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

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      “We came to see Mortimer,” Michael answered calmly. “We expected he’d be having dinner or washing up, so we came in through the back door. I noticed a strong scent, as if something was burning, and took that frying pan off the stove and put it in the sink.”

      He pointed at it where it still lay dripping water. “I was under the impression Mortimer had just forgotten about his dinner. Maybe he had gone out back to feed the birds? But then I went into the living room and found him lying face down on the floor. I checked whether he was dead, then Vicky called the police at once. If I had known that he was dead when we came in, I would not have bothered with the pan.”

      Vicky noticed that Michael didn’t say he hadn’t touched anything else in the house. She hoped Cash would take it for granted that as good law-abiding citizens they had not.

      Cash grunted. “And why did you want to see Mortimer in the first place? You don’t know him socially, do you?”

      Vicky cleared her throat. She tried to sound normal and innocent. “He is working on a fireplace in my store. The one that Gwenda had bricked up? He started this morning and was making great progress. Everything seemed fine until he left to buy something at the hardware store and never came back. I wanted to ask him why. He knows I’m on a tight schedule to finish renovations as soon as possible, so his disappearance made no sense at all.”

      “And you just took Michael for company.” Cash hitched a brow. “A simple phone call would have sufficed, to set a new date for finishing the work.”

      Vicky felt her cheeks grow hot. “Mortimer was not answering his cell phone. Mr. Jones told me he had no regular connection as he had failed to pay his bills. I needed to convince him to come back tomorrow, so Michael offered to drive me out here. Then I didn’t have to cycle.”

      “Besides,” Michael said, “we were going out to dinner anyway, and only wanted to stop here first to solve the fireplace matter, before sitting down and enjoying a nice quiet evening together.”

      Cash seemed not amused at the idea of her enjoying an evening together with Michael, but he ignored the point, turning to his deputies. “Go see to that body. The photographer should be here soon.” He snapped back to them. “Did you touch or disturb anything?”

      There it was.

      Michael said nothing.

      Vicky searched her purse for a hanky.

      “You did touch something,” Cash exclaimed. “Great, you could have disturbed all possible leads to the killer. What on earth did you do that for?”

      “I picked up a hundred-dollar bill that was lying on the floor beside him. I put it there.” Michael pointed at the sink where the bill rested between a blue thermos and a stack of dirty washrags. “It was a natural thing to do. I didn’t think about it at the time.”

      Cash fumed. “You should never ever disturb a thing until the police are there. Even a kid knows that. And you’re a trained reporter who has handled crime before.”

      To distract him, Vicky said quickly, “There was a note on Mortimer’s desk with three phone numbers on it. We only looked at it; we didn’t touch it. It could be significant. Maybe Mortimer managed to call the first person on it before he was killed? That could help to fix the time of his death.”

      Michael pointed Cash to where the note lay. Cash put on thin plastic gloves and put the note in a see-through evidence bag, marking it. As he glanced down at the note, Vicky saw shock passing through him. Like he recognized one of the phone numbers.

      Diane’s? Did he also realize that there could be a connection between this murder, the fire in the barn the other night and the old disappearance case?

      Cash snapped his head up, his eyes hard. “I’m taking both of you in for questioning. Separately. To see if your stories check out. And if they don’t, I’m holding you overnight.”

      Vicky’s jaw sagged at the prospect of spending the night in jail, but Michael shrugged as if to say, Whatever. He probably felt so cheated by Mortimer’s death and the information that had possibly eluded him forever that he didn’t care about anything else.

      But Vicky did care. She didn’t want to lie to Cash. He was the sheriff. She had to tell him the truth, or risk big trouble later on.

      On the other hand Michael was her friend. And she’d do anything to keep him out of trouble with the law. He had to stay free and help them find out who had killed Mortimer Gill.

      And possibly also Celine.

      Upon arrival at the police station Vicky felt pretty positive about her mission. Cash was nice enough, bringing her coffee and talking to her in a friendly tone. She actually began to believe she could convince him that Mortimer’s death might have something to do with the old disappearance case and he had to give it top priority—also for Diane’s sake. She’d rather sort this out with police cooperation than without.

      But she soon found out Cash only wanted her to incriminate Michael, blame him for the whole thing. Every question he asked was meant to trick her into stating Michael had suggested they had to go to Mortimer to have a talk, that Michael had gone into the house first, without her, and he could actually have killed Mortimer while she was still outside.

      “The body was already getting cold, Michael said,” she protested. “Mortimer died before we arrived!”

      “That’s what he says, yeah.” Cash waved a dismissive hand. “But he is no expert. I only trust the medical examiner’s verdict.”

      “What possible reason could Michael have for killing Mortimer Gill?”

      Cash exhaled. “There were rumors Diane was being threatened by someone who wanted her to leave town again. I also got a call informing me a dark figure was watching Diane as she exercised on the beach at night or in the morning. The caller said it was a stalker. I have established that stalker could be Michael Danning.”

      Vicky’s throat was tight. If Cash outright asked her if Michael had been watching Diane, she could not deny that. She had seen it herself the other night. But Michael had only meant well. He had wanted to protect Diane, not harm her. “I don’t understand. Why would that suspicion make him a suspect in Mortimer Gill’s murder?”

      Cash rearranged the notes in front of him. “Earlier Mortimer Gill was accused of having written the poison pen letters slandering his ex-wife Gwenda’s beauty parlor. When I got the call about the stalker, I wondered if it was Mortimer calling me to slander people again. But if Michael Danning was indeed stalking Diane and he knew someone was on to him, even reporting him to the police…”

      Cash clicked his tongue. “That could be a great motive for murder. Especially as you could ask yourself why Michael is so interested in Diane. Just because she is the sister of his missing fiancée, or also because she looks exactly like Celine? The resemblance is eerie. I have heard several people talk about it.”

      He held her gaze. “I know it doesn’t sound pretty, Vicky, but his interest in her could be explained as the obsession of a guilty mind. Back then Michael was the main suspect in the disappearance case. If he killed Celine, Diane’s return here might have thrown him off balance. When he felt people were getting too close to the truth, he killed again to keep it hidden.”

      Vicky insisted that was СКАЧАТЬ