What now?
Nish had once told her about the dangers of walk-in freezers. He’d gone through a safety course on the subject when Griffin Brews had one installed. Motts regretted not paying more attention.
Right.
The vital thing to do is breathe calmly. Is this airtight? Will I suffocate before I freeze to death?
Bad brain.
No panicking. I might need all the extra air I can get. Hyperventilating isn’t going to help.
Motts tried to call Vina, who didn’t answer. She tried Nish next with a similar result. Teo, however, answered on the second ring. “I’m stuck in a freezer.”
“What—”
“Teo?” Motts resisted the urge to fling her phone when the call was dropped. She’d lost what little signal she had. “Bugger.”
Is now the time to panic?
Probably.
I am suddenly Ron Weasley.
Well, at least there aren’t any spiders.
Changing tactics, Motts tried emergency services, but the call didn’t connect. She attempted to text almost every number in her phone. One of the messages had to reach them. She hoped.
Motts was cold. And beginning to slide from pretending to be calm straight into terrified. She banged her fists against the door and screamed her head off. “Is this soundproof?”
Do I want whoever shoved me to come in here and finish the job faster? Vina will notice; surely she will.
Rubbing her hands over her arms, Motts considered her options. None, really. She wasn’t equipped to escape a freezer. Why can’t I remember what Nish said about these things?
How long does it take for hypothermia to set in?
Keep moving.
Or should I stay still to save oxygen?
What’s the best way to not die?
“This is the worst escape room ever.” Motts had progressed from mild shivering to her teeth chattering so violently, she worried about cracking a tooth. “So cold.”
I should text Teo.
Did I text him?
No, I called him.
It was hard to hold on to a thought. Motts tried four times to unlock her phone before finally getting the sequence right. No signal. She shifted around the icy room, hoping to find at least one bar of service.
She had no luck.
Returning to the door, Motts had run out of ideas. She kicked the hard metal again until her foot hurt. No amount of screaming brought a response other than making her throat sore and her head ache.
Heat rises. Don’t sit on the floor. Why am I so tired? Maybe I should add survival videos to my YouTube playlist. Can you start a fire with frozen fish? I won’t starve.
Wait.
Can I get food poisoning from eating a fishsicle?
As Motts tried to find a way to warm herself, she was bombarded by sound and light. She blinked in confusion at the change. Teo stepped into the room, pausing when he spotted her to his right.
“What?” Motts tried to form a full sentence, but her mind and mouth refused to cooperate. “Cold.”
Teo grabbed a blanket Vina held out to him. He wrapped it gently around her. “Can you walk?”
“Sure.” Motts tripped over her own feet trying to take a step. “No.”
With exaggerated care, Teo lifted her into his arms. He carried her past Vina. Motts noticed the O’Connells being spoken to by Perry and Hughie.
Teo bundled her into the passenger seat of his car. She was immediately hit by warm air blasting from the vent. “How are you feeling?
Motts couldn’t stop shivering even with the fluffy blanket and warm air. Her head felt so fuzzy. “Cold. Home.”
“Inspector Ash and Constable Stone can handle the questioning here for now. River’s already at your cottage. We’ll have the doctor meet us there. I imagine a cosy fire and more blankets will help.” Teo practically threw himself into the vehicle. He slammed his door and jabbed the seat belt buckle a few times until it caught. “When you’re warm again, you’re going to tell me what happened.”
Motts rested her head against the window, staring unseeing at the village. “Not supposed to drive on the streets in summer.”
“I’m a detective inspector. I’ll drive on water if I have to.”
“Do you need a special dispensation from the pope to drive on water?” Motts clutched the blanket more tightly around her. “Dispensation. Dis. Pen. Sa. Tion. Good word. It would make a great alliteration. What are good d words?”
“Let’s just get you home.”
On the short drive to her cottage, Motts didn’t stop shivering. Teo jacked the heat all the way up. It didn’t manage to take the edge of the cold.
