Charlotte Denver Cozy Mystery Box Set

by Sherri Bryan

  Charlotte realised that this was probably the first night since Kate had died that Drew had been on his own. He’d looked so forlorn.

  Looking decidedly happier, he gave her a wide grin. “Right,” he said. “Pass me a carrot!”

  ººººººº

  “Good evening, Mrs. Ferguson. I’m sorry to call round at this hour without calling first, but would now be a convenient time to have a word with you?”

  Debra Ferguson stepped aside to let Nathan pass and called out to her husband. “Steve! Steve! The Detective Chief Inspector’s here.”

  Steve Ferguson appeared from the kitchen, wiping his hands on a tea towel. “DCI Costello,” he said, offering Nathan his hand. “It’s after nine - little late for house calls, isn’t it? What’s this about?”

  “Yes, I apologise. If we could sit down and talk, if you don’t mind?” said Nathan. “It’s a rather delicate situation.”

  “It’s Drew, isn’t it? Oh, no! What’s he done now? Is he alright?” asked Debra, clutching Nathan’s arm.

  “No, he hasn’t done anything and yes, he’s fine. The reason I’m here is to ask you some questions about someone who I believe may be able to help us with our enquiries into Kate’s murder.” He cleared his throat. “I want to know if you can tell me a little more about Sumalee.”

  Steve stood up. “You think Sumalee had something to do with Kate’s death?” He turned to his wife. “See, what did I tell you? I told you nothing good would ever come of that one!” He turned to Nathan. “I’m sorry, but I’m not wasting my breath talking about Sumalee, so if that’s all you’ve come to talk about, you’ve wasted your time.”

  “Wait a minute, Steve,” said Debra. “This could help to catch whoever killed Kate, you say? That is what you said, isn’t it?”

  Nathan nodded. “Yes, I believe it could.”

  Steve sat back down. “Well, alright. If it’ll help. So what do you want to know?” he said, begrudgingly.

  “Well. As I said, this is a rather delicate situation, so I apologise in advance if I ask anything that upsets you. Mr. Ferguson. Can you tell me what happened to cause the rift between you and Sumalee?”

  Steve Ferguson looked at his wife and then back to Nathan. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean?”

  “I understand that you, and also Mrs. Ferguson, have had, er, shall we say, issues with Sumalee in the past.”

  “Hmpf, you could say that,” said Steve, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

  “And did these issues begin when she was born, or more recently?”

  Steve Ferguson gazed at Nathan as if he was speaking in a foreign language. “Why on earth would they have started when she was born? We didn’t know her when she was born. More to the point, we still don’t know her. She’s a complete stranger to us and that’s the way we’d like to keep it.”

  Nathan recalled Drew telling him about how his father had disowned Sumalee and a muscle in his jaw began to twitch. What a scumbag, he thought, as he looked at Steve Ferguson sitting smugly in his armchair, denying his paternity.

  I’m sorry,” Steve said again. “But I don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re talking about. We’ve never even met.”

  “You mean you’ve never met her because she was born after her mother went back to Thailand?” said Nathan.

  Steve scratched his head in confusion. “No. We’ve never met because Sumalee is nothing to do with me ... with us. Why would we meet?”

  “I see,” said Nathan, wishing that he could take a swing at the man sitting in front of him. “So, you don’t think that your own daughter is anything to do with you?”

  “My what!” said Steve, jumping up from the chair again. “My daughter? Are you mad? Why on earth would you think that Sumalee is my daughter?”

  It was Nathan’s turn to look confused.

  “You mean she isn’t?”

  “Of course not!” Steve spluttered, wringing his hands.

  Nathan had the good manners to apologise for his mistake. “Well, this is embarrassing. I’m so sorry. I must have misunderstood what Drew told me.”

  “Drew told you that I was Sumalee’s father?”

  “Yes, he did. He also told me that you’d disowned her and that you weren’t happy when he found her.”

  Steve sat down again opposite Nathan and leaned forward in his chair, elbows on his knees and his fingers clasped.

