Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton

the lawn? She was wearing a denim blouse and jeans and wished Agatha had let her go home to change into something
more suitable.
    As they approached the gates, Agatha said, ‘I want you to study each one of them and give me your impressions. The police will still be there and they won’t be happy to see us, but
I’m used to that.’
    As Agatha parked the car, she could see Bill Wong’s head through a window of the mobile police unit. He appeared to be interviewing someone.
    Alison met them at the door. ‘Sir Henry is being interviewed again. The rest are in the drawing room. Come with me.’
    Jimmy, Bert, Sadie and Fran were slumped in chairs in the drawing room. They all stared angrily at Agatha. Bert said, ‘I have told my wife that I cannot see what you can do that the police
can’t. Waste of money.’
    ‘It’s my money I’m using,’ snapped Alison.
    ‘Well, we’re not going to cooperate,’ said Fran.
    Alison strode to the fireplace and stood facing them with her hands on her hips. ‘Don’t you all see! If this murder isn’t solved, it’ll hang over our heads forever.
People will look at us and say, “That’s the family that murdered their mother.” Say we decide to sell. People will try to drive the price down because of our shameful
reputation.’
    The money bit struck a chord, thought Toni, covertly studying the faces in the room.
    There was a long silence. Glances were exchanged. At last Bert said with obvious reluctance, ‘Oh, go ahead. It shouldn’t bother any of us because none of us did it.’
    ‘Mrs Tamworthy –’ began Agatha.
    ‘Call me Alison.’
    ‘Very well. If forensics have finished with the kitchen, I’d like to have a look at it.’
    ‘Come with me,’ said Alison.
    Agatha swung round to Toni. ‘Why don’t you sit down for a bit,’ she ordered the girl. ‘I’ll be back presently.’
    When she had left, Sadie, Fran, Bert and Jimmy all looked at Toni for a long moment. Then Sadie picked up a magazine and began to read, Jimmy walked to the window and stared out, Fran began to
stitch at a tapestry frame and Bert opened a newspaper.
    Toni looked around the room. The manor house was not what she had expected. There was no feeling of antiquity. From the outside, it looked like an old building, maybe eighteenth century, made of
mellow Cotswold stone. To judge from the drawing room, it looked as if everything old had been ripped out of the house, and an interior designer brought in. The sofa and chairs were chintz-covered
and without any sign of comfortable wear. Toni thought it looked like a hotel which had been decorated to look like a manor house.
    Her gaze fell on Jimmy. He was standing at the window chewing his fingernails. There was an air of defeat about him. Fran, with her tightly permed hair and discontented face, did not look
upper-class. Toni thought that if you put her in a flowered apron and a turban and stuck a cigarette in her mouth, then she would look like one of those northern women in mill towns one saw in old
photographs of World War II.
    Bert, too, looked out of place with his red face and bald head. And Sadie, small and dumpy, was of a type that could be seen on any council estate. Agatha had told her on the drive to Lower
Tapor that she was married to a baronet. Odd. Toni, who had expected them all to be like Sir Charles, was disappointed.
    Agatha found there was not much to see in the kitchen. Any makings of salad and any utensils that might have been used preparing the high tea had been taken away for
analysis.
    She turned to Alison. ‘Do you know how long the police are going to be here?’
    ‘I think their mobile unit will be leaving this afternoon after we have all signed our statements.’
    ‘And then what are everyone’s plans?’
    ‘We’re all going to the lawyer’s late this afternoon to make sure the will is still the same. That is, divided amongst us four ways. After that, I don’t know. Fran
suggested we should all stay