Teo pulled up behind River’s car where it was parked outside the cottage. “Your friends have been texting each other. I believe your cousin is warming things up inside.”
“Cold.”
“I know.” Teo helped her out of the car and into the cottage. “You’ll be warm in no time.”
“Motts.” River glanced over from where he was stoking the fire. He had blankets piled on the coffee table. “I’ve got the kettle boiling. My hot chocolate isn’t as brilliant as your dad’s, but it’ll do.”
Teo gently helped her into the old armchair by the fireplace. He worked with River to wrap her up with all the blankets. “You’re safe now. Can you tell me why you went into the walk-in freezer?”
“Someone punched me in the back.” Motts shivered under her mountain of blankets. “Pushed me into the freezer. Slammed the door on me. I didn’t voluntarily go inside.”
“Did they?” Teo stood up, suddenly seeming taller and more intimidating. He grabbed River by the arm. “Doctor will be here soon. Stay with your cousin.”
“Teo?” Motts was confused by the sudden thunderous expression on his face.
“I believe I’ll help Detective Inspector Ash question the O’Connells.”
Motts stared at Teo, who nodded, spun around, and strode purposefully out of the cottage. She turned to River, who grinned. “What?”
“Someone’s getting their arse kicked.” He sat on the edge of the armchair, helping Cactus over onto the blanket mound. “So, you know how you sent text messages to everyone in your phone?”
“Oh, no.”
“I imagine your parents and mine will be here shortly. I tried messaging everyone to say you were okay, but mums will be mums.” River patted her blanket-covered arm. “I imagine the kettle will be boiling shortly.”
“Can’t you text my parents to stay away?”
“I’d take a bullet for you, but your mum is terrifying.” River disappeared into the kitchen. He came back several minutes later with a mug of hot chocolate. “If you’re wondering what happened, Vina noticed you’d gone missing. She spoke with Teo, who’d apparently gotten a call from you. He raced over with Perry and Hughie. Nish phoned me to come up to the cottage and prepare to defrost you.”
“I’m not frozen minced meat.”
“You will be when your mum gets here.” He sat on the coffee table across from her. “You scared me half to death.”
Motts clutched the mug and soaked up the heat. “Still not frozen minced meat.”
By late afternoon, Motts almost regretted being rescued. The walk-in freezer might’ve been cold, but at least it was quiet. Her family and friends had descended on her cottage along with the doctor and two police officers.
The doctor had left rather quickly after determining Motts just needed to continue to warm up. She hadn’t been in the freezer long enough to do permanent damage. The news hadn’t done anything to calm her mum down.
“This is what happens when you move to Cornwall,” her mum huffed at her. She dislodged the comforting arm Motts’s dad tried to wrap around her. “Not now, dear. She needs soup.”
“Soup? And what happens when you move to Cornwall?” Motts stared at her mum over the mound of blankets. “Getting locked in a freezer? Is it a regional issue? Are people frequently being pushed inside frozen tombs? Freezing f
ears fiercely froze follicles.”
“Follicles?” River teased.
“Fossils? Fronds? Frogs?” Motts couldn’t think of a better word to end her alliteration. “Friends.”
“I’m not sure your mum finds this as funny as we do.” He’d stayed close by, shielding her a little from the onslaught of parental concern. “Why are you poking me?”
“Time to peel off a few of these layers and douse the fire.” Motts had definitely defrosted. She nudged River. “I’ve gone from frozen to melting in a sauna. Give me a hand. I feel like a sweaty mummy at this point.”
With help from both River and Vina, Motts unwound the layers of blankets from around her. She hadn’t even known she owned so many. Some of them must’ve been her auntie Daisy’s; her cousin probably dug into the linen closet upstairs to find them.
“The mums are fighting.” Vina squished into the armchair with Motts once the blankets had been removed. She nodded toward the kitchen where Motts’s mum, her auntie Lily, and Leena were in a heated debate. “They can’t agree on what sort of supper will warm your cockles.”
