by Trisha Kelly
Walter came out of the lift and ran over to Rosie, relieved to see the man on the floor, cuffed and convulsing slightly.
James rushed over from the corner together with a silent army gushing into the room. A little late, admittedly. There was no second safe, he had just opened the hidden portal, from where he’d been calling out for help, in silence.
“Did you not hear me calling to you?” he asked Rosie.
“Yes, I did. But you need to speak up a little, I’m new to this,” she whispered.
“I will stay here now and secure the building once you all leave, and please remove any armed officers in the grounds. How very frightful,” James sighed.
Three days later
“I really can’t believe you did that, amazing! Boo-boo, you are full of surprises!”
“And who knew our Izzy was a martial arts expert? She could come in handy you know. If we ever take on something let’s say, a little more dangerous!” Rosie smiled.
“I’m glad she didn’t break his neck. Eventually, it all worked out well though, didn’t it?”
“It did, my dear friend. Cheers!”
The girls chinked their glasses. It was a lazy summer afternoon and after all the recent goings-on they were taking a day off, just the two of them, lazing in the garden. Not forgetting Bear, who was digging a massive hole to bury a bone that was almost as big as him.
“Poor old Gladys,” Rosie murmured. “If she didn’t know her husband was trying to poison her before, she does now.”
“In custody and quite right too. Pass me the paper again, Rosie.”
“He didn’t quite make the front page though. Not like this man here.” There he was plastered all over the front page of not only the local paper, but also featured in the daily nationals. Eric Doyle was big news and he was going away for a very long time.
“So it turned out all along he was behind the blackmail too, your brother was right. Would you ever forgive him or your mother for what they did?”
“Put it this way, Anna. I will never see either of them again.” Rosie was right. Michael Smith was currently reading the same newspaper on his flight to Australia. Maybe in other circumstances things could have been different between them. Different mother, maybe? Who would ever know? At least for once he had done something decent. If not a little late in the day.
~
In a care home in a dark room where the sun never shone, Mildred Smith folded the paper and threw it in the bin. Shame the man hadn’t killed all of them. She was trapped, alone, her life may as well be over. Mildred had money but no-one to call to take her out for the day. Short of escaping, she had nowhere to go. Somewhere in the distance she heard a man crying out. He did it every day, his dementia had gotten the better of him. It would take a very long time for her to save up enough disability benefits to ever get out of the morbid place. Michael had given up her council flat that morning. Turns out he couldn’t wait to leave her.
~
The rattle of the back gate caught their attention. “Only me and Nick. We’ve given ourselves a half day. Thought you girls might like a meal out or something?”
“Oscar’s idea and I second it!”
“Why do you call him Oscar?” Anna laughed.
“Haven’t you ever seen Heartbeat?”
“Oh, of course, and is that why he calls you Nick?”
“Full marks, Anna,” Matt interrupted. Well, what sort of a name is Bradley? I ask you!”
“Bradley?” Anna and Rosie piped up in unison.
“That’s right. Guilty as charged,” Bradley smiled.
“Bradley what?” Anna asked, almost afraid of the answer.
“Stimpson. Miss nosey Anna Rose!”
Anna looked from him to Boo-boo and back again. “That’s a lovely name,” she smiled. “We’d love to come to dinner.”
“We’re going back to have a shower and get ready. Pick you both up in an hour or so, go easy on the wine, ladies!” Matt laughed. He closed the gate as the men left.
“Bradley Stimpson,” they both said at once. “No way!!”
“Anna, he’s gorgeous. Not as handsome as my Matt of course. I never wanted to say it before because… well, you know!”
“I know! And I’ve been keeping him at arm’s length… you know, in the…!”
“Bedroom? Well, good for you. After all, once you get started you know there’s plenty more where that came from! Bear! Bear! Oh, what are you doing?”
The hole in the lawn was massive. “You are a naughty, naughty, boy. Get away from there!” Rosie jumped up to shoo him away.
Anna followed, Bear thought they were chasing him and proceeded to run around and around the garden at great speed.
He ran back trying to retrieve a flattened, dried-up frog which had fallen in the hole.
Rosie gasped. “Look, Anna. What is that?”
A few inches down, was a large, dirty tin box, wrapped in plastic, covered in scraps of loose soil.
“I don’t know, Rosie; You grab one side, I’ll get the other.” After a bit of shoving, pushing and pulling they managed to tug it out of the ground. Bear stood behind them looking down into the large hole. He was very proud of his work.
“Shall we take it inside and then wait till we get back?”
“Good idea, Boo-boo. If we’re ever going to get ready in time, we need to fill this hole up with something.”
“Let’s just put the deck chairs over it for now. Bear can’t move those. Besides, he can stay in the kitchen until we get home.”
“Bradley Stimpson.” Anna said again, just before she ran up the stairs to go and get ready.
“I have a feeling Great Aunt Dorothea that this has everything to do with you!” Rosie smiled.
