After he had left, Agatha lay awake, tears trickling out of the corners of her eyes. Everyone seemed sinister to her now, even James. What did she know of him? A man arrived in a village and claimed to be a retired colonel and everyone took him at face value. And yet, Bunty knew his family, and she, Agatha, had met his sister a year ago. But how formidable, how terrifying he had been when he had been slapping the miserable Jerry around. Ruthless, that was the word for it.

Slowly she drifted off to sleep, plagued with nightmares. Freda was torturing the cats and laughing while James looked on; Bill Wong invited her to dinner and served up the cats, roasted on a tray; and Miss Webster was sitting efficiently at her desk, with Agatha's two cats, stuffed and mounted, in front of her.

Agatha awoke in the morning. Sunlight was streaming into the room, there was a smell of coffee and the hum of voices from downstairs. She looked at the clock beside the bed. Ten in the morning!

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She washed and dressed and went downstairs. Her kitchen was full of women: most of them members of the Ca.r.s.ely Ladies' Society, Mrs Harvey from the general store, and Mrs Dunbridge, the butcher's wife, all being served coffee by James.

They surrounded her as she came in, murmuring sympathy. Her kitchen counter was loaded with gifts of cake and jam and flowers. Even Miss Simms was there. 'Took the day off from work/ she said.

'That's very kind of you/ said Agatha, l>ut I don't know what you can do/ 'Mr Lacey has had a very good idea/ said Mrs Bloxby. 'We're organizing a search. Your cats may have been dumped off somewhere in the village, so we are all going out on a house-to-house hunt. You sit quietly here with Mr Lacey and we'll report if we find anything/ Agatha abruptly left the room and went up to the bathroom and cried her eyes out. All her life she had forged on, pushy and determined to get to the top of the public relations profession, all her life she had been alone. All this friendship and help made her feel weak.

When she went back downstairs, red-eyed but composed, only James and Mrs Parr were left.

'Mrs Parr has just been telling me much the same story as Miss Simms/ said James. 'Bladen told her about the veterinary hospital and said 203.

he would name it after her. Her husband found out about the missing money and hit the roof/ 'I suppose I might have done the same thing/ said Agatha slowly, remembering that dinner at the Greek restaurant. 'He told me about his plans and I said I would contribute something, but I was thinking of a cheque for twenty pounds. And he was all ready to go to bed with me but I panicked and ran away. Did you have an affair with him, Mrs Parr?'

She shook her head. 'I wouldn't have done. That wasn't how he tricked me. I was so flattered by him because he said I was the only woman who understood him. I am not very happy in my marriage and he made me feel attractive. I should have told you before, but I felt such a fool. I was still a bit in love with him when he died, but after the funeral my mind cleared up and I could see what he had done.'

'Mrs Mason was telling me the same thing while you were upstairs, Agatha,' said James, 'He was a compulsive gambler, Mrs Parr, and that's why he needed the money.'

'That's odd/ said Agatha. 'He didn't spend any of it. I mean, what he got out of the ladies of Ca.r.s.ely was still in his account.'

'I'll go off and join the search/ said Mrs Parr. "The least I can do.'

'Thanks for all this, James/ said Agatha, when they were alone. Her eyes filled with tears again.

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'Now, now, the time for crying is over. Let's sit down and discuss what we know. Instead of thinking that, say, Freda must have done it because she paid out the most money, what we should be looking for is someone with the character to do such a thing.'

'Who can say what anyone will do when they're goaded?'

'You wouldn't kill anyone, Agatha, now would you?'

Except Freda, thought Agatha.

'What we should do,' he went on, 'is make a list of suspects and then divide it up and follow each one and see what she does during the day and who she sees and if there is anything suspicious about her behaviour. Now, the women who gave money to Bladen were Mrs Parr, Mrs Mason, Freda, Miss Webster, Mrs Josephs and Miss Simms. Then we have to take into account Paul's ex-wife, Greta. Also, there is one side of the case we have not been looking at. Bladen was killed up at Lord Pendlebury's stables. Bob Arthur found the body and came running out, saying, "Looks like someone's done fer him/' Why should he say that? Why not think it a heart attack or something? There's another interesting thing I noticed about Bladen's bank statements. There were no major withdrawals, so he must have had cash to pay for all his food and entertaining. How did he pay the bill at the Greek restaurant?'

