This excerpt is from the book entitled The Goat Parva Murders an English Murder Mystery book set in the countryside, starring two policemen who have been working together for a few years and get along really well. There’s lots of dialogue and banter with some humour thrown in amongst the murders and suspects.
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“Desperate for what?”
“What do you think? Her husband gets his kicks from handling tools and doesn’t even realise their daughter isn’t his.”
“Is that why she called Danica Baker-Clements by her first name? They’re kindred spirits.”
“Good spotting there, Barnesy – oh look who’s in her garden – Carly Waferr.”
They walked to the garden gate and called Carly, who waved to them to come in to her small vegetable garden. Bees were making for the hives in the western corner and the two men had to wave away an errant insect occasionally.
“Hello, Inspector Knowles – yes my bees are certainly making honey today – and who is this charming young man?”
“This is DS Rod Barnes.”
“Hello, Mr Barnes, there’s no need to be so deferential – you don’t have to stare at my shoes you know, I have a face.”
“Thank you, Miss Waferr.” Barnes looked at Knowles and then glanced at the shoes again. Knowles nodded his approval.
“Talking of your shoes, Miss Waferr, I was wondering where you got them from – they’re quite unusual.”
Carly Waferr swallowed quite hard before saying, “I think I found them in the woods over by Doggett’s Field. Why do you ask – have they been reported as missing?”
“The person whose shoes they were can’t report them as missing because he’s dead – I think you meant to say just now that you took them from a dog in Doggett’s Field.”
“Well a dog doesn’t need shoes does it, so I thought I was a more deserving recipient of the windfall?”
“A windfall? These shoes didn’t fall from a tree. They are an important part of a murder investigation; please remove them Miss Waferr.”
Carly sat on a low wall and took off each shoe with great difficulty.
“They were cramping my feet anyway,” she said handing them to Barnes, who looked closely for teeth marks and couldn’t see any.
