Read The Christmas Puzzle (Pitkirtly Mysteries Book 8) for Free Online Page B

lived and died.’
    ‘What gave you the idea, Jemima?’ enquired Christopher. ‘It sounds very interesting,’ he added tactfully.
    ‘I was talking to Tricia Laidlaw about family history and she said she thought her great-granddad was a coal miner, and I knew David’s family had been in that line too. It made me wonder how many more there were.’
    ‘How did you know that? About my family?’ said Dave suspiciously.
    ‘Oh, I looked them up online while I was doing some other research. I could only get back a few generations, though. There was illegitimacy and I couldn’t trace the father’s line....’
    ‘I don’t think I want to know any more,’ said Dave, going red in the face.
    ‘It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,’ Jemima assured him. ‘There are bastards everywhere.’
    ‘You can say that again,’ said Dave. ‘I nearly knocked another one off his bike this morning.’
    Jemima tutted. ‘Anyway,’ she said, ‘I wondered if that nice Mr Penrose would be interested in doing a piece on miners and their families. For his blog.’
    ‘His blog?’ said Dave. ‘What’s that when it’s at home?’
    ‘Oh, you know, David,’ said Jemima sounding as close to being cross as she ever sounded when speaking to her husband. ‘I’ve got one too. You just write things about what you’re doing and so on, and lots of people follow you. I’ve got over ten thousand followers now.’
    ‘Here,’ said Dave. ‘You haven’t been writing about me on this blog, have you?’
    Jemima laughed. ‘Of course I have.’
    Christopher intervened at this point to pre-empt a family argument. ‘I can’t speak for Jason, of course, but he might well be interested in your idea. Coal mining was an important part of our heritage. I don’t think that’s received enough recognition.’ For heaven’s sake, he was starting to talk like someone from the Council. Was it time to retire again? Some days that seemed like a really good idea. ‘I could speak to him about it, if you like. He’s gone out just now on a field trip with the FOOP people, but I expect I’ll see him later... Or you could come back in the afternoon or tomorrow and see if you can catch him.’
    ‘Maybe you could just let him know we’re looking for him,’ said Jemima. ‘We’ve got to go down to the Queen of Scots this afternoon, for the launch.’
    ‘The launch?’ said Christopher.
    ‘The launch of this Christmas extravaganza,’ said Dave. ‘I fancy having a go on the ice myself.’
    ‘Don’t you dare,’ said Jemima. ‘I don’t want to have to pick up the pieces.’
    They departed again, Dave still teasing, Jemima still pretending to disapprove. Sometimes their mutual devotion was so obvious that it made Christopher feel nauseous. At other times he envied them tremendously. What would happen to him when he got older and really did retire from work? Would he adopt a dog and take it for long walks along the path by the railway line? Would he eventually just collapse where he stood and be taken away, alone and unloved, by the ambulance that he had often thought should be on permanent stand-by to deal with all Pitkirtly’s fatalities?
    Fortunately Amaryllis burst in on him before he was reduced to tears by these morbid imaginings. She was no longer dressed as an elf, but in her habitual skin-tight black leather, with a black balaclava to tame the red spikes of her hair.
    ‘Have they gone yet?’ she asked.
    ‘Who? Jemima and Dave? Just this minute. You might catch them up if you’re lucky. They usually pop into the fish shop around this time to see if there’s any lemon sole.’
    ‘No, the FOOPs. And Jason Penrose. I heard they were off to Pitkirtly Island on a field trip.’
    ‘How on earth did you find that out?’
    ‘Mollie texted me. She knows everything.’
    Christopher didn’t even bother to ask how a Cultural Centre employee had become one of Amaryllis’s informers. For all he knew, there was a whole network of them stretching