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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“What I don’t understand is why he would have been watching her through binoculars from outside when everyone else just marches up to the front door and gets a closer look.”
“Perhaps he was modest or thought he smelled strange, which might have upset her – he works at the butchers so perhaps he came here straight from work.”
“He’s a voyeur – a good old-fashioned, classic ‘pervert’ rather than a sexual athlete.”
They arrived at the rhododendron bush and the medics nodded and smiled at the disheveled appearance of Knowles.
Knowles looked over the body and saw the massive bruise and matted blood on Shapiro’s head – he was so glad he hadn’t put ketchup on his black pudding this morning.
“Who found the body?” enquired Knowles.
“Bingo the retriever out on his morning walk.”
“What on his own?”
“There was some human help, a Mrs Hills was accompanying Bingo at the time and she phoned us on behalf of Bingo.”
“You see that’s the difference between cats and dogs – a dog just goes and makes a fuss whereas a cat, a cat would have minded its business and carried on with whatever it was doing.”
“Just as well we don’t live in a cat’s world then because the body would have stayed there for days.”
“You said the body had been disturbed as well?”
“Yes, the shoes have been removed. He was found in bare feet, and he wouldn’t have walked here without shoes – also his belt has gone and his jacket/coat/jumper too. It was cold last night and he would have been wearing something on his top half.”
“So someone stripped the body of the nice items after he died? Is that a motive for murder or just an afterthought? There’s no way of knowing who did the stripping of the body – we should ask Mrs Hills and her Bingo dog about that. I can’t help noticing that his right hand’s inside his trousers – poor sod, what a way to go.”
“It’s odd about the clothes because the binoculars are still here and they’re worth more than all the clothes combined. Nikon they are, digital, the full Monty.”
Knowles nodded to the medical team that they could take the body to the morgue.
“Right, Barnesy, our plan this morning is to visit Bingo and his owner and see what they have to say for themselves. Then we will come back here and visit Danica BC and see if she was aware of Clem here watching her.”
“Why would she be aware of Clem watching her?”
“Because she complained to PC Davis a couple of years ago that she thought she was being watched, but he did a full investigation and never saw a thing.”
“I wonder which way he was looking when he was investigating?”
“Or what he was looking at more like – she is quite beguiling and she knows it.”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 