Strangeways to Oldham by Andrea Frazer Page B

apparently.
    Lady Amanda fixed her beadily accusing eye at the young man sitting with them, and enquired if this were he, to which he replied, smugly, in the negative, and stood, preparatory to leaving.
    â€˜Is that really not you?’ she enquired again of the young man.
    â€˜â€™Fraid not!’ he admitted, and gave her a cheesy grin of triumph. How had he managed to outwit them? Lady Amanda was simply furious.
    Â â€˜Dammit!’ she muttered, rather strongly for her, and nudged Hugo to get him moving. ‘I’ve left Beauchamp outside with the Rolls. Told him to use my mobile to try to get a picture of the cove leaving. We’ll just have to follow him now, if we want to find out where he lives.’
    â€˜But there was nothing left to him in the will. We’ve hit a dead end,’ protested Hugo. ‘If he wasn’t left a bean, why would he want to kill old Reggie like that? It doesn’t make sense, Manda.’
    â€˜It does!’ she insisted. ‘It’s just a complicated puzzle, for which we don’t have all the pieces yet. I know that young man did for Reggie, and I have the evidence locked securely in my safe to prove it. We’ll just have to find out who he really is.’
    â€˜Perhaps he was Reggie’s home nurse,’ suggested Hugo, rather swamped with things medical at the moment and not enjoying it one jot.
    â€˜â€˜Brilliant!’ quoth Lady Amanda, and rushed to catch young Mr Williams before he left. She managed to grab him by the sleeve of his jacket as he was heading out of the room, and asked, in as casual a fashion at she could muster at short notice, and with such excitement flooding her mind, ‘Who is that young man who stayed on for the reading of the will? I don’t think I’ve been introduced.’
    â€˜That was young Mr Foster – Derek Foster,’ he answered, unsuspectingly.
    â€˜And how did he know Reggie?’ she asked, her face a mask of innocence.
    â€˜I believe he used to provide nursing care for Mr Pagnell, before the departed had to be admitted to a home for full-time care. His mind was wandering so much he needed constant supervision, lest he wander away and get lost, I believe.’
    â€˜That’s very interesting, Mr Williams. Thank you so much for your time and trouble. Do you happen to know where Mr Foster lives?’ This would really be a coup for them, if she could get his address.
    â€˜I’m afraid I haven’t the faintest idea, my dear young lady. He answered an advertisement I placed in the local paper, asking him to contact us. This, he did, and our only other contact has been by telephone.’
    â€˜Cow poo!’ declared Lady Amanda, as they got back into the Rolls. ‘I thought we had it all neatly stitched up there, and now we’ve lost him. Waiting to talk to that old twit has cost us time we couldn’t afford. If I’d thought about it harder, it would probably have been better to follow him to find out his address, then we could have delivered him to Inspector Moody as a nicely wrapped-up parcel, specifically addressed to the Department of Public Prosecutions.’
    â€˜But he didn’t get the money or the house,’ protested Hugo anew.
    â€˜No, but he was Reggie’s home nurse. There’s more of a tangled plot here, than I thought. Did you manage to get a photograph, Beauchamp?’
    â€˜I shot off a couple, and one of them’s not too bad. He moved in the other one, and he’s just a blur.’
    â€˜Good-oh!’ chortled Lady Amanda. ‘A very successful surveillance job, Beauchamp!’
    â€˜Beecham,’ muttered their chauffeur, but under his breath.
    â€˜So, what do we do next, Manda?’ asked Hugo, all ears, now that the game was still afoot.
    â€˜We show the photograph on my phone to Nurse Plunkett, to see if she can positively identify him, and we proceed from there. It’s time we visited Enid