Page 45 of Never Too Late to Date

Savouring the last mouthfuls of her tea in the full warmth of the sun, eyes closed, Vicky started when he appeared silently beside her.

‘As it’s just the two of us at the moment…’

What was he going to suggest? Possibly a lecture on the evils of drink?

Alex looked around him before speaking again.

‘I wanted to let you know that Seamus found another dead cat early this morning.’

Vicky gasped.

‘Oh no, not another one.’

‘Afraid so. I’m doing the tests to check it’s definitely poison, but it looks like it.’

Vicky had been here a month now, and she’d hoped upon hope that they’d seen the last of the killings. It had all been quiet for the last three weeks.

‘That’s so sad.’

Her bright morning had already taken a turn for the worse. All the joy had gone out of the day with that one sentence. Alex was still standing there.

‘I was wondering…’

‘Yes?’

He seemed a tad unsure of himself for a moment, which was unusual, to say the least.

‘As we’re still keeping it to ourselves for the moment, I think it would be a good idea to maybe do some patrolling of the land near here, especially early in the morning or late at night. We might spot something useful or possibly scare the poisoner away. I’d estimate that this latest incident only happened in the last couple of hours. That cat was still warm.’

‘Poor little thing.’

What did he mean by patrolling? What did that entail exactly? She had a sudden vision of them crawling along behind the stone wall boundaries in camouflage gear with brown painted stripes smeared on their faces and had to turn away lest he see her smile.

‘So, would you be up for that? I can’t really ask anyone else to help until Maeve and Seamus decide to make things public.’

He’d spoilt it a little by making it clear she was his only option, but anything to stop another animal meeting the same fate.

‘Yeah, I’d like to help.’

‘What about first thing tomorrow, as a trial run?’

‘What time?’

‘Meet at five before it’s light, and do a couple of hours? We could cover a lot of ground in that time. I’m on duty here afterwards anyway, as I know you are too. I checked the timesheets.’

She wasn’t sure she was keen on any monitoring of her movements; it gave her flashbacks to her ex-husband’s insane jealousy. Even an innocent drink with a female friend could set him off. Vicky shuddered in the early morning air.

She’d give Alex the benefit of the doubt that the checking was because he didn’t want to ask her to get up so early on a day off. But five o’clock was a shocker. It was still night as far as she was concerned. It would mean going to bed very early tonight, no bad thing after her jaunt to Athens. She’d said she was up for it, so the last thing she wanted to appear was flaky.

‘OK, you’re on.’

‘Meet here in the courtyard. Wear dark clothes, comfortable shoes, and make sure you’ve got a working torch and a bottle of water on you.’

Now he sounded like a bossy scout leader about to take them on an expedition. He’d be suggesting they made a raft out of driftwood and strips of her shirt in a minute.

‘Sure. See you there.’

Vicky spotted Graham in the distance, waving. He wasn’t her favourite work buddy, but you didn’t get to choose who you were on the rota with. Getting away from this conversation and focusing on the routine of feeding and clearing out the animals would calm her after the sad news. It had been the same with nursing. Routine tasks always made her feel in control, whereas Alex had a knack of making her feel anything but.