Great Neptune Bar Mystery , livre ebook

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67 pages

English

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The village of Aberbryncraig is rocked by Dai News, the fussy owner of the newsagents and sweetshop in the High Street and vendor of the legendary Neptune Bars, and especially by his cries of anguish when he is missing some Neptune Bars and suspects they have been stolen. Mrs Mopalot (Mrs Branywn Jenkins) is intrigued and persuades her husband, Idwall (he hates being called Mr Mopalot and no one dares do so), to discuss theories of where the Neptune Bars may be going. This causes many bedroom disasters as they debate in bed, a disaster even including a cocoa shower. Mrs M cleans for everyone, so she is in a good position to find out information and get it deciphered. The villagers stick together as they usually do. There is romance in the air as the mystery is finally solved and celebrated at the famous Aberbryncraig summer party.

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Publié par	Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
Date de parution	08 janvier 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528994071
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

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The Great Neptune Bar Mystery
The Mopalot Mysteries of Aberbryncraig - Book 1
P. A. Gillis
Austin Macauley Publishers
2021-01-08
The Great Neptune Bar Mystery The Great Neptune Bar Mystery Dai News Fussing in His Shop Now – Aberbryncraig Mrs Mopalot That Evening Mrs Mopalot Confides in Her Husband Children on Their Way to School Talk About Stealing Sweets; Have They Stolen Neptune Choc Bars? Then Dai News Finds Three Neptune Bars Missing, Which Makes Things Worse Mrs Mopalot Tells Mr Mopalot as She Always Does Dai News Cracks Mr Mopalot Finds Out That Dai News Is Going to the Police Dai News Visits the Heddlu Later, Mrs Mopalot Regrets Laughing at Dai News Of Course Mr Mopalot Pours Scorn on the Vicar’s Confession Mrs M Sees the Doctor Eating a Neptune Bar Twice Mr and Mrs Mopalot in Bed Again Mr Aled Jones and the Fifty Pence Mrs Mopalot Reports to Mr Mopalot the Need Mr Aled Jones Has for Fifty Pence Father Umber’s Fictitious Morning in the Priestly Half of the Confessional Mrs Mopalot Fears She Started the Rumour (Everyone Knows She Did) Evans the Lifeboat Picks Up the Lifeboat Collection Boxes Evans the Lifeboat Forgets Evans the Lifeboat Chats with Mrs M Mrs M Has an Interesting Conversation with Evans the Lifeboat, Who Has Remembered His Omission Telling Stoopid (Sorry Mr Mopalot) About the Lifeboat Box Mrs Mopalot Looks After the Emporium Mr Aled Jones Has a Fit Mr Aled Jones Is Upset About Not Having Had a Neptune Bar and Asks Mrs M to Get Him One There Is No Lifeboat Box and Mr Wooly Wobbly, Mr Aled Jones, Doesn’t Know Where to Put His 50p, so He Confides in Mrs M and Asks Her to Sneak It in the Next Day The Mopalots Have a Think Mrs Mopalot Finds 50 Neptune Choc Bar Wrappers in a Tin at Mr Aled Jones’ Stoopid Finds Out That Mr Jones Hoards Neptune Bar Wrappers Flash Back: Myfanwy Decides to Give Mr Aled Jones a Neptune Bar for His Birthday Mr Aled Jones ‘Buys’ His First Neptune Bar Putting All the ‘Evidence’ Together; Totting It All Up Mrs Mopalot Asks Mr Jones What Gives with the Neptune Bar Wrappers Mr and Mrs Mopalot Decide What to Do and Do It The Party
P. A. Gillis has written plays, books, short stories and poems all her life. She has two poems in an anthology, a play professionally produced, another given a rehearsed reading at a festival, and has done many performance poetry stints.
She lives in Norfolk with her husband near some of her family and the sea.
For:
Matthew Curno Crane O’Reilly
(1965–2012)
With love
Copyright © P. A. Gillis (2021)
The right of P. A. Gillis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528994057 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528994064 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528994071 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2021)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Dai News Fussing in His Shop

