He turned another page and sighed. ‘Well, I suppose I’ll have to turn out. Do my duty.’
Mrs Cuthbertson gave her guard dog bark of a laugh. As she left the living room, she said over her shoulder, ‘Yes, I thought you would, Roger.’
The colonel woke later than usual the next day. When he went downstairs, Thursday had already left his place on the sofa and was waiting for him in the kitchen, sitting accusingly beside his empty DOG bowl. The fresh chicken had been finished the day before and so the colonel opened a foil container of ready-prepared cat food. Cod and vegetables in jelly, it said. A delicious and perfectly balanced meal for adult cats. Whatever the manufacturers claimed, Thursday was not impressed. He sniffed at it and walked away towards the back door to be let out.
The colonel went upstairs to shave, shower and dress and came down to fill the kettle and switch it on for coffee. Then he went to fetch the newspaper from the hall mat below. As he walked back to the kitchen, he glanced at the front page.
Tycoon dies in helicopter crash.
Bruce King, the wealthy property tycoon, was killed yesterday when the helicopter he was piloting crashed into a hillside. He had been on his way to attend a business meeting in Glasgow when the weather had unexpectedly deteriorated and he had been blown off-course. Mr King was alone in the machine.
There was an obituary inside. A photograph of Bruce King and a full account of his life from the back-to-back home in a Yorkshire mining town, his early days labouring on building sites, the small bank loan that had enabled him to buy a derelict house, renovate it himself and then sell it in order to buy larger one . . . and so on to the gradual building-up over the years of BHK Group.
His first marriage was mentioned and the death of his only child, a son, at the age of six. The second marriage rated only one line; the third to Lois Delaney several and included the fact that they had recently separated and that a divorce had been in process when she had taken her own life. His wealth was estimated at three hundred million pounds. It was understood that it would be directed to endow a research centre for treatment of cystic fibrosis, to be named in memory of his son, Harry.
The colonel stood drinking his coffee and looking out of the kitchen window. Fate, it seemed, had intervened on Lois Delaney’s behalf and administered a rough and summary justice. The biblical eye for an eye, the tooth for a tooth that he had come across before. He had no quarrel with it. He watched Thursday picking his way gingerly across the sodden lawn. In a moment he would be at the back door, expecting something other than the delicious and perfectly balanced cod and vegetables to be on offer. He must rummage through the store cupboard and find something else to please him.
The hellebores were still waiting patiently in their pots and today would be a good day to plant them out and give them an encouraging pep talk to start them off. January was a grim month, the colonel thought. Dark, cold, colourless, depressing. Still a long way to go before spring arrived.
He caught sight of some small white dots that had mysteriously appeared under the lilac tree: a delicate fairy ring forming around its base. Damn it, he’d forgotten all about the snowdrops! Between them and the hellebores, things would soon be looking up. He must go and see which of the varieties he’d planted had been the first out of the gate. His money was on Galanthus nivalis, the dear old common snowdrop, rather than its classier cousins.
Later on, when he’d finished the planting, he’d walk down to the rough grass at the far end of the garden and check if, by any chance, some of the daffodils were beginning to come through.
And, perhaps in a day or two, when he felt like it, he’d drive over to that reclamation place and find out what they had in the way of old flagstones. Maybe Naomi’s sundowner terrace wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.
THE END
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THE VILLAGE MYSTERIES
Book 1: OLD SOLDIERS NEVER DIE
Book 2: THREE SILENT THINGS
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GLOSSARY OF ENGLISH SLANG FOR US READERS
A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital
Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression
Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets
Allotment: a plot of land rented by an individual for growing fruit, vegetable or flowers
Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)
Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings
A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh
Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.
