Words required:

accommodate, amateur, average, embarrass, familiar, guarantee, hindrance, interfere, individual, vegetable, privilege, neighbour

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'Your neighbour is watching,' Matthew said, as he pulled up onto Alice's drive.

'Again?' Alice huffed, 'honestly I thought Jean and Lucien had the worst of it, but now it seems I'm the target of the gossip.'

Matthew got out of the car and, as he went to open the door for her, he turned and waved to the woman, who had become a familiar presence in their lives. The curtains were swiftly closed, and he grinned. 'Amateur.'

'Ignore her,' Alice muttered.

'Sorry, didn't mean to embarrass you.' He kissed her cheek.

'Well perhaps you should stop kissing me on the drive, then.' But she smiled as she tossed her dark curls and headed to the front door.

Inside the hallway she kicked off her shoes and hung her coat up.

'Tea?' she asked, over her shoulder.

'Please.' Matthew hung his cap over her coat and followed her into the small kitchen.

He put his arms round her, 'There are always those that like to interfere in other people's lives, love.' He kissed her forehead, 'they're usually just sad and lonely.'

'I know,' she pushed him gently out of the way, 'don't worry, I can cope.'

She poured the tea and they sat at the kitchen table, 'So,' he sipped his tea, 'what are we going to do about the individual you have in the morgue?'

'Honestly, Matthew, I have no idea.' She put her cup on the saucer and sighed. She and Lucien had worked out the how, where and when, the man had died, but no one could understand why or knew who he was. Three days they had kept him in the mortuary, but they couldn't accommodate him there forever.

'Well, all I can think of is a photograph in the paper.' Matthew looked at her, they'd done this before, 'maybe someone will recognise him.'

'Well In that case, I'll prepare him tomorrow and Rose can come and do her best to make him look good.' Alice looked saddened. She hated it when they had an anonymous body that nobody seemed to want. 'Seems such a shame, just your average, everyday chap. Given that he was found out by the lake, just a bang on the head, all we can think is a tragic accident, a fall.' She added.

'Mmm...' Matthew pondered. 'Well, I'll speak to Tyneman and get him to put a story together for the paper to add to the picture, but there's no guarantee it'll work this time.'

The picture and the story went out in the following day's edition of the Courier. Edward, in his infinite wisdom had put a reward for information in too, but the number of people that came forward were more of a hindrance than a help, again. Some said they had seen him alone by the lake, some said he had been with someone, one even said he'd chased him out of his garden after he'd caught him in the vegetable patch, nicking some carrots! No he hadn't reported it.

In the end a small lad said he'd seen him with the newsagent arguing. The man had been pushed and had fallen. Apparently the lad had made a run for it when the newsagent turned round a saw him. When he told his story, his mother gave him a clip round the ear for not speaking up before. Matthew squatted down in front of the boy and said he expected he was scared. The boy just nodded his head urgently,

'It's alright, son,' Matthew smiled, 'next time you come straight to me, I'll make sure you're ok.'

They still didn't know his name but when they interviewed the newsagent he said, after denying all knowledge of the man, that it was his estranged brother. They'd got into a fight over his part of the business, which he never took any interest in and he'd given him a shove, hard. His brother had fallen and he had walked away.

'I didn't know he was dead, honest!' he said.

'But you didn't stop to check he was ok, did you?' Lucien snapped. 'You just left him there, in the mud.'

'Lock him up, Hobart.' Matthew instructed, 'call Melbourne in the morning.'

'Right, boss,' Bill nodded, 'will do. Come on, you drongo.' He took him firmly by the arm and led him out to spend the night in the cells.

'So, Matthew,' teased the doctor, 'any plans for the evening?'

'Not that it's any of your business, but I'm taking Alice to dinner.' Matthew strode off, leaving Lucien with a huge grin on his face.

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I need to choose the spelling list a little more carefully, this one was a challenge!