Die Like a Dog by Gwen Moffat

real evidence of substance – apart from the land. If he were in trouble he could always sell some land. If Judson had a problem, I’d have expected it to be a woman, or women.’
    â€˜I agree.’
    â€˜But the two women – three if you include his wife – involved with him at the moment, have been left behind. He’s gone away; the women are still here.’
    â€˜How do you know?’
    â€˜I’ve seen them. Maggie Seale is not just here, but appears to have taken Joss Lloyd for her lover. Anna Waring was away for the weekend but came back yesterday and she hadn’t been with Judson because –’ Her voice died away.
    â€˜Yes, Melinda?’
    They regarded each other speculatively. ‘Because,’ she concluded, ‘she would have said so if she had.’
    â€˜Would she?’ His tone changed, became airy. ‘When I asked how you knew, I meant how did you know he’d left all his feminine interests here? How do you know there isn’t another woman, elsewhere, even abroad?’
    â€˜I don’t, but there’s his age and physical condition. He couldn’t have gone so quickly from one to the next, perhaps even having relationships with two women at the same time – he couldn’t have lived like that, and survived.’
    â€˜That may be the point.’
    Their eyes shifted at the same moment, as both became aware of the likelihood of observation. After a pause during which she folded the map with elaborate care, he said: ‘Let’s stroll up the combe slowly, towards Parc, bird-watching, and see if anything turns up, eh?’
    They covered the ground between the Bridge and Parc at a normal pace but as they drew level with the first of Parc’s conifers they stopped, Miss Pink focused her binoculars on an imaginary bird, and they listened. They heard nothing more than birdsong and the hum of insects. They continued quietly but as they approached the entrance to the drive, they heard voices. Exchanging glances they sauntered forward and came into full view of the front door.
    Gladys Judson was standing on the step saying goodbye to the secretary of the Trust. Miss Pink waved and smiled. Gladys looked startled, hesitant, and then she lifted a hand in what Miss Pink took to be an invitation. They waited, smiling politely as the stranger drove past, touching his cap, and then they moved up the drive.
    Gladys was still making some effort to retain her poise but this morning her voice showed signs of strain although, since Ted was already known to her, it may have been that his presence was actually encouraging her to lower her defences.
    â€˜I’m so glad to see someone we know,’ she said. ‘Now my woman is having hysterics, and that man arrived to see Richard and all the time that I was trying to tell him what had happened, Ellen would keep breaking in and demanding that I call the police, threatening to do it herself. You’ve come at a bad moment, I’m afraid – no, I don’t mean –’
    They were standing in the hall and at that the door from the back quarters was flung open and Ellen approached like one of the Furies, her hair awry, her eyes snapping, protesting as she came.
    â€˜I can’t sit alone; I can feel my brain washing round and round –’ she faltered as she caught sight of the visitors and her face was suddenly crafty, ‘– what do they think?’
    â€˜They don’t know.’ Gladys was brittle. ‘If you’ll bring us coffee, Ellen, in the drawing room –’
    â€˜Coffee! ’ She stared from one to the other. ‘Coffee! And Evans not come home all night? He had no gun! An unarmed man, but brave as a lion, he was. They’ve done it between them – I know it; he said so, said she handled a gun like a man. Shot the dog, shot the master, shot –’
    â€˜ Ellen !’
    Gladys’s control had broken at last, but the tirade