Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden by M. C. Beaton Read Free Book Online Page B

she would solve it.
    “Her daughter, Janine, says she kept a large amount of cash in a padlocked metal box. The box was found this morning on the beach where it had been thrown. It was empty.”
    “Forced?”
    “No. Her keys were missing as well. Janine said she kept a key to the box with her car keys.”
    “So it was not just some ordinary burglary. I mean, it wasn’t some lout off the street. Someone knew where she kept the money.”
    “Looks that way.”
    “Any sign of what struck her?”
    “Some sort of poker or cosh or bottle. Forensic are still working on that. Been shopping?”
    “I found a pretty dress in a boutique in the town. I think it’s too good to wear tonight, however.”
    “What’s happening tonight?”
    “I’m going with Daisy Jones from the hotel to the pier dance.”
    “Good for you.”
    “I wish I’d never agreed to it,” said Agatha gloomily.
    “We haven’t ruled out that it might be one of them at the hotel, although it seems farfetched.”
    “The colonel’s very fit,” said Agatha. “Come to think of it, apart from old Mr Berry, they’re all pretty fit.”
    “Find out anything about them and Francie Juddle?”
    “Only from Daisy Jones so far. She says she went to Francie to get in touch with her dead husband.” Agatha leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “Here’s a strange thing. She said that the voice she heard at the seance sounded like that of her dead husband, Hugh, but she said Francie never knew Hugh.”
    “She did, you know. She logged everything in her yearly appointments books and kept them all. We’ve got police going through them. Hugh Jones did go to her.”
    “What for?”
    “A cure for impotence.”
    “So she would know what he sounded like!” said Agatha.
    “By all accounts, our Francie was a great mimic.”
    “But a man’s voice!”
    “She could have had an accomplice. We’re going on Crime Watch tonight to appeal to people who consulted her to come forward.”
    “What did old Mr Berry go to her for? Oh, you said it was rheumatism.”
    “He also wanted to get in touch with his dead wife.”
    “It’s a cruel business, that,” said Agatha, “conning people that way.”
    “Oh, there are a lot of believers. They can’t let go of the dead.”
    “Did you ever feel that way…about your wife?”
    “No, you see much as I missed her dreadfully, I didn’t and I don’t believe in seances. From my experience, people have to mourn and get it over with or they can go crazy. There’s a lot to be said for a good old Irish wake.”
    “No hope of you being at the dance tonight, Jimmy?”
    He rubbed a weary hand over his face. “I’m working flat out. I only nipped in here – ” he flushed slightly – “well, just for a break. I’ve got to be going.”
    That love potion must really work, thought Agatha. She knew he had meant that he had come to the pub in the hope of seeing her.
    “I’ll walk with you,” said Agatha.
    “I don’t think that’s wise,” said Jimmy awkwardly. “You’re still a suspect and I got a bit of a rocket from the force crime officer over at Hadderton when he saw us both on television. They’re digging up a lot of colourful stuff out of your past, Agatha. I mean your husband being murdered, and all.”
    “Oh, God.”
    “Who’s this chap, Lacey, you were thinking of marrying?”
    “Just someone. I mean, it didn’t work out.”
    “Not still carrying a torch for him?”
    Agatha stared at the table. “No.”
    “Good.” He patted her hand.
    Agatha sat smiling to herself after he had left. She liked his thick white skin and his sleepy eyelids and his tall figure. What would it be like being married to a police inspector? She began to imagine their wedding, but when she got to the bit where James Lacey asked for a dance with the bride and told her he had always loved her Agatha snapped out of it. It would be typical of such as James Lacey to tell her he loved her when there was no chance of doing