Jam and Jeopardy Read Free Page A

loved verbal sparring. She couldn’t stand Flora, though. A big fat elephant with the personality of a
mouse, she should have been Stephen’s wife – like to like.
    Janet Souter had never been very fond of her nephews, even when they were children, although she hadn’t seen so much of them then. Their mothers, her two younger sisters, Alice and
Marjory, had married well, and moved away to Aberdeen. Both had been made widows quite young, but were left quite comfortably off. They had sent their sons to good schools, and even financed them
when they set up in their own businesses.
    Her sisters had died more than a decade ago, within a year of each other. Neither of the boys had much between their ears – Stephen had failed all his exams – and they couldn’t
handle their affairs properly. They were desperate to get their hands on her money, especially Ronald. Well, she was giving them a chance to prove their merit.
    She rose from the wooden armchair, and threaded her way through the furniture that cluttered up her small living room. The passage was cold, so she hoisted her shawl round her shoulders as she
went into the icy kitchen to put the kettle on.
    She sat on her stepstool to wait for it to boil, and began to plan the trap she was going to set for her two nephews. It would have to be well thought out.

 
Chapter Three
    Friday 18th November
    Although it was already ten o’clock in the morning, and the temperature had risen little, the bushes and trees still wore a thin coat of icing, and the part of the main
road that Mrs Wakeford could see from her window had the shiny surface of an ice rink. She had wondered if her neighbour would tackle her usual Friday morning shopping trip, but Janet Souter seldom
admitted defeat. Almost never, in fact.
    Having spent most of the night planning her own urgent mission, Mabel now changed her old slippers for a heavy pair of shoes, and slipped on her winter coat. Then, after closing her back door
behind her as quietly as she could, she went over the low fence that separated the two gardens. This flouting of a long-standing unwritten rule made her feel so guilty that she almost turned back,
but she overcame her conscience and made for the shed first. Janet Souter had gone too far in raking up scandals, especially one from over sixty years ago. And if she wasn’t stopped, she
could uncover a much more damning incident of not quite so long ago – an incident that had been kept successfully hidden from the whole village. Knowing Miss Nosey Parker Souter, though, she
had probably worked it out.
    Mabel was trembling with apprehension, anger and fear of being caught when she entered her own home again about thirty minutes later. It had taken longer than she thought, but it had had to be
done, otherwise her life wouldn’t be worth living.
    The butcher’s shop door banged loudly as Janet Souter came out, smiling grimly to herself. She’d shown that John Robertson that he couldn’t make a fool of
her! Two pounds fifteen for that little bit of steak. He was another one who believed she was in her dotage, but the piece of mutton would do her nicely for two days, and it only cost one pound
thirty.
    ‘Morning, Miss Souter.’ The man approaching was beaming at her, but she was in no mood for pleasantries and turned a sour face towards him.
    ‘Good day, Mr Pettigrew. I hope Douglas is keeping well, after his all-night sessions?’
    Sydney Pettigrew, the chemist, a large, well-built man with a receding hairline, had reached his own shop now, and she was gratified by the change in his expression as he stood holding the door
handle. ‘What do you mean “all-night sessions”?’
    ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t know your son sometimes stays out all night?’
    Her sarcastic sneer annoyed him, and he spoke more sharply than normal. ‘He sometimes sleeps at his pal’s house. You know what youngsters are like these days.’
    Her top lip curled even more. ‘You don’t know