The Mystery of Sundays Well
Page 15
Lilly looked James in the face. “This is Celine,” she said.
Realization dawned on James. The absentee secretary who was holidaying in Spain was now here, in the flesh. “I heard all about you,” he said.
“All good, I hope,” Celine said, smiling.
“This is James Sayder, Robert Carroll’s assistant,” Lilly said.
“I think the desk sergeant is playing an April Fool’s Day joke on you,” James said.
“It’s not April Fool’s Day,” Celine said, and laughed.
“Every day in this town is April Fool’s Day,” Lilly said bitterly.
“Right, I’ll toddle off to the leisure centre for a tanning session. Have to keep it up, otherwise all that toasting out in Spain will have been for nothing. You should go there, Lilly, you’d love it.”
“Nice to have met you,” James said.
“I’ve a dinner engagement to go to tonight,” Celine said, and winked.
“Cliff’s Restaurant?” James asked.
“A private sitting,” Celine said, and laughed. “I feel like chicken tonight,” she hummed.
“Nice one,” James said.
“It’s been marinating all day in his fridge, and let’s hope that’s the only thing that has been marinating.” Celine gave a dirty laugh and then left.
“So, that was the infamous Celine, and she’s having chicken tonight.” James laughed. It had to be Doctor Morris she was meeting. He was probably trying out his spatchcock recipe on every available woman in town.
“She’s like a massive bubble,” Lilly said.
“Listen, Lilly, there’s something I want to say,” James said.
Lilly leaned back on the chair and closed her eyes.
“You don’t have to tell me anything at all. It would serve no purpose, if you get my meaning. If you don’t mind a bit of advice, Lilly, I think you should spend as much time with your grandfather as you can, because you will miss him when he is gone,” James said.
Lilly stared at James.
“Not that he will be gone any time soon, he will make a good recovery, I am sure of it.”
“I hope you are right, James.”
“You should only be thinking about the good things. Trust me, Lilly, I know what I’m talking about,” James said.
“Thank you, James,” Lilly whispered. “Thank you so much.”
“You will keep in touch now, won’t you, Lilly?”
Lilly studied the young man she had grown to look upon with fondness, but he was never going to be hers, she knew.
He had that faraway look in his eye, and she knew someone else had got there first.
* * *
Robert threw his possessions at his suitcase. He wasn’t one bit pleased that the case was over. Someone helped that jeweller woman to dispose of the bodies. He should have found out who that person was and charged them with accessory to murder. Accessory to three murders to be correct.
Miss Kneeshaw did the killings, yes, that was a true. Everyone in town was now in possession of this information, but nobody seemed to be questioning how she disposed of the bodies. He had even bought The Crier just to see if Mossie Harrington had hammered out an article suggesting an old woman could not be capable of dumping the bodies into the well, and why was that helper getting away scot-free? It would be such a great opportunity for the brave Mossie to have yet another dig at the investigation.
Robert almost didn’t hear the knock on the door with the steam that was coming out of his ears.
It’s probably housekeeping, he guessed. That’s how the young woman introduced herself each and every morning.
Do you want your room serviced, she would ask, but today she would not be offering that service, because he was leaving, wasn’t he? You can service it for the next person who will probably be along in six months’ time, he would love to say to her.
On the other hand, she may only be here to inform him that twelve o’clock is the checking out time. He was glad to be getting out of the tomb that was so badly in need of updating; in fact, the only answer was to gut the place and build it back up from scratch. He was surprised the owner hadn’t applied for a grant to do it up. They were throwing grants out nowadays like smarties. Martin Hayes could do with the work now that the job out at the well was no more, seeing Counsellor Hanton had met his Waterloo, or would some other official busybody take it over?
Robert called out in answer to the second knock, which sounded louder than the one before. “Keep your wig on, I’m coming.”
He didn’t fully open the door just in case the eager-to-clean-for-the-nation woman with her brushes, bottles, cloths, and potions, burst into the room.
“I’ll be out in an hour, if you would have the decency to let me get on with my packing,” Robert said frostily.
“You will not be out in an hour. I have told them downstairs to leave your booking open until further notice,” the voice from the other side of the door said.
Robert threw open the door and stared in disbelief at the woman standing there.
“We have things to do, a man to be reinstalled in his house, so I can have Forge Cottage back, and that’s just for starters.”
“Maggie,” Robert croaked.
More fiction by Anne Crosse
If you enjoyed THE MYSTERY OF SUNDAYS WELL, be sure to check out DEATH IN MAGNERSTOWN in which DI Robert Carroll and his sidekick James Sayder appear for the first time:
A judge is found dead in his courthouse. A bigwig in a small Irish town, the pressure is on to find answers. But quite a few people wanted the hardliner out of their lives. The regional newspaper always seems to know more than the police. With the chief inspector and the publisher at loggerheads, will the culprit ever be found?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07JLMCZ5R/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JLMCZ5R/
Available FREE with Kindle Unlimited and in paperback!
Other titles of interest
If you enjoy Irish crime fiction, why not try the David Pearson series of murder mysteries? With over seven titles to get stuck into, your reading needs will be sorted for a while!
Book 1, Murder on the Old Bog Road by David Pearson
A woman is found in a ditch, murdered. As the list of suspects grows, an Irish town's dirty secrets are exposed. DI Mick Hays and DS Maureen Lyons are called in to investigate. But getting the locals to even speak to the police will take some doing. Will they find the killer in their midst?
The first in a series of gripping Irish murder mysteries.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C8GJ889/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C8GJ889/
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