When a woman moves into the sleepy town, it rouses everyone's tongues to start wagging. She is strange and distant in her manner. Tia Frost is blissfully unaware of the townsfolk's discomfort with her. With Burt at her side, she wonders about the wo...
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"So Burt, what do you think we should do? Eight days away means we need supplies." He looked up at me. "Yer.. I think we need to go to town. Driver, can you take us to town please?"
I made eye contact with the driver in the rearview mirror. "No problem. Anywhere in particular?"
"No, we could do with the walk."
He smiled and turned off the main road to take the slightly more direct route to the town. The road took us past mine and Edith's house. As we passed the end of Edith's drive I saw some police tape fluttering in the wind.
I frowned thinking. What has she done now?
The taxi stopped close to the corner shop. "Here you go that's 58.25."
I handed him 60 and opened the door. "Would you like me to wait?" He asked me as Burt got out.
"No thank you. I will walk home." I closed the door and he tried to hand me change. "Keep it."
I turned and tied Burt to a post. "Stay here and we will go to the pet shop in a minute." He whimpered. "I will be fine I'm just picking up a few things and the lady in this shop won't let you in." He huffed and I smiled at him.
I walked into the shop and picked up some milk, bread and meat. I got to the till and the lady that ran the shop smiled at me. "Can I have a bottle of whisky too please."
She added it up and I paid. While she was getting my change I put the food in my rucksack. "Have a nice day."
"You too." I dumped the change in the charity box next to the till as I answered her.
She gave me an odd smile as I was leaving. I felt wrong about it so I walked out and untied Burt. "Come on let's get you a treat for being so nice to everyone."
He barked. I got that feeling between my shoulders that told me I was being watched and looked around me. Burt growled and I stroked him as I saw most of the people around were muttering and staring. "Come on Burt let's go."
It was a short walk to the pet shop, so we hurried there. I closed the door behind me and the man looked up from what he had been looking at. He was tall and thin, he looked well-groomed. He smiled at us. "Tia, Burt, nice to see you."
I took Burt's lead off and Burt started looking around the treats. "Have you spoken to the police by chance?"
I looked up at the guy a little unsettled. "No.. why?"
"They wanted to talk to you about something. They have been asking questions about where you were around town."
"That explains why everyone is staring at me." I muttered.
Burt came to my side and whimpered again. "It's OK Burt. Get as many treats as you want."
He looked at the treats and then back to me. "Would you like a seat?" The guy pulled a chair out and came around the counter offering it to me.
