THE CHIP SHOP MURDERS

Frank’s Plaice sat at the end of a parade of shops on a small housing estate. The parade consisted of a butcher’s, a pharmacy, a small food store, and a veterinary practice. It was in what was termed a “nice” area, surrounded by conservative houses of both the detached and semi detatched variety. Across the road from the fish and chip shop was a school, and it was murder there at school leaving time, which seemed to get earlier and earlier in the afternoon. With cars parked right along the road and even on the footpaths it was impossible to park anywhere and go to any of the shops.

Just around the corner was a church. Not far away was a huge roundabout from which you could get to a large, out of town shopping area and also the motorway which could get you ultimately to anywhere in the country. At the opposite end to the roundabout was a petrol station and if you turned right you found yourself at Atkinson’s Warren which was a kind of nature reserve. It was a good place for dog walking and just for lazing around on the grass in the summer.

Frank and his wife Judy had owned the fish and chip shop for thirty years and had a well established clientele. In the early days they had sold only fish and chips but now they sold almost as much curry as fish and chips. Not to mention fried Mars bars. There was no accounting for taste. Most of the fish and chip shops in the town were owned by a foreign chain and Frank and Judy were about the only private owners of a fish and chip shop. They prided themselves on running an old fashioned establishment, and being friendly to whoever came by. Everyone got a welcome at Frank’s Plaice. That was why it was so strange when a murder occurred. Whoever would want to murder someone in such a “nice” area? No one knew, but there it was. On the second Friday of the New Year a dead body appeared on the pavement just outside the fish and chip shop.