Mrs Pargeter 05; Mrs Pargeter’s Plot

∨ Mrs Pargeter’s Plot ∧

Thirty-Three

Mrs Pargeter’s eyes sparkled as she rounded off her exposition of the case. There was something very satisfying about having all the details sorted out, all the loose ends neatly tied up. Opposite her sat Nigel Merriman, formal and impassive, giving no reaction to her revelations, but occasionally scribbling a note on the legal pad in front of him.

At the conclusion of her narrative, he asked, “And you say Mr Mason’ll be able to prove all this?”

She grinned confidently. “Oh yes, Truffler’s sorting out the evidence even as we speak. And he’s good at that sort of stuff. It’ll be rock solid, don’t you worry.”

“Hm. And you’re sure it was just the two of them…” he looked down at his pad, and fastidiously pronounced the unfamiliar names, “… Clickety Clark and Blunt… who organized the whole thing? You don’t think that someone else may have been organizing them?”

“I don’t think there was anyone else, but Truffler’s checking that out, too. Don’t worry, Nigel. There’s easily enough to get Concrete Jacket off now, isn’t there?”

Nigel Merriman’s face took on the expression of professional caution that goes with the job, but he couldn’t help agreeing. “Oh, certainly. I don’t see how the authorities could possibly keep hold of my client if all this were to be made public. No, you’ve done extremely well, Mrs Pargeter.”

“Thank you,” she said modestly.

There was a knock at the door behind her. “Come in,” said the solicitor automatically and then continued addressing Mrs Pargeter. “You seem to have sorted out the whole thing with admirable efficiency. In fact, there’s really only one detail in the case you got wrong.”

“And what was that?” asked Mrs Pargeter combatively. She felt pretty certain she’d made sense of the whole scenario, and was confidently prepared to argue her case.

She heard the door behind her open, and saw Nigel Merriman’s eyeline move to his new visitors. His expression had changed. Now it contained something gleeful. Unpleasantly gleeful.

With sickening certainty of what she was about to see, Mrs Pargeter slowly turned round.

Framed in the doorway, their faces bruised and scarred, and looking meaner than she’d ever seen them look before, were Clickety Clark and Blunt.