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'Cash/ 'Right. So what about Mrs Arthur? There's a thought/ 'It gets worse and worse/ said Agatha. 'Where do we begin?'

Til begin with Freda. No, don't scowl. My motives are pure detection. You start by watching Mrs Parr/ 'Oh, come on! That woman couldn't hurt a fly.'

'She's terrified of that husband of hers. Bladen might have known that. She may yet not be telling us all. He could have been blackmailing her. Give you something to do. You want your cats back, don't you?'

Agatha winced.

'Anyway, I'll get moving on my side and we'll meet up here, say, at six o'clock this evening. Nothing like action to beat the blues, Agatha/ Agatha went numbly about the kitchen after he had left, stacking away the various gifts in cupboards. Apart from cakes and pots of jam there was a large bunch of dried flowers, but they could hardly be from Miss Webster. Agatha shoved them in a vase and went upstairs to put on the make-up she had wept off.

She was on her way out when she stopped in the hall. The back of the front door was still covered in fingerprint dust. A gleam of sunlight lit up a tiny coloured object sticking among the coa.r.s.e coconut matting of the doormat. She bent 206.

down and looked at it and then picked it out. Puzzled, she turned it this way and that. Then her face cleared. It was a tiny dried petal. It must have fallen off that bouquet of flowers that someone had brought. She flicked it from her fingers and then opened the door.

Then she froze.

Suddenly it was the night before and she was lifting the envelope from the doormat and opening it, taking out the letter, smoothing it out. Surely a flicker of something small and bright had drifted down.

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Chapter Nine.

Agatha felt weird and strange as she walked numbly out into the bright sunlight. Two police-

men were asking questions at the other cottages in Lilac Lane. People waved and called to her as she went past but she did not hear them. i Agatha Raisin was no longer thinking about I who had murdered the vet or Mrs Josephs, all ' she wanted was her cats back.

As she approached Josephine Webster's shop, she saw a white hand twisting the card on the I door round from 'Open' to 'Closed'. Of course, half-day in the village. With such a search going on, if Miss Webster had the cats, then she wouldn't have them in the shop or in her flat above it.

Agatha returned home and got into her car. She parked a little way away from the shop and waited, not noticing people pa.s.sing up and down the main street, intent only on Josephine Webster.

And then Miss Webster came out, neat and 208.

trim as ever, and got into her car, which was parked outside the shop. She drove off. Grimly, Agatha followed. Miss Webster drove down into Moreton-in-Marsh and turned along the Fosse. Agatha let a car get between her and her quarry and followed. Miss Webster headed for Mir-cester, her little red car sailing up and over the Cotswold hills on the old Roman road which ran straight as an arrow.

Agatha followed her into a multi-storey carpark, parked a little bit away and waited until Miss Webster got out and locked her car, then got out of her own.

Josephine Webster went first to Boots, the chemist's, tried various perfume samples, and then bought a bottle. From there, she went to a dress boutique. The day was unseasonably chilly and Agatha shivered as she waited outside. At last, she risked a peek through the shop window. Miss Webster was turning this way and that before a mirror, wearing a low-cut red dress. She said something to the a.s.sistant and disappeared back into a changing room. After ten minutes, she came out of the shop, carrying a carrier-bag. From there, she went to a lingerie shop and Agatha again froze and fidgeted outside until Miss Webster appeared carrying a carrier-bag with the lingerie shop's name on it.

When she walked on, followed by Agatha, and turned in at the tall Georgian portico of the public library, Agatha was beginning to despair. It 209.

was all so innocent. Fear for her cats had tricked her memory. That little petal had probably fallen off the bouquet that morning. But the dogged-ness, the single-mindedness, and the tenacity that had made her successful in business took over. She waited outside for half an hour and then cautiously walked inside. No sign of Miss Webster.

Had she seen her and escaped out of a back door? In her frantic search to find a way out of the back of the library, Agatha nearly ran into Josephine Webster, who was sitting in a leather chair in one of the bays, calmly reading, her shopping bags beside her.

Agatha picked the next bay, took a book at random from the shelves and pretended to read. Her stomach rumbled. She should eat something, but she dare not risk leaving the library.

After two hours, a rustle of bags in the next bay warned her that her quarry was about to depart.

She waited a few moments and then cautiously got up and poked her head round the bay. Josephine Webster was disappearing in the direction of the exit. Agatha followed, heart beating hard again now that the pursuit was back on.

