Free Trouble in the Cotswolds (The Cotswold Mysteries) by Rebecca Tope

well, of course, and she had no illusions about the degree to which the men had discussed her, when she and Hollis had been an item. Thea knew a number of police detectives in the Gloucestershire constabulary – her favourite being DS Sonia Gladwin. But Higgins had probably been unwise to tell the man next door about her flu. She would become a pariah, especially if nobody in Stanton had yet succumbed to the epidemic. Nobody wanted to be ill at Christmas. If it hadn’t been for that, she might well have enjoyed a visit from some local proselytiser who would invite her to carol services or sherry parties. Now they’d all shun her and leave her to wallow in her own viruses.
    She felt lonely and abandoned and not fully in controlof herself. She might dissolve into tears without warning, or fall downstairs, or forget to switch something off. She tried to focus on something outside herself, and landed on the woman next door – paramour of the dead Douglas-the-businessman. Thea had to revise everything she had first assumed about the owner of the house. How old was she? Did she have children? What was she doing for Christmas? Had she and the wife forged an unholy friendship and were at this very moment celebrating the demise of the man they had shared? Had they, she wondered irresistibly, indeed colluded in his murder, as had been suggested by one of the men in the police car? Which one, she had already forgotten. The conversation in the car had faded into a sort of dream, where she could not have accurately reported who said what, or indeed whether much of it had taken place silently inside her own head. Higgins had said something upsetting about her association with violent crimes during her various house-sitting jobs. It was possible, she told herself sternly, to achieve an entire house-sit without getting involved in anything criminal or violent. She had actually managed it a few times. This time, she could simply ignore everything to do with Callendar and his complicated life and death.
    She was in the front room, stretched out on the sofa, which stood with its back to the window. Hepzie had used it to perch on while she scrabbled at the curtains. There was a small tear in one of them, Thea noticed, caused almost certainly by her dog. As she fingered it,thinking it would probably show more if she tried to mend it than if she left it alone, a confusing figure came into view on the pavement outside. Blinking it into focus, Thea recognised the Sherry woman and her huge dog, standing barely a yard away and staring in at her. ‘Can I come in?’ she mouthed exaggeratedly.
    Thea hauled herself up and went to open the door. She made no attempt to restrain either of the dogs in her charge, but the woman snatched at her animal’s chain when she saw Blondie in the hallway. ‘Can you shut her in the kitchen or something?’ she asked.
    Thea sighed exhaustedly. ‘I’m sure she won’t be a problem,’ she said. ‘She’s too depressed to pick a fight.’
    ‘Well – if you’re sure.’ She came tentatively into the hall, and Thea shut the door behind her. ‘You don’t look very well,’ the woman commented. Her spine straightened in a businesslike fashion and she removed the blue coat she was wearing, indicating an intention to stay. She hung it on an empty hook which was one of a row, near the front door, and turned back to Thea. ‘I can see you need somebody to help.’
    ‘No, I’m not very well. I seem to have got flu. You might want to keep your distance.’
    To her credit, Cheryl – Thea had finally remembered her name – did not recoil. ‘You poor thing,’ she sympathised, with apparent sincerity. ‘That must make things awkward. Anyway – listen. I saw you just now, in that police car. Did something happen?’
    The change in demeanour made Thea wonderwhether her own fuzzy condition was somehow deceiving her. Hadn’t this been a stand-offish person, exuding disapproval, only the day before? Now she was all