When the Evil Waits by M Lee (top fiction books of all time txt) 📕

a big lolloping Labrador pushed the door open and bounded in, all dangling tongue and wagging tail. The dog immediately rushed up to sniff Ridpath’s leg.

‘I presume this was the dog you were walking in Chorlton Ees?’

Jon Morgan tried to pull the dog away by grabbing his collar. ‘Yeah, sorry, he’s a bit of a handful.’

The dog was reluctantly ushered out of the room and the door closed. A few plaintive whines and scratches followed before Mrs Morgan called him away.

Ridpath sat on the chair with Jon Morgan facing him, pulling out his files as Morgan started talking.

‘I wish I’d never found the body now. Such a palaver and my face plastered all over the papers. One of my customers even asked me about it.’

Ridpath took out his pen and notebook. ‘What do you do, Mr Morgan?’

‘I’m a sales manager for an IT company, I cover the North West.’

‘So your region is…?’

‘Manchester, Liverpool, Cheshire, Lancashire, all the way down to Shrewsbury and up to Carlisle.’

‘A big area. You must do a lot of driving.’

‘Used to, not anymore.’

‘In lockdown, you worked from home?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘What a pain that was! The kids were off school too. Trying to get anything done was a nightmare.’

Ridpath listened; the house was pretty quiet for one with kids.

Jon Morgan watched him and smiled. ‘They’re away with Margery’s parents in the country. You obviously have kids yourself…’

‘Only the one, but she makes enough noise to wake the dead.’ Ridpath coughed and quickly moved on. ‘Can you tell me again what happened on 23 July?’

‘I’ve told the story so many times. I can see you have my witness statement.’

Ridpath held up the photocopy. ‘We’re going over everything to see if we missed something – a detail, an incident that people might remember now.’

‘So you haven’t found the killer yet?’

Ridpath ignored the question and its implied rebuke. ‘You left the house at eight a.m.?’

‘Yeah, around then, and I drove to Chorlton Ees.’

‘You walked the dog there every morning?’

‘During lockdown it became a habit, getting me out of the house even if it was only for a short while. We walked the dogs, letting them off the leash.’

‘You said “we”?’

Jon Morgan seemed confused. ‘Did I? I meant I walked the dog.’

There was a knock at the door, and Mrs Morgan came in with a tray of tea things and a plate of digestive biscuits, placing them on the coffee table.

‘Thank you, that’s great.’

‘Shall I be mother?’ She picked up the teapot and poured the tea, straining it through a small metal strainer. It was a rich, dark colour. ‘I always use loose tea, I can’t stand teabags, can you, Inspector?’

Ridpath only ever used teabags. He wouldn’t know where to start with loose tea.

‘Milk and sugar?’

‘Milk but no sugar, please.’

‘Sweet enough, are you?’ She added the milk and stood up.

Ridpath didn’t answer her. He continued the interview with her husband. ‘You said you were walking the dog?’

‘I let him off the lead. He went off as usual into the undergrowth as I stayed on the path. I must have been walking for about ten minutes when he began to whine.’

‘He?’

‘The dog, Major.’

All through this speech, Jon Morgan had been glancing at his wife, seeking her approval.

‘He doesn’t whine normally,’ added Mrs Morgan, ‘unlike my husband.’ She paused, waiting for Ridpath to register the joke before continuing. ‘He’s a good dog, a quiet dog. I can fetch him if you like?’

As if hearing his name, the Labrador bounded into the room again, sniffing Ridpath’s leg.

The detective scratched the dog’s head between the ears. ‘He’s a lovely lad, but I don’t think he’s going to add anything to Mr Morgan’s statement.’ He paused, waiting for a laugh but received nothing but silence. ‘So you followed the dog into the undergrowth…’

‘And that’s when I saw the body and called the police.’

Mrs Morgan knelt down and put her arm around her husband. ‘How awful for you, dear. He’s been having nightmares about it, terrible nightmares.’

The husband now had a hangdog look that reminded Ridpath of a bloodhound. He wasn’t going to get anything useful here.

He closed his notebook and put his pen back in his inside pocket. ‘Thank you for your time, Mr Morgan, I think I have enough.’ Ridpath stood up.

‘You haven’t finished your tea, Inspector.’

‘Thank you, Mrs Morgan, but I’ve drunk so much today, I could float the Titanic.’ He suddenly remembered one question. ‘Oh, before I forget, did you see anybody else that morning?’

Jon Morgan shook his head emphatically. ‘No, didn’t see anybody.’

His wife frowned. ‘But that’s not what you told me when you came home that day. You said you’d seen the woman with her stupid Jack Russell. The dog that Major stole a toy from? Remember?’

Her husband shook his head again and laughed. ‘I think you’ve got the wrong day, Margery.’

She pursed her lips. ‘I don’t think so. I remember it clearly. Major came home with another dog’s toy that day.’

‘He must have found it in the bushes?’

‘But you said he took it off a woman’s dog. What was the name you said – a Mrs Burgess? I remember you had her number on your phone so you could contact her to give it back.’

Jon Morgan reddened visibly.

‘Do you have Mrs Burgess’s number, Mr Morgan? It would help us to eliminate her from our enquiries?’

‘Is that necessary, Inspector? My dog only took a toy from her Jack Russell.’

‘It would help, sir. Perhaps she had walked her dog on the day the body was discovered, as your wife remembers?’

‘It was definitely another day,’ Jon Morgan said firmly.

Ridpath persisted. ‘If I could have her number, perhaps she saw something?’

Reluctantly, Jon Morgan handed over his phone. Ridpath copied the number into his notebook.

‘One last question, Mr Morgan, is there anything else you remember about that day? Anything unusual that has occurred to you?’

Morgan glanced at his wife and shook his head slowly.

Ridpath stood up. ‘Thank you for your time. If you do remember anything, here’s my card.’

‘If I do, Inspector, I