7 Sorrow on Sunday Read Online Free Page B

thinking about Lois and her decision to carry on with New Brooms and not let their windfall make any major difference to their lives. Was it possible? He looked back at his encounter with the Colonel, and wondered if he’d have been as confident in standing up to him before the lottery win? There was no doubt that having a large nest egg in the bank
did
make a lot of difference. How else would it affect them? It worried him sometimes. Still, he trusted Lois. She was strong and levelheaded and would see that nothing disastrous happened.
    There was one thing he wished she would give up, but there was no hope of her doing that. Snooping was in her bones, he reckoned, and now there was a new mystery for her to get her teeth into.
    He slowed down as he approached the roundabout on the edge of Fletching village, and saw a dirty white van speeding along from another road. As it came towards the roundabout, he saw to his horror a shaggy-looking horse crash through the hedge and charge into the road in front of the van. The van swerved off and hit a road sign with force. A dreadful sound of crumpling metal and breaking glass was followed by a terrible silence. Derek was frozen for a few seconds, then shot out and ran to the scene.
    The horse had miraculously escaped, and was galloping at full pelt back up the road.
Let it go
, thought Derek, and rushed over to the van. The front seemed to be completely destroyed. He looked anxiously for the driver. Trapped in twisted metal and broken glass, the man at the wheel was slumped forward, his face covered in blood, and was almost certainly dead. Derek dialled the police from his mobile, and gave them the details. He was told tostay exactly where he was. The ambulance would be there immediately.
    Derek had another look at the man. He was young. If there was any sign of life, he would do everything he could to help him, regardless of police instructions. He peered closely through the shattered window, and realized it was hopeless. The man had been crushed horribly. He’d had no chance. Derek could see no sign of a safety belt. He straightened up and waited. He did a re-run in his mind from the moment he saw the horse crash through. It was a thick hedge, well-trimmed, and impossible to see in to the field beyond. Where, then, did the animal get out? He peered closer, and saw a narrow gap, and a broken fence, more or less overgrown. That was it. Perhaps there had been a stile there once. Some careless farmer had failed to mend it. Ah, well, he’d have trouble finding his horse now.

S IX

    W HEN D EREK FINALLY RETURNED HOME, G RAN WAS looking worried. “Where’ve you been? I thought you said you’d be early today.”
    Derek shook his head. “It’s a long story,” he said. “I’d be glad of a good strong cup of tea. Where’s Lois?”
    “Taken Jeems out. She’s gone over the meadows to the river walk. Should be back soon.” Gran made the tea and sat down opposite Derek. “So what happened?” she said. Derek gave her an edited version of the crash itself, leaving out the gory bits. He told her about having to hang about for hours, telling the police what he had witnessed, and going with them to the woods to look for the horse. There had been no sign of it though the police were still busy up there when he left.
    “Did you know the man in the van?” Gran had immediately thought of at least three people she knew who might have been driving white vans that way.
    Derek shook his head. “He was quite smashed up, though he was vaguely familiar. Still, the police’ll find out who he is—was—and it’ll all be in the local.”
    It was getting dark, and Gran looked out of the window. “Where’s Lois got to?” she said. “It’ll be time for our tea soon. Steak and kidney pie today, and bread puddin’ for afters.”
    Ten minutes later, Lois arrived, out of breath and red in the face. “She’s in disgrace!” she said, tying Jeems to the table leg without taking off her