Excerpt from the book called The Frisby Waterless Murders
“The accounts didn’t add up, literally didn’t add up, and this wasn’t the first time either – there have been four other occasions when money has gone missing only to magically reappear later in the month. I told the Major he was an unsuitable financial officer who seemed to be creaming off money for his own ends. I said I would report him to the committee. I then went outside and he must have followed me and pushed me in the river during the competition.”
“You know it was him for sure?”
“I didn’t actually see him, no, and neither did anyone else unfortunately, otherwise he would have been drummed out of the club. It was such a shame I couldn’t find anyone to corroborate my story.” Mr Trimble shook his head, took a swig from his pint, and looked out of the window.
“But you greeted him with such enthusiasm yesterday, shaking his hand vigorously according to one of the witnesses.”
“Not me, Inspector Knowles, I was mortified to see the Major there and thankfully the seating plans were changed to give him more room for his war wound. We did walk by, as a family, to go and say hello to Mr Johnson in Seat 5, who is also a member of the fishing club and is on the committee too. I made a point of doing that knowing the Major would have a damn fine view of me talking to Wallace and occasionally glancing in his direction as though we scheming to have him removed.”
“That sounds very petty,” replied Knowles.
Trimble smiled – “It may well be so, Inspector, but it was effective. The Major was glaring at me as I walked back to my seat. He had seen us.”
“Did your wife know about this?”
“She knew that he’d pushed me in the water and that I was intending to unmask him as an unsuitable person to be involved on the committee.”
“Thank you – have you ever been in the military yourself?”
“No, I am a civil servant who works in Scoresby at the benefits office helping people with their claims for various handouts from the government. I am having today and yesterday as time off in lieu as we had to work the previous weekend to install a new computer system.”
“Where would we be without a new computer system every now and again?” said Knowles, “you just get used to one system and they take it away from you and give you another, which works in a completely different way.”
“It keeps the economy moving I suppose,” said Trimble with a smile.
“Yes, but not the British economy,” said Knowles, downing his half in one go.
“So, how did you know I was here, Inspector?” asked Trimble.
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 