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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“He’s a pure-bred retriever, Sergeant,” said Mrs Hills patting Bingo and throwing an old slipper for him to ‘retrieve’ from the hallway.
“So, Mrs Hills…”
“Oh please call me Adelaide, Inspector.”
“OK, Adelaide, can you let us know how you came to find the body?”
“It was Bingo that found the body of the Shapiro man – Bingo and I had walked along Sharrock Lane to the river and then around Doggett’s Field when we met Carly.”
“Who’s she?”
“She lives just down the road; her daughter’s just left to go to university in Edinburgh – she was telling me all about this after she appeared out of Hen’s Wood.”
“What did she say she’d been doing?”
“Collecting non-poisonous mushrooms, Inspector. She had a hangover too from her home-made wine.” Mrs Hills flashed her pearly white teeth at the inspector.
“She particularly emphasised the fact that the mushrooms were non-poisonous?”
“She definitely mentioned it, yes.”
“So at what point did Bingo here find the body then, Mrs Hills?”
Mrs Hills flushed a slight red colour. “He brought back a shoe.”
“And then you went and found the body?”
“No, Carly and I continued to talk and she took the shoe away from Bingo and tried it on her foot.”
“Right, so what happened next?”
“Well, Bingo is a retriever…” stammered Mrs Hills, “he went and fetched the other shoe.”
“And then you went and found the body?”
“No, Carly and I continued to talk and she took the shoe away from Bingo and tried it on her other foot. She did remark it was unusual to find a matching pair of shoes.”
Knowles shook his head in disbelief.
“Let me get this right, you were chattering with your Carly friend while your dog was stripping the body and interfering with a crime scene?”
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 