Scandal at Six (Lois Meade Mystery) Read online

  Titles by Ann Purser

  Lois Meade Mysteries

  MURDER ON MONDAY

  TERROR ON TUESDAY

  WEEPING ON WEDNESDAY

  THEFT ON THURSDAY

  FEAR ON FRIDAY

  SECRETS ON SATURDAY

  SORROW ON SUNDAY

  WARNING AT ONE

  TRAGEDY AT TWO

  THREATS AT THREE

  FOUL PLAY AT FOUR

  FOUND GUILTY AT FIVE

  SCANDAL AT SIX

  Ivy Beasley Mysteries

  THE HANGMAN’S ROW ENQUIRY

  THE MEASBY MURDER ENQUIRY

  THE WILD WOOD ENQUIRY

  THE SLEEPING SALESMAN ENQUIRY

  SCANDAL AT SIX

  ANN PURSER

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

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  A Penguin Random House Company

  Copyright © 2013 by Ann Purser.

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  Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-10158982-3

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Purser, Ann.

  Scandal at six / Ann Purser.—First edition.

  pages cm

  ISBN 978-0-425-26176-7 (hardback)

  1. Meade, Lois (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Zoo keepers—Fiction.

  3. England—Fiction. I. Title.

  PR6066.U758S33 2013

  823'.914—dc23

  2013026906

  FIRST EDITION: December 2013

  Cover illustration by Griesbach/Martucci.

  Cover design by George Long.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Version_1

  Contents

  Titles by Ann Purser

  Title Page

  Copyright

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  Twenty-two

  Twenty-three

  Twenty-four

  Twenty-five

  Twenty-six

  Twenty-seven

  Twenty-eight

  Twenty-nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-one

  Thirty-two

  Thirty-three

  Thirty-four

  Thirty-five

  Thirty-six

  Thirty-seven

  Thirty-eight

  Thirty-nine

  Forty

  Forty-one

  Forty-two

  Forty-three

  Forty-four

  Forty-five

  Forty-six

  Forty-seven

  Forty-eight

  Forty-nine

  Fifty

  Fifty-one

  Fifty-two

  Fifty-three

  Fifty-four

  Fifty-five

  Fifty-six

  Fifty-seven

  One

  Josie Vickers, née Meade, stood at the top of the steps leading into her village shop. The village was Long Farnden, generally thought to be almost exactly in the centre of Middle England, and all around were golden stone houses surrounded by green fields and woods that had once housed hunting lodges for Henry VIII.

  It was the first day of spring, and for once it was living up to its promise. Josie shaded her eyes from the brilliant sun as she glanced up and down the street, clearly looking for someone. Nothing but a small red Fiat speeding through, breaking the speed limit. She frowned. Her mother, Lois Meade, had promised to be with her at opening time to help sort the post and stack the daily newspaper racks, and she was late.

  “I suppose she’s held up on the phone,” Josie said to her husband, Matthew, as he got into his police car.

  “She’ll be down in two ticks, me duck,” he said confidently. “Probably Gran needing help. Must go, anyway. See you at teatime.”

  *

  Lois Meade, businesswoman and amateur sleuth, was almost at the end of the short walk from her house to the village store when she heard her daughter scream. She ran inside, and saw through an open doorway Josie frozen to the spot at the entry to the shop storeroom.

  “Look, Mum! Look!” Josie was pointing to the corner, where at first Lois could see nothing amiss. Then she heard a noise coming from under a pile of boxes. She could still see nothing, but suddenly the boxes started to move, and tins of baked beans rolled around, one or two finding their way into the shop.

  “Hello? Who’s there?” said Lois in a croaky voice. “I’m coming in, and you’d better stay right where you are! We have a policeman on the premises, and there’s no way you can escape.”

  Josie looked at her mother and said shakily, “It doesn’t speak. Can’t you see its head? It’s looking at us! I’m out of here, Mum, and you’d better come, too.”

  Lois looked over the storeroom in the direction of Josie’s pointing finger. She drew her breath in sharply and grabbed Josie’s hand. In the corner was the largest snake she had ever seen outside Tresham Zoo. It stared at her with unblinking eyes, and she stared back, hypnotised.

  She gulped, and said, “Ye Gods, Josie! We must shut it in and get the police. Is Matthew around?”

  “Gone to work,” said Josie. “If we shut this door, there’s no way it can escape, so come on. Let’s lock it in, and send for help. Thank goodness you came in time.”

  They turned away, and in one swift streak the snake slithered down over the boxes and across the floor into the shop. Josie screamed again, and Lois, with great presence of mind, pulled Josie with her out the front door, locked it and then shot round to the storeroom back entrance, shutting off all possible ways out. Then she returned to where Josie stood, still trembling.

