be able to keep him yourself, we’ll see about finding him a forever home.”
The couple looked at each other.
“Yes, that would be best,” said Thomas. “It’s the time, you see. All that walking.”
“Of course,” agreed the vet. “But while he’s here, we’ll just make sure his immunizations are up to date. If you could hold him just there, I’ll get these into him.”
Bronwyn cleared her throat.
“I’m sure this is going to sound very strange,” she began, after an anxious glance at her husband, “but I wondered about your sister, Alys, who died all those years ago.”
Jones looked shocked, and then a wave of quiet sadness washed over his face.
“Alys?” he said uncertainly, as he began to fill two syringes. The name sounded frozen in time, as if he hadn’t said it in years.
“Yes, um, I was wondering, that is, a friend of ours has recently inherited some property that seems to have a connection to Alys, and we, that is, Thomas and I, were wondering if you remembered anything unusual that happened around the time she died. Our friend, you see, is curious about it.”
Jones said nothing and the silence was deafening.
“Oh, I am so sorry,” said Bronwyn. “I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“No, you’re all right,” said Jones, looking at the rector, who looked uncomfortable but very interested at the same time. “It’s just that I hadn’t thought about all that in a long time. I was away at school in Scotland when it happened, and she was a good few years older than me, so I wasn’t that involved in her life. I came home for the funeral, of course. My parents, especially my mother, were devastated. In some ways, I don’t think she ever got over it. There was one thing that really upset her, though, that she did think strange, and that was that Alys left so little work behind. My mother would have loved to have had more of her paintings, but there was just the one, as far as I know, and my brother has it now.
“I know my mother always wondered about that. To be honest, she also didn’t think the police did as much as they could have to find out who did it.”
He rubbed the dog’s fur where he’d given him the injections.
“Now, about our little friend here. Would you like me to ask around to find a new owner for him? We won’t have any trouble finding a home for him.”
Thomas lifted the dog down.
“Yes, that might be best,” Thomas said.
Bronwyn’s face tightened as she bent over to clip the lead on the dog’s collar.
“And this friend of yours who wants to know the details of my sister’s death,” Jones said. “May I ask who that is?”
“It’s Penny Brannigan, the manicurist. She recently inherited Emma Teasdale’s cottage.”
They thanked the vet and led the dog from the surgery. Jones folded his arms and watched them go, knowing that no one else would be getting this little dog anytime soon. As he turned to enter notes on the computer, a dark look of grief and anxiety passed across his face as an unfamiliar emotion surged through him.
And then he ripped a page off a prescription pad, wrote Penny’s name on it, and slipped the paper into his pocket.
When the Evanses returned home, Bronwyn lifted the little dog out of the car and smiled as he scampered up the path to the kitchen door.
“His tail never stops wagging, does it?” she commented as Thomas put the key in the door. “I’ll put the kettle on, and then we’re going to have a little chat, you and I.”
“Of course, my dear,” said Thomas as he hung his jacket on the back of a chair, then pulled it out and sat on it.
Bronwyn filled the kettle, set it on the stove, and then joined him.
“Thomas,” she began. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Have you, dear? What about?”
“About you. And your health. We both know it would be very good for both of us if we were to take more exercise. Perhaps you could do more walking on your parish visits.”
Thomas cocked his head and smiled at her. “Go on.”
“Yes, and if you were to have a little companion to take with you, I’m sure that would cheer up some of your elderly shut-ins.”
“A little companion, such as . . .,” said Thomas, with a warm glint in his eye.
“Oh! You know what I’m saying! I’m saying that this dear little dog belongs right here with us. We’ve become that