Careless In Red by Elizabeth George Read Free Book Online Page B

she had done it, although to tell someone she could help him with his supposed injuries because she was a vet had seemed ludicrous at the time. “I do larger animals mostly.”
    DI Hannaford had drawn her eyebrows together. She looked from Daidre to Thomas, and she seemed to be testing the waters between them. Or perhaps she was testing Daidre’s answer for its level of veracity. She looked like someone who was good at that, despite her incongruous hair.
    Thomas said, “There was a surfer. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. I saw him—I’ll call him him—from the cliff top.”
    “What? Off Polcare Cove?”
    “In the cove before Polcare. Although he could have come from here, I suppose.”
    “There was no car, though,” Daidre pointed out. “Not in the car park. So he had to have gone into the water at Buck’s Haven. That’s what it’s called. The cove to the south. Unless you meant the north cove. I’ve not asked you what direction you were walking in.”
    “From the south,” he said. And to Hannaford, “The weather didn’t seem right to me. For surfing. The tide was wrong as well. The reefs weren’t covered completely. If a surfer came too close to them…Someone could get hurt.”
    “Someone did get hurt,” Hannaford pointed out. “Someone got killed.”
    “But not surfing,” Daidre said. Then she wondered why she’d said it because it sounded to her as if she were interceding for Thomas when that hadn’t been her intention.
    Hannaford said to both of them, “Like to play detectives, do you? Is it a hobby of yours?” She didn’t seem to expect a response to this. She went on to Thomas, saying, “Constable McNulty tells me you helped him move the body. I’ll want your clothes for forensics. Your outer clothes. Whatever you had on at the time, which I presume is what you have on now.” And to Daidre, “Did you touch the body?”
    “I checked for a pulse.”
    “Then I’ll want your outer clothing as well.”
    “I’ve nothing to change into, I’m afraid,” Thomas said.
    “Nothing?” Again, Hannaford looked from the man to Daidre. It came to Daidre that the detective had assumed that she and the stranger were a couple. She supposed there was some logic in this. They’d gone for help together. They were together still. And neither of them had said anything to dissuade her from this conclusion. Hannaford said, “Exactly who might you two be and what brings you to this corner of the world?”
    Daidre said, “We’ve given our details to the sergeant.”
    “Humour me.”
    “I’ve told you. I’m a veterinarian.”
    “Your practise?”
    “At the zoo in Bristol. I’ve just come down this afternoon for a few days. Well, for a week this time.”
    “Odd time of year for a holiday.”
    “For some, I suppose. But I prefer my holidays when there are no crowds.”
    “What time did you leave Bristol?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t actually look. It was morning. Perhaps nine. Ten. Half past.”
    “Stop along the way?”
    Daidre tried to work out how much the detective needed to know. She said, “Well…briefly, yes. But it hardly has to do with—”
    “Where?”
    “What?”
    “Where did you stop?”
    “For lunch. I’d had no breakfast. I don’t, usually. Eat breakfast, that is. I was hungry, so I stopped.”
    “Where?”
    “There was a pub. It’s not a place I usually stop. Not that I usually stop, but there was a pub and I was hungry and it said ‘pub meals’ out front, so I went in. This would be after I left the M5. I can’t remember its name. The pub’s. I’m sorry. I don’t think I even looked at the name. It was somewhere outside Crediton. I think.”
    “You think. Interesting. What did you eat?”
    “A ploughman’s.”
    “What sort of cheese?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t pay attention. It was a ploughman’s. Cheese, bread, pickle, onion. I’m a vegetarian.”
    “Of course you are.”
    Daidre felt her temper flare. She hadn’t done anything, but