  “Look, regardless of what Drew told you, I had ... no, we had, no problem with him going to Thailand to look for his sibling. It was us who told him about Sumalee in the first place.

  “But it wasn’t until last year that we found out the truth ... and that’s when we refused to have anything to do with Sumalee.”

  Steve saw the confused expression on Nathan’s face. “We’re not Drew’s birth parents. We adopted him when he was seven. Drew’s birth father is Sumalee’s father, not me.”

  “You’re not Drew’s birth parents?” said Nathan.

  Steve and Debra shook their heads.

  “And what was it he told you that made you decide you wanted nothing to do with Sumalee? That must have been hard for Drew - you refusing to get to know the sister he’d found after so many years?”

  Steve looked uncomfortable. “Well, that’s the thing. If Sumalee had been his sister, we wouldn’t have had a problem.” He paused.

  “But Sumalee’s his brother.”

  ººººººº

  “I’m going to make a pot of tea - you carry on, Steve, and I’ll shout from the kitchen if you miss anything out,” said Debra.

  Nathan sat on the couch opposite Steve Ferguson and listened to the story he was telling him, straight from the pages of a soap-opera script.

  “We met Drew’s birth parents a few times,” said Steve. “Neither of them were particularly discreet and between them, they told us everything about how Sumalee came to be Drew’s half-sibling.

  “Drew’s father told me about a relationship he’d had with a Thai woman he’d met during a travel convention at some hotel near where they lived in London. He had a roving eye, that’s for sure. It was no secret that he liked the ladies.”

  Suddenly warming to the subject, Steve sat forward in his chair. “Anyway, at the time, Sumalee’s mother was working at the Thai Embassy and Drew’s father was a general manager of a chain of travel agents across the UK.

  “After he’d got this woman pregnant, he wanted nothing more to do with her, but she started calling his office at all hours. Of course, he refused to take her calls. Thing is, he got so concerned about it, he asked his office for a transfer and that’s how the family ended up in St. Eves. He was relocated to the St. Matlock office, and the family settled in a house just a couple of miles from here. From what he told us, everything was okay for a while.

  “Now, this is where it gets interesting. Drew’s mother told us that one day, completely out of the blue, a Thai woman showed up on the doorstep while her husband was at work and Drew was at school.

  “Sumalee’s mother was six months pregnant by then, and she told Drew’s mother everything about the relationship she’d been having with her husband. Drew’s mother knew it was true. She told us she’d had her doubts about her husband for ages - you know, his commitment to the marriage and his fidelity. She asked Sumalee’s mother if she’d stay until her husband got back from work so they could confront him together, but she was catching a plane back to Thailand that night, so she couldn’t ... you with me so far?”

  “Yes, yes,” said Nathan.”

  “Anyway, she asked the woman for her address. I suppose, despite everything, she wanted to give Drew the opportunity to meet his only sibling when he was older, if that’s what he wanted to do.”

  Nathan nodded. “So, how did you come to adopt Drew?”

  “Well, after finding out the true extent of her husband’s cheating, Drew’s mother had a nervous breakdown. She ended up in hospital - for months, wasn’t it, Debra?” Steve turned to his wife who had just set a tray of tea
and ginger biscuits down on the table.

  “Yes, I seem to recall that she was in hospital for around eight months, altogether,” said Debra as she poured the tea.

  “Anyway, what with her being in hospital and Drew’s father away working so much,” Steve said, with an air-quote, indicating that working was a euphemism for what Drew’s father was actually getting up to, “Social Services had to find Drew somewhere else to live.

  “You know, you wouldn’t have recognised the boy who came to live with us. He was an anxious, reclusive seven year old who wouldn’t speak unless he was spoken to or move unless we told him he could. It took a while, but eventually, he started to come out of his shell - it was so great to see.

  “His social worker told us that he was responding to the stable and loving home we’d provided for him and we knew she must be right because when he had occasional visits to see his mother, or the odd weekend visits with his father, it was as though he’d gone right back to square one. He’d be withdrawn and introvert and we’d have to start all over again with him”.