  “Mum, I can see it!” she said, peering through a window. “Its tail is sticking out from under the counter. Oh Lor, what are we going to do?”

  “In trouble, girls?” said a man’s voice behind them. It was Derek, Lois’s husband, dressed in shorts and T-shirt, with a cycling helmet and goggles to protect his eyes.

  “Oh my God, here’s Superman come to rescue us,” said Lois. “Good job you’ve turned up. There’s an enormous snake in there, and we’ve locked it in. It’s huge, Derek, and I think we should get the police. You said Matthew has gone to work, Josie? Yes? Right, then we have to call the police station in Tresham. They’ll know what to do.”

  “Couldn’t we catch it
and put it in a box and take it to the zoo? I bet it’s escaped from there. No need to call the police, surely? You hold the box and I’ll put it in. I expect there’s empty cardboard boxes out the back, Josie? Better get a big one.”

  Schoolchildren were gathering at the bus stop opposite the shop, and one crossed the road. “You open, Mrs Vickers? Mum says please can I have a chocolate bar to take for my lunch?”

  “Not open yet, I’m afraid,” said Lois. Josie was still peering through the window, and then she yelled out, “Dad! It’s come out, and it’s slithering towards the door. Can it get through the letter box? Oh God, I’m scared.”

  All this was said at the top of her voice, and like a pile of magnetised iron filings, the schoolchildren in their dark-blue uniforms came running across the road and pressed their noses to the window.

  “Off you go, kids. The bus is coming. Go on, else you’ll miss it.”

  But when the bus came and stopped, the driver saw the crowd gathering outside the shop and came across the road to see what was happening.

  Derek was busy on his mobile, while Lois and Josie tried to persuade the children to go off to school. At last they were shepherded aboard by the driver, and drove off.

  “It’s all right, loves,” said Derek, who, after all, had changed his mind about tackling a giant snake. “I phoned the zoo, and they’re sending someone from the reptile house to pick it up. It went missing last night, and they said it was definitely stolen. How and why it came to be in your shop, Josie, is a puzzle, but the police have been informed.”

  Two

  By ten o’clock, the whole village knew about the snake. A zoo handler had arrived, in a Tresham Zoo van with a snarling tiger emblazoned on the side, and with the utmost confidence and calm had picked up the snake and settled it comfortably in a large wicker basket. He then bought an ice cream for himself from Josie, and making his way out, smiled at a small crowd once more gathering outside.

  “I shall never have another minute’s peace,” said Josie, still nervous about staying inside the shop. She sat on the shop step in the sunlight, talking to Andrew Young, one of her mother’s team of cleaners. Andrew had been around the world as a student of interior decoration, and was consequently quite knowledgeable about snakes.

  “I’m sure you’ll be safe now,” he said. “It was a definite one-off, though how it got inside your locked storeroom, I cannot think. Have you found a tenant for the flat up above yet? If the snake story gets out, potential tenants are going to think twice!”

  Josie shook her head. “There’s still some of my stuff up there, and I keep meaning to take it down to the cottage. There’s always something more urgent to do. But now, when I think about it, I start to shake. I mean, if a snake can get in—”

  “Or was put in?” said Andrew.

  “What d’you mean? Why should anyone put a snake into my shop? Oh hell, Andrew, do you think somebody did it purposely?”

  “It’s possible,” he said. “I can’t think how else it got in, unless it came down the chimney.”

  Josie frowned. “The chimneys are all blocked off,” she said, and seeing the ghost of a grin on his face, she added that it was no laughing matter. He hadn’t seen the snake, and probably wouldn’t believe how huge it was.

  “So what are you going to do, Josie? Is Matthew going to look into it?”

  “He doesn’t know about it yet. He’s not due back until around six this evening. Meanwhile, I’m staying outside here, unless there’s customers wanting to be served. What are you doing here, anyway? Did Mum send you down for something?”

  “No, it was Gran. I was early for my next job—at Stone House, Mrs Tollervey-Jones—and so I called in at Meade House. Gran sent me down for milk. Apparently they’ve run out. Shall I go in and help myself?”

  Gran Weedon was Lois’s mother, who acted as housekeeper for the family. She had a sharp tongue and a warm heart, and she, Lois and Derek lived in Meade House in relative harmony.

  Josie got to her feet and followed Andrew into the shop. “I suppose I’m being silly, aren’t I? It’s extremely unlikely there will be another snake. Here’s the milk. I’ll put it on Gran’s tab.”

  She opened the counter drawer to take out the account book, and her hand touched something cold and dry and alive.

  “Ahhhhh!” Her scream seemed to Andrew to go on forever, and he rushed around the counter to grab her.

  “For heaven’s sake, Josie, do shut up! Let me look.”

  He pulled out the drawer to its full extent, and saw a large toad looking at him. It was ugly, mottled yellow and warty, and it began to crawl out and up onto the counter.

