Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death

frocks.’
    James tugged at Agatha’s arm. ‘That will be all. We won’t be troubling you further.’
    ‘Don’t you see?’ said Agatha as they walked back to the car. ‘Mrs Darcy could have been covering for her sister. We’d better tell Bill.’
    ‘You know what I think?’ said James gloomily. ‘I think that shopkeeper will tell Mrs Darcy of our visit and that she will complain to the police and I will get a lecture for impersonating a detective or something.’
    ‘Surely not.’
    ‘Surely yes. That shopkeeper will tell his other customers that we practically accused Mrs Darcy of covering for her sister. I hope we don’t end up in court. In fact, we’d better go and tell Bill.’
    Bill Wong listened to them, his face darkening.
    ‘You’ve gone too far this time,’ he said. ‘If she makes a complaint, I can’t protect you. Just leave it alone now. I should not have encouraged you.’
    ‘But we did find out something for you,’ pleaded Agatha.
    ‘No, you have done a bad thing. I cannot do anything to limit the damage. Let’s just hope we hear no more about it.’
    ‘Now, where?’ asked Agatha as they stood in the car park outside the police headquarters.
    ‘Fred Shaw?’
    ‘I feel small,’ said Agatha wearily. ‘I feel I’ve just been ticked off by the teacher. I feel I’m a bad person. I’ll tell you, James, I have never been so insulted by so many people as I have been since the first murder took place.’
    ‘Oh, you’re all right,’ said James absent-mindedly. ‘Let’s see Fred.’
    They drove out of Mircester. It was the end of August. A few leaves were already turning yellow and there was a faint chill in the air. Agatha began to feel that every winter in the country with its fogs and icy roads was another little death. She could take a holiday somewhere sunny and miss the bad weather and the frantic ho-ho-ho jollity of Christmas, but the fact was she was increasingly reluctant to leave her cats. When they die, she vowed, I’ll never keep another animal. It was no fun going away any more when part of her heart was always worrying if they were all right.
    Her thoughts turned to Guy. He had at least given her a buzz when she was out with him, although the look-what- I’ve -got feeling was mitigated by the feeling that people might think her too old for him.
    And what of James? Driving so competently, seemingly unfazed by the fact that they might both soon be in deep trouble. He would probably take himself off, she thought bitterly, and leave her alone to face the music.
    She no longer knew what she felt for him. Relationships had to move forward, even an inch, or, like one of those videos she rented, the film came to an end and the tape began to run backwards – only, in her mind, showing not the happy scenes, but a long list of rejections.
    She would see this case to the end, if it ever ended, and then detach herself from him.
    They drove into Ancombe and stopped outside Fred Shaw’s shop. He was serving a customer. He looked down the shop and saw them. ‘Be with you shortly,’ he called.
    He served his customer with four batteries, said goodbye, and then approached them.
    ‘What do you want?’ he asked truculently.
    ‘Just a few questions,’ said James.
    ‘I’m shutting the place up for lunchtime,’ he said. ‘Come into the back shop.’
    He locked the door and pulled down the blind. He jerked his head and they followed him into the back shop.
    ‘So what do you want?’ There was no offer of whisky this time.
    ‘We feel that life in Ancombe will never really go back to normal until these murders have been solved,’ began James.
    ‘So what’s that got to do with me? The police are working on it.’
    ‘Yes, but you are a man of business, a shrewd man,’ said Agatha quickly.
    The truculence left Fred’s face. ‘I do see a lot of things other people don’t,’ he said in a mollified voice.
    ‘I heard something about Andy Stiggs being in love with Mrs Struthers. Mrs Struthers must have been younger than her husband.’
    ‘Yes, she was. Andy also thought he should have been chairman of the council as well. He will be now.’
    ‘Do you think he could have murdered Robina as well?’ asked Agatha.
    ‘Here now. I never said he murdered Robert. But he was always around Robina’s. Maybe he saw something.’
    ‘As Andy Stiggs was against the water company, that must have soured his relations with Robina,’ said Agatha.
    ‘I think he thought he could