Bones Under The Beach Hut Read Free Page B

Smalting's newsagent and buy a ballpoint.
        But
before she put that plan into action, it occurred to her that Philly Rose and
Mark Dennis might well have used a pen for something while they were in Quiet
Harbour. It would be worth checking out the beach hut before taking the
long traipse up the beach to the village. Perhaps on the cutlery shelf, in or
near one of those neat plastic containers.
        When
she reached the back of the hut, she felt the solid surface give under her. She
stepped back quickly and then gingerly probed at the carpet with her toe. Yes,
there was definitely something that felt like a hole in the wooden floor.
        She
peeled back the corner of the carpet and soon enough saw what had nearly made
her trip. There was a hole in the corner, spreading across two of the planks
that made up the hut's floor. Its edges were black and charred.
        Someone
appeared to have lit a fire under Quiet Harbour.
    ----
        

Chapter Four
        
        Carole
inspected the outside of the hut to see if there were any clues as to what had
happened. The structure, presumably prefabricated elsewhere and assembled on
Smalting Beach, was set on four concrete slabs to prevent damp from the ground
seeping up into its woodwork. And yes, under the back corner of the hut, there
was evidence of a small fire having been lit.
        Using
a children's spade, which she had found inside, Carole poked at the charred
debris, releasing a smell of petrol that had been trapped in the folds of what
appeared to be cloth. Inspecting it more closely, she saw that strips of old
rag had been bundled together. Outermost were the remains of a tea towel, with
a design of ponies on it, maybe a souvenir from the New Forest. The minimal
evidence of flame damage on the rags suggested to her that the fire hadn't been
lit too long ago, and also that it had been extinguished before the flames
could spread and burn down the whole beach hut.
        Going
back inside, she also deduced that the green carpet in Quiet Harbour must have been put down after the fire had been discovered. There was no sign
even of scorching on the underside, which might - though not necessarily -
suggest that the same person who had put out the fire had also covered up the
evidence of it.
        Another
deduction: the lack of sand on its surface suggested that the carpet hadn't
been in position for that long.
        Before
she flipped it back into place, she noticed that, though most of the nails
fixing the floorboards to the struts beneath were old and deeply hammered in,
the silver round heads of a few stood almost proud of the wood. It looked as if
some running repairs had been done, but clearly before the fire had happened.
Otherwise surely the burnt planks would have been replaced . . . ? Odd, she
thought, as she flattened the carpet back down.
        Carole
had decided that she needed to talk to Jude about her discovery, so she packed
up her thermos and tote bag. In spite of her promising start she hadn't got far
on The Times crossword. Have to finish it back at High Tor.
        As she
clicked the padlocks shut on Quiet Harbour, she heard the voice of the
matriarch in Seagull's Nest pontificating. 'You really shouldn't give in
to the child so much, Nell. If you spoil Tristram now, he'll grow up without
any backbone or moral values.'
        
        
        Jude
had all the windows open, which meant there was enough breeze to set her bamboo
wind chimes going. When she had first heard them, Carole had dismissed the
chimes as just more evidence of her neighbour's New Age idiocy, but now she had
come to find the sound rather comforting. Not, of course, that she would ever
have told Jude that.
        The
sitting room of Woodside Cottage looked as it always did: throws and drapes and
cushions disguising the precise outlines of its sofas and armchairs. Scarves
and floaty tops, as ever, did the same service for the house's owner. Even in
the