Free Scandal at Six (Lois Meade Mystery) by Ann Purser Page B

shall require her to drive me.”
    “Something urgent?” said Lois.
    “Something very nasty,” replied Cowgill, getting to his feet. “There’s been an accident in Pettison’s zoo. His chief worry seems to be that his people are in a state of rigid terror. And for ‘people,’ read ‘monkeys.’”

Fourteen

    F or L ois, the rest of the weekend had been taken up with a trip with J osie to the nearby shopping centre, newly opened in T resham, with a tempting number of clothes shops especially dealing in designer fashions. I t was J osie’s birthday, and L ois had promised her a warm winter coat.
    “You’ll freeze, gel, come the east winds,” Gran had said, critically looking her up and down, and saying that if anyone asked her, a good tweed skirt and lambs’ wool twinset would be just the ticket.
    “Don’t forget the pearls, Gran,” Josie had said, laughing.
    Although she loved shopping with her daughter, Lois had found her mind repeatedly returning to the woman in the monkey cage. It transpired that the victim was not dead, but badly wounded from a vicious attack. She had been taken to hospital, and the matter referred to the police. According to the news and the local paper, the woman had been a friend of a member of staff. She had—in the owner’s words—“trespassed into the monkey people’s territory, and paid the price.”
    Everyone in the zoo, and of course visitors, was warned against trespass as a matter of course. This was apparently the first incident of its kind. One of the keepers had been working in the cage with the door closed when he was interrupted by a woman, who was leaving her cleaning job at the hall, and had come to say goodbye to the keeper. He had opened the door to the cage, and the woman had entered, only to be immediately attacked by a male chimpanzee defending his territory. She had collapsed, but was rescued almost immediately.
    So it was probably that Richardson woman, Lois had thought, as Josie emerged from the changing room, in a singing red coat that reached a decent level nearly to her ankles.
    On the way home, Josie had accused her mother of having her mind elsewhere. “I can see from your face that you’re thinking of something bad. Not another reptile, I hope!” she had said.
    Now Lois sat in her office, sorting out the schedules for the midday meeting of New Brooms. All the girls would be present, and Andrew, part-time interior decorator, part-time cleaner when required. Looking at her watch, she saw that there were ten minutes clear until the team turned up. She dialled Cowgill’s private number, and was irritated to see that his message service was switched on.
    “Ring me, please, as soon as poss. Thanks,” she said.
    The doorbell rang, and she heard Gran hurrying to get to the door before anyone else. “Come on in, girls,” she said. “And one boy, Andrew! You look cold, all of you. Hot coffee any good?”
    “Thanks, Gran. We’ll have it after the meeting as usual. Where’s Dot?” Lois added, and Hazel said she had seen her rushing past the office window, so guessed she would be a little late.
    “Not like Dot,” Lois said, and began the business of the meeting. Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again, and Gran ushered in a red-faced Dot. “Sorry, Mrs M. Trouble with the car. My nephew’s lent me his spare. Enormous great thing, a black BMW with dark windows. Like driving a hearse. Anyway, what have I missed?”
    “Nothing important. We’re going through the schedules. Now, here’s yours, but there will be a possible change. We have a new client, and I’d like you to take it on. There are a few things to finalise, but then I’ll arrange to introduce you. We were to go in today, but there’s been a drama there, so we will go tomorrow.”
    “What kind of a drama?” said Dot, frowning.
    “A nasty accident, to be blunt.”
    Before Lois could elaborate, Dot said, “Oh my Gawd! Not the zoo? I reckon you take your life in your hands working