Miss Webster tripped gaily along, as if she hadn't a care in the world. She turned in at the door of Mircester's Palace Hotel.

Agatha, hovering at the entrance, saw her 210.

head up a pa.s.sage at the side of the reception under a sign which said 'Rest Rooms'.

She bought a newspaper from a kiosk in the foyer, sat down in an armchair and barricaded herself behind it, lowering it from time to time to make sure Miss Webster had not escaped.

After a full hour, Agatha saw Miss Webster emerge. She was wearing the new dress and was heavily made up. She had obviously left her bags and coat in the cloakroom. Agatha jerked up the newspaper as Miss Webster crossed the foyer in a cloud of scent and lowered it again in time to see her going into the bar.

Feeling stiff and hungry, Agatha threw aside the newspaper and looked cautiously round the door of the bar and then jerked her head back.

Miss Webster was sitting talking to Peter Rice, ugly red-haired Peter Rice, Bladen's partner. He must have entered the hotel and gone into the bar when Agatha's whole attention was focused on watching for Josephine Webster.

She sat down again in the foyer, her mind working furiously. It could be an innocent meeting. Yes, wait a bit. Miss Webster had a cat. She could have taken the cat for treatment to Mircester and struck up a friendship with Peter Rice. No harm in that. But. . . Greta Bladen had said something about Peter Rice being an old friend.

She looked about her. There was a sign pointing to the hotel restaurant. She walked along to 211.

it. The staff were just setting up the tables for the evening meal, but the maitre d'hotel was there. Agatha asked him if a Mr Rice had made a booking for dinner. He checked. Yes, Mr Rice had booked a table for two. For eight o'clock. Agatha glanced at her watch. Only six thirty. They wouldn't leave the hotel. Somehow, she had to see Greta Bladen before returning to the hotel to keep a watch on them.

She stopped at a phone-box on the road to the car-park and phoned James, but there was no reply. She drove off, praying that Greta would be at home.

Greta answered the door and frowned when she saw her visitor was Agatha.

T must speak to you/ pleaded Agatha. "You see, I've been threatened. Someone stole my cats to stop me investigating and I think I might know who that someone might be/ Greta sighed but held open the door. 'Come in. I don't quite grasp what you are saying. Do you mean someone is trying to stop you investigating Paul's death?'

'Yes/ 'Well, I haven't got your cats/ 'Could you tell me what you know about Peter Rice?'

'Peter? Oh, he can't have anything to do with it. I've known Peter for ages/ Tell me about him anyway/ 'I don't know very much. He lived a couple of 212.

doors away from me in Leamington in the old days. We were friends, played tennis together, but never anything romantic. I mean, I never thought any man would look at me that way, and so I was glad of Peter's company. Then Paul came along.

'I thought Peter would be delighted that I had found happiness at last, but he threw a very ugly scene. He said he had been going to ask me to marry him. I was so much in love with Paul that somehow that made me callous. It was only old Peter behaving in a most odd way. The next time I saw him he apologized for his behaviour and said he was moving to Mircester/ 'And you never saw him again?' prompted Agatha.

'Well, I did, of course. I met him when Paul went into partnership with him and, as I told you, it was Peter who suggested I check out the site of this supposed veterinary hospital. I told him long afterwards how I had been cheated. After my divorce, we went out for dinner a couple of times, but there was nothing there and I really don't think there ever was anything there/ 'Then how do you explain the scene when you told him you were going to marry Paul?'

'Oh, that. I think Peter is the kind who would have been jealous if any close friend, male or female, got married. He was a very solitary man. Come to think of it, I suppose I was the only friend he had in Leamington.'

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"Why did he decide to open the surgery in Ca.r.s.ely?' asked Agatha. 'I mean, there are lots of villages closer to Mircester, and larger ones, too/ 'Let me think. He said something about that when I met him one day in the square. He said, "I'm finding that ex of yours something useful to do. I think it's better we work apart. I've told him to start up a surgery in Ca.r.s.ely. Keep him out of my hair." I said, "Why Ca.r.s.ely?" and he said that some friend of his who had a shop there said it was a good place for business.'

"Josephine Webster/ said Agatha. 'So that's the connection. And I think I know where my cats are/ She got up to leave. She looked wild-eyed and her face was working.

