As the Pig Turns - By M.C. Beaton Page 0,6

Paul fished in his pocket for the ring he had bought.

Then through the fog came the scream of police sirens. She heard a woman sob, ‘It’s awful. Sick. Murder!’

She jumped to her feet. ‘Something’s wrong. I’ve got to get to Agatha.’ Her slim figure in her bright red coat disappeared through the fog. Cursing under his breath, Paul got up and followed her.

Toni had to fight her way through a gathering crowd. Police were cordoning off the area around the pig roast. She elbowed her way to the front of the crowd. In the light of the fire and flaming torches held by some of the villagers, she saw Agatha, Charles and Roy being interviewed by Police Inspector Wilkes. Bill Wong stood beside him. Roy was standing behind them, busily telephoning.

Toni ducked under the tape. A policeman howled at her to get back, but Bill looked up and signalled it was all right to let her come through.

Paul tried to follow her, but a burly policeman barred his way. ‘I’ve got to get through,’ said Paul. ‘That’s my fiancée over there.’

‘On the spit?’ demanded the policeman.

‘No, you idiot. The blonde girl, there!’

‘Did you call me an idiot?’

‘No, no,’ said Paul weakly, backing off.

Agatha shivered as the questioning went on and on. She felt she was living in some Gothic horror movie. Her thoughts flew to her ex-husband. She hadn’t seen him since the night he thought he had found Charles proposing to her. Actually, Charles had proposed to her until Agatha persuaded him that it wouldn’t work, but Agatha, hearing James arriving, had quickly told Charles to get down on one knee and make it look real.

The macabre scene was suddenly lit up by white light. A television crew had arrived.

‘Get a tent up round the body,’ snarled Wilkes. ‘Mrs Raisin, I want you and your friends to go to police headquarters to make official statements. And that means you, too,’ he said, grabbing hold of Roy, who was about to duck under the tape and head for a television presenter.

Agatha said she would drive everybody there. She could just make out Paul shouting something from behind the tape but did not tell Toni.

After hours of further questioning at police headquarters, they all wearily signed their statements. Bill walked out with them to the reception.

Agatha drew him aside and whispered, ‘Do something for me. Toni’s got a new squeeze called Paul Finlay, a lecturer at Mircester College, gives evening classes in French. He’s too old for her. Could you look up the police files and see if there is anything on him?’

‘I’ll have my hands full with this case. Oh, don’t glare at me. If I get a spare moment, I’ll try.’

Through the glass doors, Toni could see Paul waiting. ‘Coming back to my cottage with us?’ asked Agatha.

Toni wanted to discuss the murder – if murder it should turn out to be. Maybe someone had stolen a body from a grave or from a mortuary – and suddenly she did not want to see any more of Paul that evening.

‘I’ll join you there,’ she said. ‘Tell Paul I’ve gone home.’

‘Great! I mean, all right,’ said Agatha hurriedly.

Toni, familiar with the layout of police headquarters, left by the back door. She made her way slowly around to the front of the police station. There was no sign of Paul. She had left her car at Agatha’s cottage, having driven Paul to Carsely. She assumed he had either got a lift in a police car or had taken a taxi to get to Mircester.

She saw a passing taxi and hailed it.

Agatha’s cottage was besieged by press and television, Roy having phoned every branch of the media he could think of. Roy stood, grinning, next to Agatha, occasionally forgetting he was bald and tossing his head like someone in a shampoo advertisement. When he later saw himself on television, he howled in dismay. He had a fatuous grin on his face, and his tossing head looked like a nervous twitch.

Agatha made a brief statement. Toni shoved her way through the reporters. ‘Toni, Toni!’ called several reporters, recognizing the girl. ‘Give us a statement.’ Swinging round, Agatha fixed Toni with a baleful stare. Her beautiful detective hadn’t even been there when the body was found, and she wasn’t going to let her steal the limelight.

Toni nipped into the cottage, Agatha followed her and slammed the door. Roy and Charles were already in the living room. Charles had switched on the television.

‘Turn that off!’