The Wild Wood Enquiry Read Online Free Page A

to Whippy, curled up at the bottom of his bed. “You and I will take our ease in my untended garden, served with refreshment every so often by our friendly neighbour, Miriam—”
    He sat up suddenly, remembering all the horrors of yesterday evening, and shot out of bed yelling, “Miriam and Kath!” There would be no solitary lazing in the sun with Whippy for him. He had lain awake for a long time last night, trying out all the scenarios that might have driven Kath out to Barrington and Hangman’s Row, to him, her ex-husband. An exclusive hideaway hotel on a remote island would be more in her line. In the end he had given up. He had no idea who her friends or, come to that, enemies, were these days.
    When he had married her, he foolishly thought she had been the undoubted best of the year’s debutante set, birdbrained and fit only for the pleasures of the season. But he soon learned that he had misjudged her. She was far from birdbrained and had several moneymaking little businesses on the side. Agencies for exclusive tableware, costly fabrics, that kind of thing. He discovered that one or two of them were not entirely snow white but not seriously dodgy enough to cause her to flee her beloved London.
    “Now then, Whippy,” he said, as he pulled on his clothes, “we have to make a plan. You and I are going to ignore the Honourable Katherine next door, and carry on with our routine as usual. If necessary, we shall proceed incognito.” He looked down at her enquiring little face and shrugged. “Well, perhaps not,” he said, and they went down to breakfast.
    DEIRDRE ARRIVED AT Springfields at ten o’clock to find Ivy and Roy sitting in the lounge playing cribbage. They looked up and nodded. “Sit you down, for a minute, Deirdre,” Ivy said. “I’ve nearly won. We’ve got ten matches on this game.”
    “One of these days,” said Deirdre, “you’ll play for real money and break the bank.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Ivy answered. “And what’s all this about an emergency meeting of Enquire Within this morning? We got a message from Gus. Something about his ex-wife. Is it our new assignment?”
    “Not sure, but I think I should prepare the way before we meet.” Deirdre then gave them a blow-by-blow account of her conversation with Gus last evening, and suggested they have coffee and discuss the likely outcome of the meeting.
    “We’re not agony aunts,” said Ivy, scooping up hermatches. “It can’t be anything to do with a marriage reconciliation or some such rubbish.”
    “Not likely,” said Deirdre. “Gus’s ex-wife is a tricky customer from the sound of it. He’s more likely to want us to get rid of her, I should think. In the nicest possible way, of course.”
    “Trust that Miriam Blake to stick her oar in where it’s not wanted,” said Ivy, and Roy shook his head. “She’s not a bad sort, Ivy,” he said. “Been a very good neighbour to Gus up to now.”
    “And now she’s gone too far, most likely. Ah well, we shall see.”
    GUS SET OFF for the meeting just before eleven o’clock, and by this time had seen nothing of either Katherine or Miriam. As he went by his neighbour’s house, the curtains in the front bedroom window were still drawn across. He frowned. He knew that Miriam would be in the shop by now. Very likely she had left Kath in bed, expecting her to be up and around by lunchtime.
    As he approached the shop, he slowed. He was already late, but perhaps he would pop in and buy some of the chocolates that Ivy loved, just to oil the wheels. The shop was empty, apart from Miriam behind the counter, and she greeted him with a tentative smile. “Morning, Gus,” she said. “Lovely morning.”
    “Is it? Can’t say that I’ve noticed,” he said glumly.
    “Ah, that’s because you wish you’d given hospitality to your wife, I expect,” she said. “We had such a lovely talk last evening. She really opened her heart to me, you know.”
    “She hasn’t got one,” Gus