“Warm my cockles?” Motts shoved Vina off her armchair. “Think we can sneak out and grab a pizza? I’m not hurt.”
“You suffered trauma.” Vina flicked her on the knee. “Don’t you want to be coddled?”
“No, I want to know who pushed me into a freezer, so I can….” Motts hesitated. She didn’t handle confrontation well. “I’ll think of something.”
“If we’re going to get takeaway, we’ll need to be sneaky.” River crouched down next to the chair. “What if we say Teo needs you to give an official statement? We’ll hop in my car. Nish can meet us at the Buccaneer. That’d get us the pizza you want along with kebabs and chips.”
“You two were never the sneakiest of children.” Her granddad crept up behind her chair. He leaned over to tap his grandson on the head. “Why don’t you three head out? Your gran and I will run interference with the fearsome mums. Escape while you can.”
Picking up Cactus and fitting his walking harness on him, Motts carried him out with them. Being outside and holding her purring cat, she felt some of the knots in her release. The parental chaos in the cottage had made processing everything impossible.
“Nish will pick up the pizza. I believe your Teo agreed to grab drinks and some sort of dessert for us.” River waited until they’d crowded into his car. “We’ll go to Talland Bay. Still nice enough out to enjoy the sunset on the beach. We can eat and chat. Let the grandparents calm the waters at your cottage for us.”
Motts cuddled with Cactus in the back seat. She rested her head against the window. “No shouting.”
“When do I ever shout?” River glanced at her in the rear-view mirror. “We’ll be extra quiet. I promise.”
Chapter Seventeen
Waking up exhausted after a series of nightmares, Motts drowned her sorrows in a strong cup of coffee and a few slices of toast. She added so much lemon curd that she thought her lips might pucker off her face from the tartness. The bright, sugary spread helped wake her up and chase the dreams away.
Her mind kept trying to drift back to yesterday and her close call with a frosty end. On the plus side, her parents were spending the day with her grandparents, who lived next door to her uncle and auntie. Granny Martha could run circles around her daughter-in-law.
Granny Martha had always encouraged her two grandchildren to fly as high as they wanted. She’d been one of the reasons Motts had the courage to pursue running her own business. I should visit with them more often. I’m a dreadful granddaughter.
The reprieve would be brief, however. Her mum definitely hadn’t got the “Cornwall isn’t safe” lecture out of her system yet. It didn’t matter to Motts, who had no intentions of leaving her cosy cottage by the sea.
Motts took her laptop, Cactus and Moss, and her tea out into the garden. She allowed them to explore the garden while she considered her plan for the day. “What will you do if you actually catch the butterfly?”
Meow.
“Helpful.”
“Are you in the garden, poppet?”
Motts shut her laptop and darted around Cactus to open the garden gate for her granddad. John Mottley had run a bookshop in Looe for years before selling it. He’d met his beloved wife Martha in the library at university. They loved telling that story to their grandkids. “Did you leave Gran to fend for herself?”
“My Martha never once backed down from a fight.” He gave her a fierce hug before slowly bending down to greet Cactus. “Hello, young man. Taking care of my granddaughter, are you?”
“Granddad.”
“Now don’t go getting yourself addicted to catnip and stumbling around the village. You’ll make a name for yourself in the wrong way.” He continued to lecture Cactus, who purred up a storm.
“Granddad.”
“What are your plans for the day?” He wandered around the garden, inspecting her growing plants with Cactus on his heels. “Your lemon verbena needs pruning. Why don’t I come over on the weekend next to help you out? Your gran’s going on one of her trips again.”
At least twice a year, Motts’s grandmother went on a driving tour with several of her friends. Her granddad always stayed home. He tended to spend most of the time either reading or with his grandkids.
Motts shared both her love of gardening and her allergies with her granddad. “I’ve been thinking about adding a trellis along the fence later this summer. I want to try my hand at growing peas.”
