Free Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist by MC Beaton

you like. But I think some drunk did it. There’s a lot of drugs here and pretty freely available. Could have been done by someone stoned out of his mind who doesn’t even remember now he did it. Let’s go, or,’ he added maliciously, ‘do you want another word with your boyfriend?’
    Agatha’s eyes filled with angry tears.
    ‘Come now,’ he said lightly. ‘A lot of women would be flattered that a man with a wife as beautiful as that would make a play for them.’
    Agatha scrubbed at her eyes. ‘I knew he was married,’ she lied.
    ‘If you say so,’ said James. ‘Come along.’
    The next day the humidity had lifted. Clear blue skies, the calmest of seas, and the lightest of breezes.
    The mountains towered up to the sky on one side of the road and the blue-green sea stretched all the way to Turkey on the other side. Agatha suddenly wished she were simply on holiday instead of being back in the grip of the James obsession and on the way to police headquarters in Nicosia.
    When they drew up outside the police headquarters, Agatha began to have a feeling that the whole business was unreal, that it had never happened, that Rose would stroll round a corner, diamond rings flashing and shout, ‘Owya, Agatha?’
    Olivia, Trevor, Angus, George and Harry were already there. They were to be interviewed separately, and to Agatha’s dismay, James suggested that they meet up at the Saray Hotel afterwards for lunch and compare notes.
    Agatha had taken the precaution of bringing along a book to read. Trevor was the first to be called, then Olivia, and then Agatha heard her own name being shouted out.
    Pamir was sitting behind a large desk. A large portrait of Atatürk in evening dress stared down from behind the desk.
    A policeman drew out a chair for Agatha on the other side of the desk. She sat down, suddenly nervous.
    Pamir folded those fat hairy hands of his on the desk in front of him. He was wearing a chocolate-brown double-breasted suit and a wide tie with orange-and-yellow stripes. A large yellow silk handkerchief flowered from his top pocket.
    ‘Now, Mrs Raisin,’ he said, ‘if I can just take you through the whole thing again. You arrived at the disco.’
    ‘James began to dance with Olivia,’ said Agatha, ‘and I danced with Angus, but he danced on my feet so I suggested we sit down.’
    ‘And Rose Wilcox?’
    ‘She was dancing with George, Mr Debenham.’
    ‘How were they dancing? Close?’
    Agatha frowned in concentration. Her eyes had been mostly on James. ‘They weren’t dancing close,’ she said. ‘Disco dancing. Rose was shaking it all about and George was doing that sort of high-stepping jerky dance that middle-aged gentlemen do when they think they’re being swingers. The music was very loud and the floor was crowded.’
    ‘Was Mrs Wilcox making a play for anyone in particular? You have told me about Mr Debenham. What about Mr Lacey?’
    ‘What about Mr Lacey?’ demanded Agatha, her eyes narrowing.
    ‘Did Mrs Wilcox, Rose, seem attracted by Mr Lacey?’
    ‘Not that I noticed,’ said Agatha huffily.
    ‘Now we go to last night. You had dinner at the Dome, but not with Mr Lacey or any of the others but with a visiting Israeli businessman, a Mr Mort.’
    ‘What’s that got to do with the murder?’
    ‘I must examine all the relationships and you have a very peculiar relationship with Mr Lacey. You were engaged to be married, nearly got married, had not your husband appeared on the scene. You follow him here, you both share the same villa, and yet you accept an invitation to dinner from Mr Mort.’
    ‘It was just a friendly chat,’ said Agatha hotly. ‘He was waiting for his wife.’
    ‘A wife you did not know existed until she arrived.’
    ‘That’s not true! Have you been watching me?’
    ‘Mrs Raisin, one of my colleagues happened to be in that restaurant last night. I had a little man-of-the-world chat with Mr Mort this morning. He found you attractive and asked you for dinner