Free Mixing With Murder by Ann Granger Page A

house and trailing them. Obviously, I hadn’t. My companion might be a bumbling amateur but I’d made it too easy for him. I also had a lot to learn about being inconspicuous.
     
    He confirmed this. ‘You came wandering down our road. You hung about on the other side talking on your mobile. Who were you talking to? Were you making some kind of report? Then you went after Jennifer when she pushed Paul out for their evening stroll. I thought that was odd and kept watching. Good job I did. You came back and rang their doorbell. You knew they were out. So either you’re planning a burglary or you want to see Lisa. She’s not in.’
     
    The last words were spoken a little too defiantly. I interpreted this to mean she wasn’t there that particular evening but she was staying at the house. This, in itself was useful knowledge. I had always had a small doubt that Mickey was right in saying she’d gone home. Now my companion had obligingly tipped me off. This guy was an interfering blunderer but evidently knew the family well. What was he? Just a neighbour? A friend? Lisa’s boyfriend?
     
    ‘That’s it, is it?’ I asked. ‘A first-class snoop on your neighbours, aren’t you?’
     
    He reddened again, this time with anger not with embarrassment. ‘You’ve got a bloody nerve! You were behaving in a suspicious manner. I ought to have called the police.’
     
    ‘No,’ I contradicted, ‘I ought to call the police. You’ve admitted you’ve followed me. I call that harassment. ’
     
    A sarcastic grin spread briefly over his face. ‘You won’t call the police,’ he said.
     
    Well, he was right. ‘Listen,’ I told him. ‘Just go home, will you? This has nothing to do with you.’
     
    ‘Perhaps it does!’ he returned, cocky now. He thought he had me on the run. ‘Who are you, anyway?’
     
    ‘Sod off, will you?’ I repeated my request less politely. I turned and walked away. There was nothing else I could do. He walked boldly behind me now.
     
    ‘Listen, chum,’ I growled at him. ‘You are seriously getting up my nose!’
     
    ‘It’s a free country,’ he replied. ‘I can walk along this pavement. If you think I’m harassing you, like you said, ring the cops. You’ve got a mobile phone on you. I won’t try and grab it off you. I’m not daft.’
     
    He was going to stick with me until he saw where I was headed. There wasn’t anything I could do about it. He knew that, I did my best to ignore him and carried on until I reached Beryl’s guest house. Here we stopped.
     
    ‘This is it,’ I said, turning to him. ‘This is where I’m staying. Now you know you can toddle off back home.’
     
    ‘I’ll wait until you go inside,’ he said obstinately.
     
    Another one! Every time I set foot on the streets of this city, was some concerned citizen going to insist on escorting me to a safe haven? First Pereira, now this Neighbourhood Watch fanatic?
     
    ‘Fine,’ I said nonchalantly. I climbed the steps to the front door and put the key Beryl had given me into the lock. That convinced him.
     
    ‘Wait!’ he called urgently.
     
    I should have ignored him but if he had something he wanted to say he was stupid enough to come knocking on the door. I didn’t want Beryl - and ultimately Mickey - finding out about this pest. Mickey would be likely to arrange a small accident for the guy. I turned back. ‘What?’
     
    ‘If you’re staying here, you’re a visitor to Oxford.’ He sounded smug.
     
    Elementary, my dear Watson , I snarled mentally. The house was a ruddy B and B. ‘So?’ I said aloud casually. ‘I’m a tourist.’
     
    ‘Like hell you are!’ he snapped. ‘You’ve come from London. Have you come from that creep Allerton?’
     
    Oh shit, this was getting more complicated by the minute. It was beginning to look as if others knew far more about what was going on than I did.
     
    ‘Never heard of him!’ I said and shut the door on him before he could argue.
     
    I sneaked