“You’ll want to plant them either this autumn or next spring. Give them the best chance at growing.” He inspected the area of the garden she’d pointed out. “I might have wire netting you could use. I’ll bring some over when I come to help with your pruning. You can store it in the shed until you’re ready to plant. Now, what are your plans for the day? Hmm?”
“I’ve got three more paper columbines to fold and add to an arrangement for one of Marnie’s brides. It’ll take me a minute.” Motts retrieved Moss and gestured for her granddad to lead Cactus into the cottage. “After I drop the flowers off at the bridal shop, I wanted to….”
“You wanted to?” He followed her over to the table where her origami papers were laid out. “Were you going to continue your investigation? Maybe poke the O’Connells with a stick? See which of them murdered Nadine?”
Motts studiously kept her attention on folding the last few columbines. “Did you know Nadine O’Connell?”
“Your gran knew her better. I knew her husband and her son-in-law a little. Can’t say I liked any of them. Nadine could test the patience of a saint, as they say.” He picked up one of the flowers to inspect. “I do remember how much she butted heads with Amy even back when she was a young girl. Those two never got along.”
“Mother and daughter?”
“Amy was a troubled soul.” He shook his head, then offered the flower back to her. “They had vicious rows before Nadine fell ill. When your gran told me Amy planned to care for her mother, you could’ve blown me over with a cotton swab.”
“How do you blow someone over with a cotton swab?”
“With great care and attention to detail.”
Motts finished up the last of the flowers. She decided not to attempt to figure out what he meant. “Could Amy kill her own mother?”
“Almost everyone is capable of murder under the right conditions. Amy had a temper for sure. I doubt an extended illness improved either her or Nadine’s personality.” He absently patted Cactus on the head. “My money is one of the boys. I don’t see how Amy could’ve carried her mother out to sea.”
“Jasper and Mikey.” Motts had the former on the top of her list. “Jasper definitely inherited his mum’s temperament.”
“I’ve been thinking about using a cold storage—”
“For what?” Motts carefully completed her bouquet and tried not to laugh at the absurdity of her granddad renting a cold storage. “What are you going to put in there?”
&nbs
p; “Fish?”
“You always give the fish you catch to Auntie Lily. Also, shouldn’t you be discouraging my curious nature?” Motts gingerly attached one of the columbines to a paper-wrapped wire stem.
“The best part of being a grandparent is not concerning myself with parental restraints.” He wiggled his bushy grey eyebrows at her, making her laugh. “And my job is to always encourage my grandchildren.”
“Courage cautiously calls comfortably casual constraints.” Motts wrinkled her nose. “I ran out of c words.”
“Come on then. We’ll walk down to the village. We can run your errands, poke our nose in at the O’Connell warehouse, and still have time for lunch.” He set Cactus down on the table. “And your nan isn’t here to complain when I have a pint with my lunch.”
“She’ll know.”
“And that’s half the fun.” He waited patiently while she finished the bouquet. “Will you carry it like that?”
“Could you grab the hatbox on the shelf behind you, please?” Motts used a sturdy box pilfered from Marnie’s shop. “This should keep the bouquet safe until we drop it off at the bridal shop.”
“Well, come along, poppet. Adventure and my midday pint are just around the corner.” Her granddad headed out of the cottage. He waited patiently while she topped up water and food for Moss and Cactus, then locked up and set her security system. “Good lad, your Teo. Like the cameras and alarm he’s installed for you.”
They left her granddad’s car parked outside of her home and walked down the narrow steps into the village centre. After dropping off the flowers, Motts waved to a busy Marnie and meandered down the street toward the harbour. Her granddad told familiar stories about Polperro.
“What was dating Gran like?” Motts interrupted his retelling of one of his favourite fishing trips in his twenties.
“Being on a roller-coaster ride through candyfloss.”
Motts considered the visual for a few seconds in silence. “Sounds sticky.”
He coughed a few times and chuckled. “Does it?”
“The candyfloss. It dissolves. You’d get it in your face and eyes.” Motts frowned at her granddad in confusion when he continued to laugh. “What?”
Pierced Peony Page 11
