Nothing doing

Peering through the crack between the curtains, Sgt Carroll could see nearly all the villagers crammed into Miriam Marsden’s front room, including (to his surprise) the ‘Lord of the Manor’.

Scribbling names in his notebook, tunnel-visioned into his task, he didn’t hear footsteps approaching him, and when a large hand descended on his shoulder, he jumped so violently his forehead crashed into the window, causing his eyes to tear and every face in the room to whip around towards the unexpected sound.

“I can’t imagine it would go down very well with your boss if I were to report he had a peeping tom for a sidekick.”

Sgt Carroll, still rubbing the tears from his eyes, stalling for time, retorted “First of all, I’ll ask you to leave the policing to ME, rather than sneaking around in the dark assaulting uniformed officers who may or may not be about to make a breakthrough with this damn case.”

“And second of all…” his words trailed off into nothing as he took in the next arrival to the scene – a woman with slightly wild hair, whose brows were knit with determination, and whose feet inexplicably seemed to *squelch* with each step.

Tom closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, as though by doing so he could ‘disappear’ the bizarre spectacle that was Hattie Hercules.

HOORAY! Wasn’t sure I was going to manage this one, but HERE IT IS! Linking up with the Incredible Ivy Walker for this week’s Six Sentence Stories hop, and using her prompt SECOND.

Check out the Murder, We Wrote page, to catch up on any chapters you’ve missed, and think about what prompt you’d like to see turned into a chapter when I next call out for you to GIVE ME A CUE!