'Drinks all round' proclaimed Cedric Morgan from the bar of The Skaters Run as the referee blew his whistle to announce the second half of the FA Cup Final. Luckily for Morgan, most of the inhabitants of the pub had just refilled, so it was only Johnny Swift, Fred Ricketts, Yaxley Farcett and his daughter, Fiona, that had taken him up on his generous offer. Yaxley Farcett had just been introduced to the MP and he was closely observing the man's behaviour. It was noticeable how Morgan had not even acknowledged the presence of Graham Trent who was once more, transfixed by the football. The referees whistle had acted like a trigger for a hypnotic state. 
'Ah...the eighties' sighed Morgan, 'Glorious days those. I used to travel up to London as a District Councillor, learning the ways of the most democratic country in the world. I was great friends with Cranston Burchill in those days. I think he's gone back to acting now'. Yaxley frowned, 'Cranston Burchill', he'd never heard of him. 'What's he been in ?' he asked. Morgan waved his arms in thespian kind of way and replied, 'He began in theatre, but since then he has appeared in Silent Witness, Cracker, Inspector Morse and 
Jonathon Creek'. Now, this was Farcett's territory...He'd seen all those programmes and never once heard of Cranston Burchill. 'What parts did he play ?' enquired Farcett.'Well...my old friend Cranston has a particular skill he discovered when he fell in a river as a child. He can hold his breath for up to eight minutes. He is in great demand whenever a dead body is required. Imagine the end of a five-minute scene being ruined by a supposedly dead person going red in the face and suddenly gasping for air. No such problem for old Cranners-never held up a shoot yet !' 
As Morgan finished his anecdote and took a large swig of his pint he caught Graham Trent's eye and gave a casual nod. 'Ah...How's the world of media treating you then Graham ?' Trent, barely acknowledging Morgan's remark, just gave the slightest of shrugs and said offhandedly, 'Not so bad..Not so bad'. And that was it. The co conspirators in a potentially million pound deal cold-shouldering each other. Proof of some kind of guilt in itself. But how and who ? Those were the unanswered questions that Yaxley had to solve. A fire needs three basic elements to be a fire: Heat, a combustible material and oxygen. Similarly a murder requires three constituents: Motive, Weapon and Opportunity. The three strands of The Dixon case so far satisfied some but not all of those factors. The Opium Crazed pigs and the Opium Den at Hurst Farm, for instance. Was Reg aware of its existence and was he pressuring the person to give up taking/selling on the potion ? Was Reg playing a diplomatic game as with the Thompson's wood scandal ? Was the land fraud cause for a murderous act ? Did Trent act alone or was Morgan fully aware of the pressure Reg and Anne were putting Trent under ? The third strand of the mystery was the she-devil woman who had a distinct dislike of smokers and had run Yaxley off the road in her Fiat Lasagne. Was it her that had made the synthesised confession to Sidney Prince at 'GasBag 109' ? Motive, Weapon, Opportunity. He knew the weapon; a pitchfork. He had evidence of motive for two or three people. The remaining insoluble was opportunity. Who had met Reg Dixon on that fatal morning and run him through the heart as the Fen Blew and centuries of natures work flew into the air to be redistributed onto other fields, into peoples eyes and turn ups, into houses, into cars to be swept up and thrown away. The erosion of the land and the erosion of morality leading to murder. The fens, gradually wearing away, year by year until one day in the future the sea would claim back it's own.
As Yaxley pondered on these matters the eyes of the regulars 
remained fixed on the FA Cup Final as Arsenal pressed forward in an effort to increase their one goal advantage. Farcett's reverie was broken by the sound of an argument in front of him. He became aware that Dave 'Stumpy' Stumpsfield and Eddie Eastman were discussing the medicinal benefits of Asparagus. 'Course it does' said Stumpy. 'It's a well-known fact that 'Sparagus is an aphrodisiac. It aids performance' he said with a grin, 'It were the Viagra of Fens in the old days !' Eastman snorted. 'Rubbish...The only reason people eat asparagus is 'cos of the shape. I saw it in a history book. They reckon the Romans ate it 'cos of the shape..like a grit 'ol tadger..they thought it might help, but it 's only a myth. They were no better than men nowadays that buy big sports cars...they're just tadger substitutes !' Stumpy was insistent. 'Yor Wrong Eddie, There's a chemical that stimulates the love cells in yor body. I read it'. Eddie looked at Stumpy and said 'Stumps...It's just a phallusy'.
