Episode 17 - Tit for Tat

Wednesday December 23.

Cleo did not often have a sleepless night. Sleep is a luxury when you have half a dozen children to organize, so you don’t throw away precious minutes thinking about why you aren’t asleep.

Episode 16 - Hanky-panky

Tuesday cont.

“As far as I can see, I’m, the only one round here who actually sticks to the facts,” said Chris.

“What facts?” Gary asked.

They were sitting in his Superintendent office and Gary was cheesed off.

Episode 15 - Deus ex Machina?

Monday cont. then Tuesday, December 22.

Mrs Thomas was quite taken with her room. Her only disappointment was that there was no gin in the minibar. She did not think herehip flask would keep her going until the morning.

“I think it would be wiser if you were sober for the interview, Mrs Thomas,” said Mia.

“I’m always sober,” retorted the woman in her thick Welsh accent. “I need a little gin for my circulation.”

Episode 14 - Thrings and Things

Monday cont.

After a briefing by Gary, Nigel decided he was equipped to deal with the Thring ladies. After all, he had experienced Daisy and was sure she was guilty of any number of homicides, which made her a lot more fearsome than the innocent Thrings.

Episode 13 - Snap

Monday December 21.

At two a.m. Roger knocked on the window of Gary and Cleo’s bedroom. He had not wanted to wake the children by ringing the doorbell, but in the end he had to.

Episode 12 - One step at a time

Sunday cont.

Gary drove to Hilda Bone’s house in Cleo’s red car and waited until Chris and Ned turned up in their van before getting out and crossing the road to greet them.

Episode 11 - The Lodger

Sunday December 20

Breakfast was chaotic, as usual, and interrupted by a hysterical phone-call from Nigel, who was on the Sunday rota, having taken Saturday off.

“Why aren’t you here, Boss?” shouted Nigel down the phone, after he had shouted something similar in Cleo’s ear and been rewarded by being told that Gary thought he should get a good night’s sleep.

Episode 10 - Brighton

Weekend

Gary had to admit feeling humbled by the undoubted usefulness of the information about Bryn Thomas that Dorothy had learnt in Cardiff. He had thought he was doing himself a favour by giving Dorothy something to do, but now he realized that he would have a hard job matching her expedition since Harry Marble had to be found first. Gary had been shocked to hear that he had abused Jessie, although it gave him a good reason for arresting the guy on the spot. But it was far from definite that he would find Marble where Cleo thought he might be.

Episode 9 - Jessie

Thursday cont.

Cleo had packed Max and Mathilda warm and cosy under a layer of blankets in the big double pushchair and dressed herself suitably for the hike to Huddlecourt Minor. It was one of those bitter cold December days when the wind blew cuttingly and the sun was hidden under a layer of dark grey clouds. Cleo reflected that they were definitely at the mercy of the elements. 

Episode 8 - Mrs Thomas

Wed cont. then Thursday December 17

Dorothy was not happy about going on a trip to Cardiff despite being flattered by Gary’s challenge, but it was important to talk to Bryn Thomas’s mother, so she decided to get on a train to Bristol, stay overnight with an old college friend with whom she had kept up a sporadic letter exchange over the years but had not seen for half a century, and persuade her to drive to her to Cardiff to find Mrs Thomas. Now she and Linda both had e-mail addresses and were thus free of snail-mail, communication was much easier. Dorothy sent her a mail and was immediately invited to stay as long as she wanted.

Episode 7 - Chambers of Horror

Wed. cont.

Over lunch, Cleo confronted Gary and Roger with a barrage of questions about Bryn Thomas and was not entirely disappointed with the answers. He’s a rat, she decided.

Episode 6 - Mother's pride

Wednesday cont.

Nigel had spread out his notebook on the far table in Gary’s old office. Roger sat down at Gary’s desk from where he could observe Bryn Thomas. He wanted to take a good look at the guy before asking any questions.

Episode 5 - Speculation

Wed cont., breakfast time

Cleo was nervous about phoning Dorothy, despite not believing that she would have gone to the villa at dead of night. Dorothy was justifiably irate at being dragged out of a deep sleep hours before she liked to get up.

“Do you know what time it is, Cleo?”

Episode 4 - The body in the library

Wednesday December 16, the small hours

Until 3 a.m. the cottage was at peace. Everyone was asleep, as befits the middle of the night.

What does not fit in with nocturnal peace and quiet is the loud ring of the house phone, situated strategically on Cleo’s side of the bed. While Gary buried his head in his pillow and told Cleo to ignore the ring, Cleo put her night light on, sat up in bed and answered it.

Episode 3 - Nigel

Tuesday, December 15

Nigel was delighted to be invited to supper at the cottage that evening. He had gone through two days of agony as Gary swapped his beloved office for a bigger one on the 3^rd floor. Nigel thought that Gary being a brand new Superintendent was a pain. To make matters worse, Greg Winter had opted out for a whole week – unforgiveable in the circumstances, since Gary was obliged to do his work, no one else being available.

Episode 2 - Respectability onn trial

Monday, Dec. 14 cont. then Tuesday

Cleo thought a lot about Dorothy’s tale of woe, especially about Jane’s slip of the tongue that someone else was helping her, or even forcing her to make mischief. She could remember when Jim, Jane’s sadly deceased spouse, got agitated with Jane for taking up with murky people selling things at the door. He had never got on with her high principles that weren’t high at all, but based on pig-headedness and hypocrisy, and now she was unloading her own bias on Dorothy. If the whole silly business was instigated by someone else, who was it and why?

Episode 1 - Case Histories

Monday, December 14

Starting a new job in mid-December was going to be a trial for newly promoted Superintendent Gary Hurley, and all the more so because his main suspect in his last personally supervised case took her own life rather than facing the music.