A Body in Seaview Grange by Dee MacDonald (jenna bush book club TXT) 📗

‘Talking about guys I hardly know, how’s Bill Robson getting on with his detective work? No word of an arrest yet then?’

‘Not yet,’ Woody admitted.

‘Hmm,’ Kate said. ‘He’s taking his time. After all, it’s been two weeks now.’

Woody laughed. ‘OK, I admit he’s a little lacking in charisma but he’s very efficient, believe it or not. I know he missed those meals in the freezer and the constable who searched Edina’s flat is in trouble because he should of course have checked it out. And who would have been looking for pinholes in the packaging except you? But Bill’s worked on some big stuff up in the Midlands, always gets his man. Or woman.’

‘So he’s unlikely to be fazed by an old lady full of digoxin?’

‘He’s probably only fazed because he thought he could see out the next few years until retirement dealing with the odd bicycle thief or sheep rustler.’

‘Like someone else I know.’

‘No idea who that could be! Anything else exciting happening across the valley there?’

‘No, life goes on much as usual,’ she said, listening to Angie crashing around in the kitchen.

The next day, Kate, having worked an extra shift and feeling weary, emerged from the treatment room, keen to get home, when she saw two small white-topped ladies in the waiting room.

‘Oh, hello, Nurse!’ one of them exclaimed. Was it Violet or Daisy? ‘We’ve just been in for our flu jabs and we’re about to order a taxi to take us home.’

‘I can give you a lift,’ Kate said. ‘It’s no distance.’

‘Oh, how lovely! Thank you, dear!’ They looked delighted.

Kate wasn’t certain who was who. As she shepherded them to her car one of them said, ‘I hope you’ll have time for a cup of tea?’

‘That’s most kind of you but I really must be getting home,’ Kate said, checking to make sure they were strapped in, one in the front, one in the back. They chatted away about everything and anything on the few minutes’ drive up through Higher Tinworthy on the way to Seaview, by which time Kate had worked out that Violet was sitting next to her in the green coat, and Daisy in the back was clad in beige.

As she dropped them off Kate saw Sharon running towards the car.

‘Is that you, Nurse Kate?’ Looking harassed, Sharon wiped her brow. ‘We’ve a bit of an emergency here, can you come in for a minute?’

Kate was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to get home. She sighed. But there was something about Sharon’s manner that alerted her. She bade farewell to the Potters in the hallway and followed Sharon upstairs, running to keep up.

‘It’s Edgar Ellis,’ Sharon said when she regained her breath. ‘I think he’s overdosed.’

Twenty

‘What?’ Kate was astounded as they rushed into Flat 6. ‘Edgar?’

‘Yes – Edgar. A parcel arrived for him and I took it to his door but no reply. So I let myself in.’

The Reverend Edgar Ellis was sprawled across his sofa with a bottle of Scotch on the side table, along with a couple of empty paracetamol foils. Kate took his pulse and checked his breathing. She took out her phone. ‘We need an ambulance,’ she said, dialling 999. ‘Shake him and keep talking to him. We need to get him conscious enough to be sick.’

Sharon obeyed. ‘Edgar, Edgar, wake up!’ she yelled as she shook him by the shoulders. ‘Silly man!’

He remained comatose.

‘They’re on the way,’ Kate said, putting down her phone. ‘Let’s just try getting him to his feet, Sharon. Sometimes that does it.’

He was a heavy man and it took all of their combined strength to haul him up onto his feet, only for him to crumple back down onto the sofa again.

‘Keep yelling at him!’ As she spoke she had a sudden thought. ‘I wonder if he left a note somewhere?’

Sharon was checking the table alongside when, lifting up the bottle of Scotch, she found it.

‘Look!’ she cried. It was neatly folded under the bottle of Scotch, a piece of white notepaper. When she unfolded it Kate read aloud, deciphering his spidery writing:

‘If it wasn’t for me she’d still be alive. I can’t live with the guilt any longer. Edgar Ellis.’

Sharon looked over Kate’s shoulder. ‘Oh my God,’ she said. ‘Well, at least we know now who it was.’ She stared at Edgar’s prostrate body. ‘Who’d have thought it?’

Already the sirens could be heard in the distance, then becoming louder and louder as, with much crunching and spraying of gravel, the ambulance arrived at the front door of Seaview Grange.

Alerted by the noise, all the residents had assembled in the hallway to witness the Reverend Edgar Ellis being stretchered out into the ambulance.

Ollie Pratt was last on the scene. ‘Who is it this time?’

Kate spoke to one of the paramedics and handed him the empty foils and the half-empty bottle of Scotch. He thanked her, nodded and jumped into the back with Edgar, while the other leaped back into the driving seat and they roared away, gravel flying again.

Sharon, who was standing by the door, burst into tears. Kate gave her a hug.

‘We did what we could, Sharon. Thank God you went in there.’

Sharon wiped her eyes as everyone crowded around. ‘That’s the second time I’ve found somebody like that,’ she said, crying some more.

‘What was wrong with him?’ Gloria Pratt asked as she waddled back into the hall.

Kate met Sharon’s eye and put her finger to her lips. ‘He appears to have passed out,’ she said.

‘Probably poisoned,’ boomed Cornelius Crow. He sounded hopeful.

‘We have no idea,’ Kate said, wondering if she could make her escape.

Little Hetty looked badly shaken. ‘Who’ll be next?’ she asked, her voice wavering.

‘Do you think he’ll die?’ Violet Potter, followed closely by Daisy, had pushed her way to the front.

‘I hope not,’ Kate said. She glanced at Sharon, who was still distraught. ‘Come on, Sharon, you need to go home. I’ll walk you round. Where’s Stan?’

‘He’s gone to Launceston to get one of the