'If you suspect anyone of anything,' said Greta, 'go to the police/ Agatha merely snorted and went out to her car.

She thought furiously on the road to Mircester. Josephine Webster could have tipped off Peter Rice about Mrs Josephs. She could have been in the pub to hear Freda telling everyone about the discovery of that bottle and warned Rice, or she could have removed the bottle herself.

Agatha flicked a glance at the dashboard of her car. Eight o'clock. Peter Rice would just be sitting down to dinner.

She drove straight to the veterinary surgery and parked outside. She got out and took a tyre- 214.

iron out of the car. The surgery was a low building set at the back of a small car-park. A light was burning over the door. Agatha moved to the side of the building, which was in darkness but with enough light for her to make out a gla.s.s-paned side door. She had no time or expertise to emulate James Lacey's burglary techniques. She smashed a pane of gla.s.s in the door with the tyre-iron. A volley of hysterical barks greeted her ears. Grimly ignoring them, she tugged out the remaining gla.s.s with her gloved hands, reached in and unlocked the door.

Eyes glittered at her in the darkness and somewhere among the barks and yelps she heard several plaintive miaows.

'In for a penny, in for a pound/ muttered Agatha and switched on the light.

'Shhh!' she whispered desperately to the cages of animals. Her eyes ranged along them. And there, together in a cage, were Hodge and Boswell.

With a glad cry, she undid the latch and opened the cage.

The barking and yowling suddenly died abruptly. Agatha, reaching in to get her cats, was aware of a heavy air of menace. She heard a soft footfall and turned around.

Josephine Webster smiled up at the waiter as he pulled out her chair for her in the restaurant.

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Peter Rice sat down opposite. The maitre d' bowed over them and presented menus and made suggestions.

When their order had been taken by one of his minions, he gathered up the huge leather-bound menus and then suddenly said, 'Will the other lady be joining you?'

'What other lady?' demanded Peter Rice, and Miss Webster giggled and said, 'One of your harem, Peter?'

'A lady came in earlier and asked if you had booked a table for this evening.'

'What did she look like?' asked the vet.

'Middle-aged, straight brown hair, expensively cut, quite smart clothes.'

'No, she won't be joining us,' said Peter. 'Hold my order. I've got to do something in the surgery. Give Miss Webster a drink and look after her until I get back/ James Lacey was worried. He had called at Agatha's cottage several times without getting a reply. He had not been able to get much more out of Freda. Her friend with the silver hair stayed with her all the time, and James could not manage to get a word with her in private.

He decided to pa.s.s the time until Agatha's return trying to write his book, but instead he found himself writing about the case. He wrote on and then gave an exclamation, took out one 216.

character and tried to fit the evidence he had to it.

He was roused from his efforts by the doorbell. Bill Wong stood there with Inspector Wilkes. 'Where's Agatha?' asked Bill.

'Isn't she back? We were supposed to meet at six. Isn't her car there?'

'No, I'm getting worried. We'll need to ask around and see if anyone saw her leaving the village/ Til go out and try to find her myself/ said James. 'Here, take a look at my notes, Bill, and see if you come to the same conclusion/ James went straight to Josephine Webster's shop. It was in darkness, as was the flat above, and he got no reply to his banging and knocking. A head popped out of a window next to the flat above the shop and a man's voice said, 'Ain't no use you ringing and banging, fit to wake the dead. Her goes to Mircester on half-day/ James went back and got his car and told Bill he thought Agatha might be in Mircester. He suddenly knew where Agatha had gone and prayed he would not be too late.

Agatha slowly straightened up.

Peter Rice stood in the doorway, looking at her. She was aware again of the strength of that body which supported the disproportionately small head. She had left the tyre-iron lying 217.

beside the shattered door. Her eyes flew this way and that, seeking a weapon.

'Don't even think of it/ he said. He produced a small automatic pistol from his pocket. 'Through to the examining room, Mrs Raisin/ he said. 'We won't be disturbed there/ Even though she felt weak with fear, even though she felt her bladder was about to give, Agatha gave the door of the cage with her cats in it a kick as she pa.s.sed and tried to send them telepathic messages to escape. Rice switched off the lights in the room with Agatha's cats and the other animals and switched on the lights in the small examining room.

Keeping the pistol trained on Agatha, he asked, 'How did you know it was me?'