Barm: bread roll
Barney: argument
Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids
Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle
Benefits: social security
Bent: corrupt
Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)
Biscuit: cookie
Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town
Bloke: guy
Blow: cocaine
Blower: telephone
Blues and twos: emergency vehicles
Bob: money
Bobby: policeman
Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be a US example)
Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead
Bun: small cake
Bunk: do a bunk means escape
Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant
Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit
Charity Shop: thrift store
Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket
Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for
Car park: parking lot
CBeebies: kids TV
Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments
Chemist: pharmacy
Chinwag: conversation
Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food
Chips: French fries but thicker
CID: Criminal Investigation Department
Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)
Clock: punch
Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake
Cockney: a native of East London
Common: an area of park land/ or lower class
Comprehensive School (Comp.): High school
Cop hold of: grab
Copper: police officer
Coverall: coveralls, or boiler suit
CPS: Crown Prosecution Service, decide whether police cases go forward
Childminder: someone who looks after children for money
Council: local government
Dan Dare: hero from Eagle comic
DC: detective constable
Deck: one of the landings on a floor of a tower block
Deck: hit (verb)
Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character
DI: detective inspector
Digestive biscuit: plain cookie
Digs: student lodgings
Do a runner: disappear
Do one: go away
Doc Martens: Heavy boots with an air-cushioned sole
Donkey’s years: long time
Drum: house
DS: detective sergeant
ED: accident and emergency department of hospital
Eagle: boys’ comic
Early dart: to leave work early
Eggy soldiers: strips of toast with a boiled egg
Enforcer: police battering ram
Estate: public/social housing estate (similar to housing projects)
Estate agent: realtor (US)
Falklands War: war between Britain and Argentina in 1982
Fag: cigarette
Father Christmas: Santa Claus
Filth: police (insulting)
Forces: army, navy, and air force
FMO: force medical officer
Fried slice: fried bread
Fuzz: police
Garda: Irish police
Gendarmerie: French national police force
Geordie: from Newcastle
Garden Centre: a business where plants and gardening equipment are sold
Gob: mouth/ can also mean phlegm or spit
GP: general practitioner, a doctor based in the community
Graft: hard work
Gran: grandmother
Hancock: Tony Hancock, English comedian popular in 1950s
Hard nut: tough person
HGV: heavy goods vehicle, truck
HOLMES: UK police computer system used during investigation of major incidents
Home: care home for elderly or sick people
Hoover: vacuum cleaner
I’ll be blowed: expression of surprise
Inne: isn’t he
Interpol: international police organization
Into care: a child taken away from their family by the social services
Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, applied to any strong woman
ITU: intensive therapy unit in hospital
Jane Doe: a person whose identity is unknown/anonymous
JCB: a mechanical excavator
Jerry-built: badly made
Jungle: nickname given to migrant camp near Calais
Lad: young man
Lass: young woman
Lift: elevator
Lord Lucan: famous aristocrat who allegedly killed his children’s nanny and disappeared in 1974. Has never been found.
Lorry: a truck
Lovely jubbly: said when someone is pleased
Luftwaffe: German air force
M&S: Marks and Spencer, a food and clothes shop
Miss Marple: detective in a series of books by Agatha Christie
MOD: ministry of defence
Mobile phone: cell phone
MP: Member of Parliament, politician representing an area
MRSA: A strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Myra Hindley: famous British serial killer
Naff: lame, not good
Naff all: none
National Service: compulsory UK military service, ended in 60s
Net curtains: a type of semi-transparent curtain
NHS: National Health Service, public health service of UK
Nick: police station (as verb: to arrest)
Nowt: nothing
Nutter: insane person
Nursery: a place which grows plants, shrubs and trees for sale (often wholesale)
Old bag: old woman (insulting)
Old Bill: police
OTT: over the top
Owt: anything
Pants: noun: underwear adjective: bad/rubbish/terrible
Para: paratrooper
Pay-as-you-go: a cell phone you pay for calls in advance
PC: police constable
Pear-shaped: go wrong
Petrol: gasoline
Pictures: movie
Pillbox: a concrete building, partly under
ground, used as an outpost defence
Pillock: fool
Pips: police insignia indicating rank
Piss off: as exclamation, go away (rude). Also can mean annoy.
Pissing down: raining
Playing field: sports field
Pleb: ordinary person (often insulting)
Portakabin: portable building used as temporary office etc.
Post: mail
Planning Department: the local authority department which issues licences to build and develop property
PNC: police national computer
PSNI: police service of Northern Ireland
Prat: silly idiot
Premier League: top English soccer division
Proms: concerts held at the Albert Hall
Public Analyst: scientists who perform chemical analysis for public protection purposes
RAF: Royal Air Force
Rag: newspaper
Ram-raiding: robbery where a vehicle is rammed through a shop window
Randy: horny
Recce: reconnaissance
Red Adair: famous oil well firefighter
Resus: resuscitation room
Right state: messy
Ring: telephone (verb)
Roadworks: repairs done to roads
Rozzers: police
RSPB: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
RTC: road traffic collision
RV: rendezvous point
Royal Engineers: British army corps dealing with military engineering etc.
Rugger: rugby (posh American football)
Sarge: sergeant
THREE SILENT THINGS a cozy murder mystery (Village Mysteries Book 2) Page 19
