The Stabbing in the Stables

The Stabbing in the Stables Read Free Page B

Book: The Stabbing in the Stables Read Free
Author: Simon Brett
Tags: Mystery
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police were quick to arrive. Soon the car park of Long Bamber Stables seemed to be full of white vehicles and whirling blue lights.
    Having quickly explained their presence at the stables, Carole, Jude and Sonia were politely hustled away from the central courtyard and asked to wait until someone had time to talk to them further. When Carole complained of the cold, they were offered the shelter of a large white police van.
    But just before they entered, they saw a battered Land Rover swing into the car park. It stopped as soon as it could. The engine was left running and the headlights blazing, as a woman jumped out.
    She looked at first sight like a smaller version of Sonia Dalrymple. Similarly though more scruffily dressed, she was ten years older. Her beauty was in decline, and the blondness of her hair had been assisted.
    â€œOh God,” she snarled at the policemen who’d turned to greet her. “Don’t say the Ripper’s struck again!”
    Â 
    â€œSo,” said Ted Crisp, “she was worried that it was one of the horses that had been attacked, not a human being?”
    â€œExactly,” said Carole.
    â€œApparently there have been a series of cases recently,” Jude amplified. “All over West Sussex. Horses being mutilated. By someone the local papers have taken to calling the Horse Ripper. She thought one of the ones in Long Bamber Stables had been attacked, and that’s why all the police were there.”
    â€œAnd, sorry, I’m losing track a bit here. Which woman was this?”
    â€œLucinda Fleet.”
    â€œRight. So then she discovered it wasn’t one of her horses who was the victim—it was her husband?”
    â€œYes. Walter Fleet.”
    â€œAh, right.”
    â€œYou sound like you know him, Ted.”
    â€œWouldn’t say ‘know.’ He used to come in here from time to time, that’s all. So old Walter’s copped it, has he?”
    â€œAfraid he has.”
    They had been surprised how early it still was when they got back to Fethering. The events they had witnessed and their questioning by police detectives seemed to have taken a lot longer than they really had. As is often the case after experiencing a shock, Carole and Jude were amazed to find that the rest of the world continued to turn as if nothing had happened. It was only half past eight when the Renault drew up outside High Tor, and the decision was quickly made that they needed a drink at the Crown and Anchor.
    Once inside, as the first large Chilean chardonnays began to warm them, Carole and Jude decided to order a meal as well. Ted Crisp, the landlord, said—atypically effusive—that the steak-and-ale pie was “to die for,” so they’d both gone for that. After the cold and the atrocity they had witnessed, they found the fug of the pub interior very welcoming. So was Ted, large of bulk, scruffy of hair and beard, even scruffier of fleece, sweatshirt and jeans.
    â€œHow did she react then—this Lucinda—when she found out her husband was dead?”
    â€œShe managed to control herself very well,” replied Carole, with appropriate respect for such restraint.
    â€œHm,” Jude said. “I think her reaction was more one of relief. She’d been really worried that one of the horses had been injured. When she found out it was just her husband murdered, she didn’t seem so bothered.”
    â€œPeople react differently to that kind of shock,” said Carole tartly.
    â€œYes, sure. Just the impression I got.”
    â€œWell, do you know anything about this Lucinda or her husband or the state of her marriage or—”
    â€œTed, we met her for the first time an hour ago. The circumstances in which we met her husband were not conducive to confidences. We know nothing about either of them—or the state of their marriage.”
    â€œAll right, Carole. I didn’t know that.”
    â€œSorry.” She smiled

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