Peat

by Frederick Highland

About the Author: Frederick Highland has been, according to the seasons and the tides, a tropical agriculturalist, merchant seaman, and university lecturer. An active member of Mystery Writers of America, his novels Ghost Eater and Night Falls on Damascus are published by St. Martin’s Press. Recent fiction published or forthcoming has found a home at: allthesins(UK) , Eclectica, and Gargoyle magazines. Website: www.frederickhighland.net

Excerpt

The last car filled with Americans gave a little shudder as the driver pulled into gear. Hands waved in a flurry. Mr. Seefeldt returned the farewell from the top of the flight of stairs that led to the main entrance of the inn. The proprietor of Wycherly’s on the Moor watched until the auto disappeared over the horizon, leaving the surrounding moorland in silence befitting the dreary end of an early September afternoon. As he turned to go inside, Seefeldt noticed movement in one of the flower beds; a second later a hare burst out of its primrose cover, raced across the green turf and leaped into the tangle of yellowing furze and bracken that bordered the impeccable lawn of the inn. A sharp squeal, a tuft of white fur taken on the wind, and all was still again.

There was silence as Seefeldt entered the foyer. Blessed silence as he glanced at the empty reception desk. Blessed silence as he entered the reading room. He chuckled to himself and clapped his hands together. A fire crackled in the broad stone hearth and lent a cheery glow to the sofas and sitting chairs arranged in a semicircle before it. He hastened to straighten a disorderly pile of magazines on a table beside the striped chaise. The topmost, a tabloid he kept meaning to cross off his subscription list, trumpeted the find that had turned his summer business from brisk to frantic and made him a wealthier, if exhausted, innkeeper.

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