  Steve gulped his tea and continued with his story.

  “So. When Drew’s mother was well enough to go home, he was sent back to live with his parents. Thing is, the social worker was concerned that the environment wasn’t good for a child - or any of them, for that matter. The atmosphere was strained and we all knew that Drew felt a responsibility to keep the peace between his parents, because he’d told us he did. Poor little fella, it must have been a lot of pressure for a boy of his age to deal with.” He shook his head.

  “All things considered, I don’t know why we were so surprised when it happened - it was inevitable, I suppose.”

  “When what happened?” asked Nathan.

  Steve took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Drew’s mother murdered her husband and a local woman he’d been seeing. It was a terrible time for Drew. For a long time afterwards, he didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Debra and I just had to give him lots of love and reassure him that he was safe with us. It took a while, but eventually, he settled down. In fact, he was happier that we’d ever seen him, wasn’t he Deb?”

  Debra nodded. “Oh, yes. We told him that if he wanted to, he could talk to us, or the social worker, any time about what had happened, but he never mentioned it again. I think he was just so happy when that huge pressure he’d felt had been lifted off him and he could get back to enjoying his childhood. He became a happy, loving, seven year old boy who just wanted to be like all the other boys at school.”

  Steve got up from his chair and went to the mantelpiece. “You see all these awards?” He indicated to the trophies competing for space above the fireplace. “They’re all Drew’s. Most of them are for an outstanding contribution to his school’s success on the sports field and the others are for his academic achievements.

  “You know, we were so worried that what had happened would affect him for the rest of his life, but it was as though he’d simply brushed it aside. He grabbed every opportunity that came his way and took on every challenge. He excelled at everything he turned his hand to and graduated with honours. We couldn’t have been more proud of him.”

  His voice trembled slightly and he coughed as he composed himself.

  “Can we get back to Sumalee?” asked Nathan.

  “Yes, sorry. Well, on his 21st birthday, we told Drew that, as far as we knew, he had a half-sibling, possibly living in Thailand. We weren’t sure we wanted to tell him at all, but we decided it wasn’t our place to keep it from him, didn’t we, Debra?”

  His wife nodded. “He was quite angry at first. He didn’t understand why we’d kept it from him. Mind you, once he’d had a little time to get used to it, he was thrilled. He told us about the piece of paper his mother had given with an address in Thailand written on it. All she’d told him was that he must keep it, because it may be important to him one day. He’d never understood what she’d meant until then.

  “He decided there and then that he was going to save enough money to go and find this sibling of his. He didn’t mention a word about it to anyone but Kate - he said he didn’t want to deal with all the questions that people were bound to ask. He saved for almost five years and one day, he came home and told us that he was leaving.

  “Of course, Kate left her job and went with him. They were inseparable back then.” Debra smiled sadly at the recollection.

  “Anyway. when they arrived in Thailand, they were amazed to find the family still living at the address.

  “Sumalee’s mother had sadly passed away, but he told us that he and Sumalee got on like a house on fire. He was always sending us photos of all of them together. He couldn’t wait to bring her home to meet us,” said Steve. “And we couldn’t wait to meet her.”

  “You can imagine how shocked we were when we found out the truth, can’t you?” said Debra. “It wasn’t until Drew went to the city one day to Skype us, that he told us Sumalee was a young man. Of course, we’ve seen people like that on TV, but we’ve never met anyone like that, have we Steve?” Debra said.

  “No, and we don’t want to, either,” Steve snapped. “And I’ll tell you another thing. I absolutely refuse to refer to him as ‘her’. He’s a man and that’s all there is to it. I’m well aware that’s probably very politically incorrect these days, but I really couldn’t care less.”

  In his position as a high ranking officer, Nathan was used to dealing with racists, bigots, intolerants and the sheer uneducated, but Steve’s inflexibility made him feel sorry for Drew.

  How must he have felt to have found Sumalee after so many years, only to be told that his sibling wasn’t welcome at his family home?

