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“Oh come ohn!” Muriel dropped the paper into her lap, “can you believe that?!”
Velma entered the room with a warm glass of lemon squash. “You’re out of lemon. I just finished the bottle. Sorry.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t even notice you’d left the room. Have you seen this?” She handed the paper to Velma.
Velma glanced at the headline and raised her eyebrows. “Wow. So they did go with disease,” she muttered to herself while failing to suppress a slight smile, “I thought I was kidding myself about that.”
“Can you believe it?!” Muriel repeated. “I think it’s scaremongering. It says here the place was trashed – obvious signs of a struggle. Murder. Not disease!”
Velma skimmed the few descriptive paragraphs and shrugged. “I guess they think if it was murder there’d be blood at the scene. Says here there wasn’t any.”
“Yeah, okay, that’s weird. But where do they get contagion from? Where’s their evidence of that?”
Velma shrugged. “I guess they’re not telling us everything here. There must be more to it.”
“Exactly my point!” Muriel was vehement. “So they shouldn’t be speculating when they don’t know. This is gonna really scare people!”
“And revive sales of PPE – goodness knows our streets and hedgerows could do with a few more blue gloves and wet wipes.”
Muriel laughed. “And masks. Don’t forget masks.” Her grin reverted to a frown and she went on, “seriously though, I think this is rubbish. I might investigate it myself.”
“Really Columbo? How are you gonna do that? Where would you start?” Velma was only slightly concerned. Muriel tended to get excited in the moment, but she was more passionate than practical. When she calmed down she would realise she had nothing to go on.
Just then there was a ring at the door and Muriel went to buzz Andy in.
“Aw, Sammy!” Velma reached out for a hug.
“Sorry Vel, he only wants me I’m afraid.”
Muriel put a bowl of water on the floor. “Not really surprising though is it?” she said, “after what he’s been through. You’ll probably be the only one he trusts for a while.”
Andy sat down with Sammy on his lap. “Yeah, he won’t let me out of his sight! Even follows me to the bathroom!”
“Good job you work from home,” Muriel smiled, “taking him to Andy was a good call, Vel. It’s so lucky you found him. I mean, what are the chances?”
Velma nodded. “Quite good actually, considering how many people Beryl talks to. You know – the woman who comes to the cafe every day at 4 o’clock and she’s usually still there when I get to work? She often complained about her neighbour who she said was always angry and unpleasant, but she’d never mentioned before that he had a dog.”
“Until last week,” added Andy.
“Yeah, sorry, you’ve heard it before,” Velma smiled.
“I haven’t! I want to hear it!” said Muriel, “I want the whole story.”
“When the guy died there was no one to look after his dog so she brought him to me,” explained Andy helpfully.
“No, I want to hear it from Velma! She tells it better.”
Sammy whined so Andy took him to the water bowl. He had to stand with him while he drank because he daren’t start lapping without his guardian by his side.
Muriel broke off a chunk of Vego and looked meaningfully at Velma. “What happened?”
“Beryl told me where she lived and I found myself walking past there one night when I couldn’t sleep.”
“Go on,” Muriel leaned in closer.
“I heard a shout and a yelp, coming from the guy’s back garden, so I went to check it out, like you do, and I saw Sammy, chained up, licking an empty bowl.”
“Aw, poor Sammy. So what did you do?!”
“Well, I was going to call the RSPCA but then the guy died so I didn’t need to. And I took Sammy coz I happened to know someone who would give him a good home.”
“Yeah ya did!” Andy grinned and Sammy tried to get behind him as Muriel reached over to give him some fuss. “It’s gonna take some time, but I’m sure he’ll let you in eventually.”
“What did the vet say?” Velma asked.
“He’s malnourished. Had fleas, worms, couple o’ ticks. His back end’s bruised – like someone’s kicked him she said – but no broken bones thankfully.”
Muriel frowned, “I hate to say it, but I’m glad that guy died.”
Velma only smiled, and Sammy snuggled his head inside Andy’s cardigan. “I feel like Mastermind today!” she declared. “I know it’s only a two person game but we can take it in turns. And you look like you’re not free to play at the moment anyway mate.”
Andy agreed and Muriel grabbed the game from her chaotic cupboard.
***
Come back tomorrow as chapter 4 continues, unless you want to read it now 😀
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