me,’ Carole announced suddenly, ‘I must go to the ladies’ room!’ And she rushed off.
Jude passed no comment on her friend’s disappearance, but gave the landlord a sympathetic grin. It didn’t seem to raise his spirits. ‘You said there was something odd …?’
‘Yes. When I got through to the Incident Contact Centre …’
‘Hm?’
‘They knew about what’d happened. Someone had rung them only minutes before. Less than twenty minutes after the old girl got sick and the authorities had already heard about it.’
Ted Crisp might have said more, but he was interrupted by the ringing of the phone behind the bar. ‘Crown and Anchor, Fethering,’ he answered automatically. Under the beard his mouth contorted with anger as he responded, ‘No, I bloody haven’t got anything to say to you!’
He slammed down the phone and looked at Jude. His face showed a mixture of puzzlement and fury as he said, ‘Fethering Observer. Wanted to know if I had any comment to make about the outbreak of food poisoning in my pub.’
‘Good heavens.’
‘How did they know?’ asked Ted Crisp, almost to himself. ‘How did they know so quickly?’
TWO
Jude had hoped she might escape the effects of the scallops, but it was not to be. She had escorted a very wan-looking Carole back to her house, High Tor, and returned to the adjacent Woodside Cottage. Her plan to clear her mind with some yoga exercises was thwarted by the sudden metallic taste of nausea in her throat. Fortunately she just managed to make it to the loo before losing her lunch down the bowl.
She was sick twice more before deciding that the day was a write-off and going to bed. Once there, she fell instantly into a deep sleep, from which she woke about eight thirty, feeling distinctly more human. She had a hot bath, drank a lot of water and went downstairs. It was still light and the day’s heat stayed in the air. There was not enough breeze to stir the windchimes that hung by her open windows.
Jude thought about the attack of food poisoning at the Crown and Anchor and reckoned she had got off lightly. The two people who’d actually been sick in the pub had been pretty frail, which was probably why they were affected so quickly. She wondered how many other customers had spent the afternoon laid up like her. She rang Carole.
‘The scallops got me too,’ she said. ‘I was just wondering if you were feeling any better?’
‘No,’ replied the strained voice from next door.
‘Have you been sick?’
‘No!’ Carole’s voice shuddered with horror at the very idea.
‘You’ll feel better if you are.’
‘That I doubt.’ From childhood onwards, Carole Seddon had been terrified by the very idea of vomiting. She hated losing control in any area of her life, and throwing up seemed to her the ultimate loss of control. She would do anything to avoid it happening, tensing her body with iron – and painful – willpower.
‘Have you slept?’
‘No. It’s daytime. I’m not in the habit of going to sleep in the daytime.’
‘It’s different when you’re ill.’
‘I’m not ill. Just a touch of food poisoning.’
‘Is there anything I can do for you?’ Jude knew the answer to the question before she posed it. There were times when she got frustrated by her neighbour’s unwillingness ever to be beholden to anyone else, but she rarely voiced her reaction. Like most people, Jude reasoned, Carole Seddon was a complex bundle of illogicalities, which anyone who wanted to be her friend must just take on board.
‘Well, ring me if you do need anything.’
‘I can’t imagine there will be anything I need, thank you.’
‘I’ll call in the morning to see how you are.’
‘I will be fine in the morning,’ said Carole icily, daring her body to do anything other than mend itself overnight.
To her surprise, when she had come off the phone Jude almost felt hungry. Her ready vomiting must have thoroughly cleared all the poison out of her system. Maybe she fancied a little soup? Or even something more substantial? But just the mental image of food prompted another wave of queasiness.
She decided she’d better check how things were with Ted Crisp and was surprised by how long it took for the Crown and Anchor phone to be answered. Perhaps just busy in the bar, she thought, about to hang up.
But then she heard Ted’s voice. And there was no background noise of a busy bar.
‘Sorry it took me so long. I was upstairs in the flat.’
‘I thought you were just busy.’
He let out a hollow laugh. ‘Can’t be busy when the pub’s closed, can you?’
‘What?’
‘Someone made a complaint … you know, after what happened at lunchtime. I’ve been closed down by Health and Safety until they do an inspection.’
‘And when are they going to do that?’
‘Hopefully tomorrow. They may not be able to do it for a few days though. God, and I’ve got this Dan Poke gig set up for Sunday. It’s the bloody limit! The longer a place like the Crown and Anchor’s closed, the longer it’ll take to build up my trade again. And this is my busiest period. What I take this time of year offsets those endless winter nights when I’ve just got three old farts nursing one half of bitter all evening.’
Ted Crisp sounded so gloomy that Jude couldn’t resist inviting him round for a drink. An offer that he took up with considerable alacrity.
He refused her offer of soup or anything else to eat. The fact that he asked for Scotch to drink and the despatch with which he downed it were measures of how upset he was. Ted had never succumbed to the temptation that has ruined the health of so many publicans. He didn’t normally sample his wares during the day, contenting himself with a single pint at closing time.
Jude had never seen him quite so desolate. She tried desperately to think of anything that might cheer him up. She sipped her water – her stomach didn’t yet feel up to anything stronger – and asked, ‘Are you worried what the Health and Safety inspectors will find?’
‘No, they were only there last week. And I’ve never had any trouble with them before. Place is as clean as a whistle. Standards are higher then ever since I’ve had Zosia keeping an eye on things.’
‘She’s worked out well.’
‘Yeah.’ He was always slightly grudging in any praise he gave to his bar manager. ‘Even though she is Polish.’
‘Presumably the Health and Safety people will be checking your seafood supplier as well?’
