Die Like a Dog by Gwen Moffat Page B

happen, I said; he’s got that girl up there, I said. She killed Brindle; she’s violent, that one, worse than Lloyd. And what does anyone know about her? She comes here, giving herself airs; she could be –’
    â€˜Yes.’ Ted got up and walked out of the kitchen, followed by Miss Pink. ‘This is a rum do,’ he murmured as they approached the front door. ‘Two men missing is distinctly odd, don’t you agree?’
    â€˜It was odd when one was missing.’
    â€˜Quite. We must have a word with Mrs Judson, alone. Will you fetch her?’
    She brought Gladys from the kitchen and the three of them walked down the drive where they couldn’t be overheard.
    â€˜This is distressing for you, Mrs Judson –’ Ted was most considerate, ‘– but have you reported your husband as missing?’
    Gladys stared at the wooded slope and twisted her wedding ring. ‘No. I was afraid to.’
    â€˜Why was that?’
    â€˜I thought he’d be back by now.’
    â€˜But he hasn’t reported his car stolen, Mrs Judson.’ He was being patient.
    â€˜I’m terribly worried,’ she confessed. ‘What should I do?’
    â€˜I think the police should be informed,’ Miss Pink said. ‘If he is – elsewhere – on business, and isn’t aware that the car has been stolen, he can only be cross if he’s reported missing. Hadn’t he intended to be home before today? A man was at the Bridge inquiring for him. Surely it was the man who drove away as we were passing?’
    Gladys nodded. ‘My mind’s in a whirl. Of course Richard intended – That man was Maynard Vale, the secretary of the Trust. He had an appointment with Richard for this morning: about the dogs on the Reserve. I told him they were both dead. I’m sorry, it’s too much –’ She put her hand to her head.
    They led her inside the house and settled her in a chair in the drawing room.
    â€˜We haven’t had coffee,’ she said weakly.
    Miss Pink went to the kitchen and told Ellen to make a pot of strong tea. When she returned, Ted was using the telephone. They exchanged glances full of significance. She sat quietly with her hostess until he entered.
    â€˜The police are sending someone,’ he told them casually, as if it were an everyday event. ‘Would you like one of us to stay?’
    â€˜If you both would – please?’
    Ellen came in with a tray and would have started to talk again but Ted took her back to the kitchen, leaving Miss Pink with Gladys. Tacitly they kept the two women apart; neither could do the other any good.
    The police arrived within twenty minutes: a uniformed sergeant and a constable in a patrol car. They sat in the drawing room and Ted took it on himself to outline the facts, but no sooner had he said that Judson was missing when Ellen stepped in from the hall where it was obvious that she’d been listening.
    â€˜And his gun,’ she insisted. ‘His gun’s gone too.’
    The sergeant stiffened. The constable looked startled.
    â€˜Yes, Mrs Evans.’ Ted was firm. ‘I’ll tell the officers. His shotgun is missing,’ he went on calmly. ‘And Evans went out last night, in defiance of Mrs Judson’s orders, telling his wife he was going to the cottage where the warden of the Nature Reserve lives. He hasn’t returned.’
    â€˜What does the warden say?’
    â€˜No one’s been up there to ask him.’
    â€˜I see.’ It was obvious he didn’t.
    â€˜They killed our dogs,’ Ellen said.
    The rest of it came out then. The police knew about Satan’s having been shot, not that the brindled dog had died.
    â€˜This Lloyd,’ the sergeant said. ‘Is he violent?’
    â€˜The girl is,’ asserted Ellen – and Miss Pink closed her eyes.
    â€˜Excuse me a moment.’ The sergeant stood up and went outside, followed by the