Page 54 of And Then There Was the One
“Seeing as,” he said, “I’ve had a job offer in London… but I don’t want to take it, not until we’ve finished with this investigation.”
Georgie felt as though she’d been struck in the chest, all the air knocked from her lungs. “A job offer in London,” she repeated.
Arthur nodded. “WithThe Times. It’s not a terribly glamorous position—they need a new reporter on the courts beat, and they’ve been impressed by the articles I’ve written on the murders.”
“So you’ve already accepted?” Georgie asked.
Arthur shook his head. “Not yet. I’ve asked for a few days to think.”
“And when were you planning on telling me about this?”
“I just have,” he pointed out.
“Only because it came up!” Georgie said. “I don’t suppose you would have even mentioned it otherwise? I’d have just popped round to yours one day and found your bags packed?”
“If you keep haranguing me about it, that prospect sounds more and more appealing,” he shot back.
“Not to butt in,” Sebastian said as Georgie and Arthur glowered at each other. “But I think everyone here cares about this case. So if we could perhaps focus on the matter at hand? Mrs. Penbaker?” he prompted.
“Right.” Georgie sighed, running a hand through her hair, which was doubtless already in quite a state. “I don’t think we can show up to ask her more questions—not when we’ve already done so once. She’ll get suspicious.”
“If you would likemeto ply her with my masculine wiles,”Sebastian said brightly, “I’d be more than happy to.” He looked it, too. A littletoohappy, in Georgie’s opinion.
“No,” she said shortly, refusing to interrogate the tiny thread of jealousy working its way through her. “I think we need to be a bit sneakier.”
Arthur frowned. “What do you have in mind?”
“I think,” Georgie said, her mind racing, “that we need to do a wee bit of breaking and entering.”
Arthur’s jaw dropped. “You want to break into Mrs. Penbaker’s house?”
“Well, think about it!” Georgie said crossly. “If there’s any sort of evidence connecting her to her husband’s death, that’s where it’s likely to be!”
“I expect it wouldn’t be that difficult to break in,” Sebastian said around a mouthful of biscuit. “This seems like the sort of village where no one locks their doors. That’s always where crimes take place, you know,” he added, with a wise nod. “The sort of place where someone says, ‘We never thought it would happen here!’?”
“Andwe know she’s out of the house at predictable times, because she runs the exhibition at the village hall!” Georgie said excitedly.
“So, what? You’re just going to stroll up to the front door and let yourself in?” Arthur asked, raising a skeptical brow.
“Well,no,” Georgie said patiently. “We will be subtle. Sneaky. We’reprofessionals.”
“We’re not, actually.”
“Perhaps we could ask Constable Lexington for some tips? Although I don’t expect he’d condone us breaking and entering.”
Arthur laughed darkly. “I wouldn’t think so, considering he’s got a giant stick wedged up his arse.”
Georgie blinked. “Did you have something to share, Arthur?”
He was frowning now, too, his arms crossed. “No. Just had an annoying interaction with our favorite officer of the law.”
“?‘Favorite’ might be an overly generous assessment,” Georgie said. “More like, ‘the only one who isn’t completely useless and vaguely malicious,’ perhaps?”
“Potato, potahto,” Arthur said with a careless wave of the hand. “He disapproves of my perspective on the local police, and accused me of trying to discredit the entire police force with the article I’m writing about theDispatch. When I told him I’d got confirmation from a second officer—off the record, naturally—that Chief Constable Humphreys was looking the other way about Detective Inspector Harriday’s leaks to theDispatch, however, he shut up in a hurry. Needless to say, he wasn’t feeling so smug and clever after that.”
“It is nice,” Sebastian offered at this juncture, “to see the warmth of the bonds of community in such a wholesome, bucolic setting.”
“Arthur,” Georgie said, “it might be helpful if the one police officer who is remotely inclined to take us seriously didn’t start despising us instead.”