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Dai News in his shop
‘Oh, botheration and penguins!’ Dai News says under his breath, ‘I think there’s one missing again!’ It was a Neptune Choc Bar that is missing. Let me tell you about it.
Dai News’ Newspaper and Sweetmeats Emporium is about halfway along the High Street in Aberbryncraig by the sea, opposite the Heddlu (police) station.
Inside the shop, the proprietor Mr Dafyd Edwards – locally known as Dai News – is frequently found counting his stock.
The newspapers for sale are neatly arranged along his counter in alphabetical order, and in a good place for him to keep an eye on them.
His sweetmeats (sweets and chocolates to you) are all in jars, on the shelf behind him and there are also some under his glass counter. These can only be seen by looking sideways below the newspapers. There is also a second glass display case to Dai’s left, standing on top of the counter which is also filled with jars and trays of sweets. Except, that is, for the Neptune Choc Bars – which are delicious – and the Cough Cough Drops, which always brought tears to the eyes of all but the most hardened of fishermen. Both these items arrive at the shop in rather fine display boxes which Dai News can’t resist. So, they are carefully placed on top of his second display case at eye level, to attract attention and so that Dai can keep an eye on them while he sells things.
The other item besides the posh display boxes, and again in a rather brightly coloured state, is the Lifeboat collection box. If the Lifeboat box had a Choc Bar on top, it could be mistaken for the Neptune Choc Bar display box, as the latest design was very blue indeed. It is nearly always empty except for a few buttons and maybe a discarded Cough Cough Cough Drop. No one notices that it is a bit heavier than usual just now.
The Cough Cough Cough Drops’ box is black and white and has a rather startling aspect to it, besides being very shiny. While the Neptune Choc Bars have a box with various nautical emblems including Neptune himself, a very voluptuous mermaid, a fisherman, and a large boat – looking as if they are made of chocolate. All this, against a tasteless but arresting, fluorescent blue background, quite unsuitable for chocolate bars. Both boxes fold down to display their wares in a most enticing way.
Each Neptune Bar also has an incongruous bright blue wrapper. This has invited comments along the lines that it should be chocolate coloured. However, the manufacturers know what they are doing: Neptune Bars have always stood out.
We already know Dai News places them on eye level, at the top of his glass cabinet, in order to make people notice them, while keeping them within his own line of vision. He also writes down each one sold, in bundles of five marks. One, two, three and four as upright marks, like a fence, and number five being a line across all of them like a belt. This means that he can add them up in fives at the end of the day. This is necessary because of the botheration and penguins. In other words, it is because some are missing. Needless to say, the Cough Cough Cough Drops persistently remain exactly as they are left. No, sorry! Evans the Lifeboat bought some once.
Neptune Choc Bars have a good layer of runny toffee; a thick layer of dark chocolate truffle; a thin, cockled crust of crunchy, nutty stuff; a generous topping of gooey icing; all encased in a marvellous coating of slightly soft, whipped milk chocolate, which melts in your mouth.

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A Neptune Bar
Everyone loves them. Children save up their pocket money for them, old ladies hoard them for grandchildren, themselves, and their fancy old men. The old men have probably already bought them for themselves and have almost certainly eaten them immediately, in the street. Young men do exactly the same. Women get them two at a time, not for the children, but to eat both at once when they get a minute to sit down.
Dai News likes Neptune Choc Bars but he never allows himself to have one; he just counts them obsessively. This is not the only thing Dai News does obsessively. He also counts his sheets, towels and cutlery; weighs all the things in his fridge every day; only has a light on if he is in the room and cleans his shop all the time (though the famous Mrs Mopalot cleans it too). Dai makes more dust than is healthy around the sweets. He also has an elaborate routine of switching off, closing and locking up every time he goes in or out of his flat or shop.
As he counts, (he is counting the Neptune Choc Bars at present) he swears quietly to himself: ‘Oh, botheration and penguins!’ Dai says for a second time under his breath, ‘I think there’s one missing again!’
He had, of course, consulted the scrubby bit of paper in his right hand.
‘Ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty, thirty-two,’ he mutters. ‘Thirty-two from fifty,’ (Neptune Choc Bar displays were quite large) ‘there should be eighteen left.’
He takes all the bars out of the display and lays them on the newspapers. He arranges them in twos. There is one over. He counts: ‘Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, SEVENTEEN!’
He pulls at his hair, making it stand out in pleats, and starts jumping up and down. Fortunately, at this moment Mrs Mopalot opens the door. Dai News stands stock still, feeling a bit silly but still says,
‘It HAS happened again! That’s four gone this week and its only Thursday.’
Mrs Mopalot joins in, ‘It is a disgrace, you know, people taking your Neptune Choc Bars from you, Mr Edwards. A disgrace. And it is not even quite summer so there are no visitors to speak of, to blame it on either.’
‘One Neptune Bar has gone every day this week!’ Dai News mourns.
‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ sympathises Mrs Mopalot.
Now – Aberbryncraig
You need to know more about the seaside village of Aberbryncraig. The name, which translates from the Welsh as “estuary hill rock”, includes everything you could wish for to make a place perfect. At least, that’s what the people who live there think. Its beside the River Geraint which has its estuary just along the beach; the surrounding high hills are beautiful; and Cigfran rock (which means “raven rock” and there are ravens there, sometimes anyway) is not far