, what with his aunts and sister implying that if he hadn’t married me he would be all right.’
    ‘So what about Melissa?’
    ‘So what about her?’ demanded Agatha truculently.
    ‘I think you should swallow your