  “You may think I’m being unreasonable, Detective Chief Inspector, but if you’d seen him in the pictures Drew sent us ... all dressed up with makeup on. It shouldn’t be allowed.” Steve pulled a face.

  “Would you like to see the photos?” asked Debra. “It’ll just take me a minute to fetch them from upstairs.”

  She reappeared with a leather-bound photograph album under her arm, from inside of which she took a bulging envelope.

  “I didn’t know you’d kept all those.” Steve said, with a scowl.

  “Here. They’re all in here,” she said, ignoring her husband and handing the envelope to Nathan.

  He tipped them onto the table. In almost every picture, Sumalee was wearing short skirts and tee shirts which showed off her slim figure and long legs. Her dark hair had been shorter then, cut in an asymmetric style which framed her pale face.

  Nathan had flicked through the photos until he’d come to one that made him stop in his tracks.

  In it, Drew, Kate and Sumalee were standing in front of a banner which proclaimed, ‘Happy New Year! 2012’. They were all dressed up and looked happy and excited.

  “Is something wrong?” Debra had asked.

  “No, things couldn’t be better, actually,” he replied. “Mrs. Ferguson, would you mind if I kept this photo for a while? I’ll bring it back in a day or two.”

  “Not at all. I hope it’ll be of some use.”

  As Nathan walked to his car, he glanced down at the photo.

  It was a typical, New Year’s Eve photo. Lots of smiles, decorations and raised glasses of champagne.

  And Sumalee wearing a long, auburn wig.

  Chapter 13

  The last night of the food festival was in full swing.

  Every night for three nights, floats topped with revellers wearing the national dress of their country had driven through the streets at a steady pace, each following a small band playing their national music.

  On the first night, the town centre had been the hub of the activity, on the second night, the sea front had been the venue to which everyone had flocked.

  Tonight was the event’s final night in St. Eves and the marina was buzzing.

  Steel drums, accordions and violins encouraged impromptu dancing amongst the partygoers, with everyone full of cheer, and
in some cases, a little too much alcohol. The entire length of the marina front was occupied by different food stalls, each offering a taste of cuisine from around the globe.

  Charlotte had asked Garrett’s and Laura’s nephew, Mike, to help Jess out with the bar and service for the evening and with Sumalee, Charlotte and Drew in the kitchen, Charlotte’s Plaice was ready for business.

  They were all hugely excited about the evening and Charlotte was thrilled to see the terrace full of customers waiting to try Sumalee’s food. Any concerns that she may have had disappeared as soon as the first order came into the kitchen. The speed at which Sumalee worked had dishes being cooked, and orders going out, at lightning speed.

  The customers couldn’t get enough of the food and dish after dish of Chicken noodle soup, Thai Fish Cakes, Spring Rolls with Dipping Sauce, Spare Ribs, Special Fried Rice, Thai Green Curry, Spicy Noodles with King Prawn, and Beef with Garlic and Broccoli went out and came back minutes later scraped clean.

  The simple desserts of Coconut Bananas with Butterscotch Sauce, and Mango Ice Cream were the perfect way to end the meal and when everyone had finished eating, they insisted on calling Sumalee out so they could compliment the chef.

  She put her hands together in front of her chest and gave her little bow, so charming the assembled customers that a number of them invited her to join them at their tables for a drink.

  She looked at Charlotte for approval, who nodded and smiled. “Of course, sit down and socialise. Goodness knows, you deserve to! In fact, now that you’ve finished cooking, I’d like to buy you a drink myself. How about a cocktail?”

  “Ooh, yes! I’d like a Harvey Wallbasher, please,” said Sumalee as she sat down to peals of laughter, at a large table with Garrett and Laura, Leo, Harry, Ava, Harriett and Betty. “Please, what is so funny?”

  “It’s Wallbanger,” said Ava, giving her a hug. “And yes, we are laughing at you, which we shouldn’t really, but it’s done with great affection.”

  Charlotte brought the cocktail to the table and squeezed Sumalee’s shoulder. “Thanks, you’ve been amazing.”