Official Town Business (Fox & Oakby Murder Mysteries Book I)

Crash Boom Bang

Imogen stared into the dark blue, clouded eyes of the Mayor, and then he blinked, and his gaze grew sharp.

"We need to go... address it," he muttered.

Imogen nodded. She unwrapped her legs from around his waist, and he gently put her on the ground.

"About the weekend," she started, and the Mayor, who was trying to smoothe down his wild semi-curls threw her a - seemingly - panicked look. "Are you still certain about tomorrow's lunch?" she asked.

Another series of nervous blinks from the Mayor followed, and then he murmured, "Ah, you don't mean the sleep issue." He cleared his throat. "Yes, I'm certain. And you need to button up your shirt."

Imogen looked down and made a surprised croak like noise. She didn't remember him getting to the buttons.

"I'll go first, and you follow in a couple minutes," she said in a business like tone after straightening her clothes, and dashed out of the shrubbery.

She might have been hormonal and - it was time to admit - madly in love, but she wasn't slow or deaf. She had heard that he couldn't sleep. And she had heard that he was connecting the issue to their recent 'arrangement' - and apparently to the lack of its publicity. She just wasn't sure what she thought about it.

***

Imogen hurried through the fete, towards the tea tent, where, judging by the gathering crowd, the source of commotion was.

She pushed through the circle of people standing around something on the ground near the long table with the displayed contestants of the cake competition - and then she froze her breathing suddenly stuck in her throat.

Mrs. Deidre Dyre was splayed on the lawn, her body quaking in some strange convulsions, her eyes rolled back. She was gasping for air, and what struck Imogen most was how red her usually pale face was.

Imogen pushed her hand in the pocket and pulled out her mobile. The first aid training kicked in. Statistically, in a crowd the chances of someone calling the emergency services were about 70%, since each person expected another to ring up the medics. Only then Imogen noticed Andrew who was kneeling in front of the Headmistress.

"I rang up the hospital and the police," Andrew shouted to Imogen. "Get me ice, and cold water! Anything to cool her down! She's burning."

Imogen and a few other people rushed to the tables.

"Deidre!" the Mayor's voice rang behind Imogen, but she ignored it gathering water bottles and ice buckets. "Cooper, what's going on?" the Mayor asked.

"Everyone step back!" Andrew barked, and the crowd wavered.

Imogen had to push a few people aside with her elbows. She then heard the sirens, and just a few seconds later she saw the stretchers. Everything swirled and spun around; people shouted; Andrew was answering the medics' questions; the Mayor was asking to be in the ambulance with his sister.  Imogen turned to Mrs. Harris, who stood nearby, pale and shaking, and after a twice repeated firm question, the woman told Imogen that the Headmistress' children had been taken away by her housekeeper.

And then the large hot hand of John Oakby wrapped around Imogen's fingers, and he gave her hand a shake, making her drop the ice bucket she was holding. He jerked her after him so that her head whipped, and suddenly she was sitting in the ambulance, near him. Andrew was crouched near the Headmistress' feet, while a paramedic was fumbling with some tubes and pipes. Imogen cowardly looked away.

"Cooper, what's going on?" the Mayor growled.

"We'll have to wait for the results of—"

"What. Is. Going. On?"