The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden

CHAPTER 43

Hello everybody and welcome to Rosy’s Ramblings where we are at Chapter 43 of The Mysterious Disappearance of Marsha Boden, which I am writing as I go.

It has been an eye-opening experiment because when I sit down at my keyboard, the story appears on the page – it’s incredible!  Yes, I do have the odd idea, but generally speaking, the characters take on a life of their own, which I find fascinating.

A quick word on the image – which I used for the previous chapter – it is mysterious and slightly creepy - I love it!  So, from now on, I am going to use this image until the end of the novel and will look into asking the owner’s permission to use it for the book cover once it is published.

So, without further ado.

A Highways van laden with bright orange cones, road signs, traffic lights, barriers and other roadworks paraphernalia pulled up outside Bert Humble’s former home, which was now looking sad and unkempt.  It was a good job Bert wasn’t around because he would have given the workmen short shrift for blocking his drive but luckily for them, the small, modest house was waiting for Probate to be granted so that the Executors could sell it and divide the proceeds up between the beneficiaries in Bert’s Will.

Oblivious to the story behind No. 5 Laburnum Lane, the Council workmen set about the laborious task of blocking off the road to enable services to be laid under the tarmac road which would cause no end of disruption and detours for the locals, but that wasn’t their problem; the developers could field off all the complaints that were bound to pile in. They were paid to do a job and they were doing it regardless.

The Meadow Bank site was taking shape and the reddish brown earth mounded up at the entrance beyond the metal barriers gave the residents and prospective owners a chance to see where their new home was going to be located. It almost looked as if the site had always been there; it was surprising how new houses suddenly become homes and then eventually fit into the landscape as if they were meant to be. Life goes on and although Bert was opposed to the new development, secretly he would probably have quite enjoyed getting to know his new neighbours.

Miss Moorcroft had made a list of all the people she had heard saying that they were (a) either interested in buying a house there or (b) had actually put their names down.  She even had a plan that she had obtained through a local councillor after the parish council meeting to discuss the development some months ago.  She had colour coded the houses according to their price and written in her spidery handwriting the names of those she had heard were hoping to move in.  On the large corner plot where Kate and Zelda’s names had been written, these were now scratched out with a line drawn through them and a small, sticky lable cut to size placed over it.  Miss Moorcroft was a stickler for detail and she had heard that Kate and Zelda had split up so she assumed that they would no longer be buying a house together.  She smiled knowingly as she carefully placed the label on the plan and quaffed her sherry in sheer delight at her foresight in buying the pack of labels on her last visit to Tiddy’s. It was the first time she had felt mildly excited about anything since Bert was killed and hadn’t ventured out far only nipping to the village shop for some essentials or driving into Mudlowe once in a while to buy cat food from Pets2Go on the Industrial Estate.