A Country Gift Shop Collection: Three cosy crime novels that will keep you guessing!. Vivian Conroy

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СКАЧАТЬ stood looking at the floor with a frown. “I don’t believe for one moment Gwenda killed Mortimer. And it’s far too coincidental we have a fire the one night and a murder the next. There has to be a relation between the two. If only Cash had been forthcoming with information on whether it was arson.”

      “You can ask him when he comes out here,” Vicky said. “Considering this is a murder, he will probably not leave this to a deputy, but come out in person.”

      Michael ignored her remark and walked over to the sideboard where Mortimer’s tool chest stood. He picked up two gloves from it.

      “What are you doing?” Vicky asked. “I told you not to touch anything else.”

      “I’m going to search the place.”

      “What?” Her heart was already galloping, and this only made it worse.

      Michael said, “There might be something here that can tell us why Mortimer had to die.”

      Vicky stared at him. “You can’t do that. It’s breaking the law.”

      “When Celine went missing, the police bungled the case and they’re not going to do any better now.” Michael’s expression was tight.

      Vicky shook her head. “You can’t say the police bungled the case back then. They just didn’t have any conclusive evidence. That was not their fault.”

      “No?” Michael’s eyes flashed. “People said Perkins knew something and covered it up. He was only busy accusing me.”

      “I can understand you’re angry about that, but try to see this with an objective mind. ‘People said’—yes, that’s what it was. Just talk. Rumors. You can’t act on those. You can’t break the law because of an idea!”

      She saw in his expression that her words barely reached him and tried a different tack. “Besides, just take a look at this place. There’s junk everywhere. It’s a nightmare to search. Where can you even start looking?”

      “Mortimer’s desk of course.”

      “Even if he had some kind of paperwork, he need not have kept it in his desk. He could have taped it under his nightstand, or any other unlikely place. There could be an attic, a basement. If he wanted to ensure the safety of whatever he held…”

      Vicky clenched her hands. “If you disturb things, anything, you could be committing a crime. They can arrest you for that. I can’t let you do it.”

      Michael was pale and agitated. “Perkins failed back then, and maybe Cash knows about it. Maybe he is covering for the old man. He also lied about his whereabouts at the time of the fire, so he could be involved much deeper than we even suspect now.”

      Vicky wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Half of her denied it was even possible; the other half was not so sure. She had not seen Cash in many years and maybe he had changed. Still he was the law around here and they had no choice but to work with him.

      Vicky’s voice was hoarse. “Yesterday a barn burned down, now a man is dead. It has to stop here. This is police business. Just leave it alone. Please.”

      Michael held her gaze. His eyes flickered with empathy, but still he straightened up as if he had taken a final decision. “Vicky, I left this place in bits and pieces. I traveled the world for stories, yes, but also to stay one step ahead of the hurting. Now I’m back here and I have to face it. I can’t keep on running. There has got to be something that can prove who took Celine back then. Mortimer was onto it and that’s why he was killed.”

      “You don’t know that for sure.”

      “No. But if there is only a one-percent chance it was so, I have to look into it. I need the truth now. I can’t let it elude me again. You don’t have to be a part of this. Just pretend you didn’t see me searching.”

      Vicky scoffed. “How?”

      Michael dived back into the living room, apparently intending to search until the police showed up.

      “Mortimer can’t tell me anymore,” he called back to her. “If I want to find anything, I have to find it myself.”

      As Vicky nervously listened for sirens in the distance, she glanced over Mortimer’s toolbox and saw a note sticking out of it. It was the sketch of her fireplace Mortimer had been using that day, a drawing with some measurements and a calculation beside it in black ink. It was rather morbid to realize he had held it in his hands hours before when he had still been very much alive, while he was now dead. Murdered.

      Under the left hand side of the fireplace picture there were a separate 5 and 3, written in blue.

      Like an afterthought.

      “I got something,” Michael called out to her.

      “What?” Vicky walked into the den, avoiding a look at the dead body. “Please don’t take it.”

      “I’m not taking anything. It’s just a list with three phone numbers.” Michael looked at her, eyes wide. “The third of them is mine.”

      Vicky frowned. “Yours? Why would Mortimer want to call you?”

      “Good question. Especially as the second number on the list is familiar to me too.” Michael held her gaze. “It’s Diane’s number. I mean, it’s the number of the cottage of old Captain Black where Diane is now staying. I know it, because I looked it up myself the other day to call her about the anonymous threat I had received.”

      Vicky’s mind raced. Mortimer Gill had intended to call both Diane and Michael about something. That made it more likely he had known something about Celine’s disappearance.

      “And something else that’s significant,” Michael continued. “Mortimer’s cell phone is nowhere in sight. I wanted to see if he had actually used it to call either of these numbers before he died, but it’s not on him or near him. Maybe the killer took it, because the number in the outgoing calls list could incriminate him? He must have missed this note on the desk.”

      He perked up. There were sirens in the distance. “Quickly.” He gestured at her. “Have you got a pen and a scrap of paper in your purse? Write down these numbers for me, will you? I would like to check later on the first one. I don’t know it and I’m really curious to whom that belongs.”

      She obeyed, copying off all three numbers and slipping the sheet into her purse. Michael was still pulling open drawers and even crawling under the desk to see if anything was taped underneath it.

      The sirens burst into the yard, and Michael popped up quickly, stripped off the gloves and put them back beside the toolbox. “Not a thing related to Celine’s disappearance. Just those phone numbers, and I’m not sure what they mean.”

      Vicky bit her lip knowing how painful this was for Michael. At the same time she was glad he hadn’t found anything and put it in his pocket. If he took something away from a crime scene, it could have gotten tricky.

      Still as she heard car doors slam, her mouth was dry and her knees jittery. She was sure Cash would read a guilty expression on her face and zero in on it at once.

      The СКАЧАТЬ