  “Andrew! Get it out of here, please!” Josie quavered. And then it was all too much for her, and she rushed back to the top of the steps, sat down with her head on her knees and sobbed silently.

  *

  By the time Derek Meade got home from work, Lois had summoned a family council of war.

  “War on all reptiles,” she said, as they sat down at the kitchen table. Derek, Lois, Josie and Matthew, Gran Weedon and Andrew Young, who had so heroically dealt with the toad, all had coffee in front of them, and Josie had brought a large box of tissues in anticipation of more tears.

  “Where’d you put it, boy?” said Gran. “I don’t mind frogs, but I can’t be doing with toads. They look evil, the way they crawl, like some kind of alien creature on the telly.”

  Josie began to sniff.

  “Gran,” said Derek, “if I were you I’d keep off the subject as much as possible. You can see our Josie is very upset.”

  “Huh! I’ve dealt with worse things, I don’t mind tellin’ you.”

  “Right,” said Lois. “Let’s stop meandering about, and get down to business. I’ll make some notes, and we can decide what action, if any, we mean to take. You first, Josie. Start at the beginning.”

  Josie took a deep breath and sat up straight. “The snake was curled up in the storeroom when I opened up this morning. God knows how it got in. There was no gap anywhere. The odd thing is that the door out to the garden was unlocked. Either someone cleverly picked it or I somehow left it open. My fault, anyway, and my responsibility. I shall know better in the future. The snake was taken away by the zoo man, and Andrew and me reckoned that was it. I could put it behind me. Not literally, of course! Anyway, when I went to look in the counter drawer to get the account book, I touched this horrible thing, and then Andrew took over. It was an enormous yellow spotty toad, and he put it over the back fence into the field. I wasn’t very brave, I’m afraid.”

  “Of course not, me duck,” said Gran. “But it ain’t no coincidence, is it? Somebody’s got in and left them things in the shop to frighten you. I reckon it’s a job for the police. Like you, Matthew. Don’t you agree with me?”

  “I think it might be better if I helped, but also told someone at the station about what’s happened,” said Matthew. “Being as it’s family, it might make my position a bit difficult.”

  “I know who we can tell,” said Lois.

  Derek groaned. “Not him,” he said. “Not the famous detective inspector, semiretired, and scourge of the county?”

  “Yes, him,” said Lois. “I shall ring Hunter Cowgill, and it’ll be a nice little job for him.”

  Andrew Young said nothing, but thought privately it might not be as little a job as Lois seemed to have decided. He had sensed something sinister in the thinking behind this happening. What kind of a person would frighten an innocent young woman in such a cruel way?

  “With someone living there, you’ll feel a lot safer, Josie,” said Lois. “It is a nice little flat, after all, and at the moment, the place is vulnerable, with no direct neighbours and nobody in residence.”

  “Are you going to put ‘must be tolerant of sundry reptiles’ in the ad?” said Derek.

  “Very funny!” said Lois. “But it won’t be so easy to find a suitable tenant, what with stories in the papers, an’ that. We’ll ask around, and advertise in the lo
cal, and then do some interviews. And I’ll be down to open up with you tomorrow morning, just in case there’s an elephant eating the sweets.”

  “Well done, mother-in-law,” said Matthew. “And I’ll have a word with Uncle and tell him you’ll be in touch.”

  Matthew Vickers was a nephew of Detective Chief Inspector Hunter Cowgill, and they both worked from the Tresham police station. Cowgill had a special relationship with Lois. He was more than fond of her, but she kept him at arm’s length. Together they had solved several criminal cases, and Lois refused any kind of reward for what Derek called her ferretin’. He disapproved strongly, but was sensible enough to know that with his Lois, the surest way to guarantee her carrying on with her peculiar hobby was to forbid her to have any part of it.

  “And Matthew dear, could you possibly not call me mother-in-law? Makes me feel about a hundred in the shade. ‘Lois’ will do nicely.”

  The meeting broke up, with Andrew going back home to Tresham, Matthew and Josie returning to their cottage, and Lois, Derek and Gran settling down for the evening news on television.

  When the familiar local news announcer appeared, the three sat up in horror as a large cobra filled the screen. “This lovely snake,” said the girl, “turned up in the village shop in Long Farnden this morning. The owner of the shop sent for the owners, Tresham Zoo, and all was tickety-boo in no time. The snake, named Flatface, was collected and returned to its quarters, and no harm done to snake or shopkeeper. And now for the football results . . .”

  Three

  Today being Sunday, the shop was closed, except for an hour or so sorting out the newspapers and sending the newsboys off on their rounds of the village. Josie had been reluctant to open up on her own, and so Matthew, who had a day off, went with her. His reassuring presence broke the tension of venturing into the stockroom and checking all around to see that no more reptiles had ventured in.