“It certainly does,” came the quick ghostly reply. “Now go, hurry and get ready. No sooner will the wedding day arrive, and the honeymooners go off, your next case will come knocking. I guarantee it.”
“Can I ask you one thing? You aren’t, always, around are you? Well… you know!”
The ghostly laugh drifted away from the kitchen. Rosie patted the box and went to get ready. After she’d washed Bear again of course.
She made the telephone call early the following morning. It was now four days and he wasn’t going to ring her! He picked up after the sixth ring.
“Sallow here.”
“It’s Rosie.”
“How are you, my darling girl? How divine, you must have anticipated I was waiting for your call.”
“Uh-huh! I took a wild guess! You knew all the time, didn’t you? Who the intended victims were?”
“Well, not at the very beginning, but it didn’t take too long. I must say, you did go to an awful lot of trouble to look after me when you thought I needed protection. Your aura you see, it kept changing colour. Once I knew you were in trouble too… I decided to stay close by, at the B & B.”
“And you went to an awful lot of trouble trying to hide me from the truth. You always knew we’d end up back at Bromington Heights.”
“Yes, my dear. Things pan out just as they are meant to, and I was very relieved to see it wasn’t you knocking at the door. Dorothea alerted Jane and in her wisdom she rang Izzy. I may just have a job for her at my private functions. What a treasure! The spirits told me where to find the portal of course, just as that ghastly robber began shouting.”
“I did wonder about that on the blueprints. It was sort of there, but it wasn’t if that makes sense. It’s a good job Eric Doyle thought it was a second safe. How did you know we’d come to no harm?”
“Oh, I didn’t; not until the last few minutes.”
“Did you know I would be the one to stop him?”
“Yes, dear. The moment you hurled my precious vase across the room. A terrible shot, but it gave you the cover to get into position.”
“So, you knew it wasn’t poltergeist activity?”
“Ha, but of course.”
“And I knew it was a fake vase. I heard Dorothea tell me
to chuck it, she was helping us!”
“It was left behind dear, by the previous owner. I’ve yet to bring my more valuable collection. Possibly after my housewarming. Dorothea was there? How interesting. So, she is no longer housebound. Things could get very interesting. Did you tell anyone?”
“No. Just do me one favour, James. Don’t let on to anyone I already knew who the masked stranger was, sometimes I must keep my developing investigating and paranormal skills to myself. I needed to wait and see if my brother would forewarn me or not. When he told me in my kitchen, he hadn’t sent the letter, I think we both knew there was only one person who would have that much personal information about me… his cell mate.
Then it was time for Dorothea to come clean. She may have only just found out, right there and then, but I’d rather she was straight with me, than hiding things she thinks I cannot handle. I stayed up all that night investigating and made myself quite weary and weak in the end. Then I allowed my mother to take over my troubled mind.”
“So, when you found the text from your brother on your phone you played a good bluff pretending to all around you it was the first you knew of Eric. You are a clever lady, Rosie Wodehouse. Just like your Great Aunt. Who, by the way, cares for you deeply, as do we all!”
“Thank you. And you are a mind-reader, aren’t you?”
“I have my moments. Look at me watching you watching me watching you!” James chuckled. “I get the impression your brother is nowhere near as intelligent as you, perhaps he didn’t realise at the time.”
“No, not really, he didn’t. Not until he saw Eric Doyle. I’m not sure why he waited so long that day before he sent the text. Maybe he wasn’t going to?”
“Maybe, but he did. Somewhere, deep down, he has a conscience. Be it a small one.”
“You know why I didn’t tell anyone before, don’t you? About Eric, I mean. ”
“Because you fully intended to creep out in the middle of the night to go and find him yourself. Armed with your taser and stab vest. Only, I wasn’t going to allow that, which is why I rang Bradley instead of you. You are a very silly girl sometimes, Rosie. Admirable all the same, for protecting your loved ones. Yes, I mind read, I knew about Eric and your intentions just after you worked it out.”
Rosie changed the subject. “So… the bookcase has a hidden button and opens up to another world. Your ability to throw your thoughts is amazing.”
“As is yours, to catch them and answer back. A work in progress, I admit. We worked well together.”
“We all did. You knew he wasn’t looking my way and I could tell you he couldn’t see you watching him in the reflection of the window. Dorothea knew we needed Izzy’s help, it just all panned out.”
“Do you know, my dear. There are many people in this small place who are part of one big team. You are a family in the making. Now, let’s sit back and plan a few more surprises for the happy couple. All my treats, naturally. With just ten days to go, I do hope I will duly receive my invitations to both the wedding and the reception!”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, a wedding week, what else? A BBQ and pool party for a start. Maybe a funfair in the grounds for the local children? Donkey rides, hot-air balloon. A regatta…”
Rosie smiled and placed James on loudspeaker. Every now and then she agreed with whatever it was that took his fancy. Bromington-on-sea was growing in character every day. She was beginning to think Dorothea’s legacy was meant to be spread far and wide in all different ways.
“What do you think about a murder mystery weekend, too soon?” James continued to spout excitable notions.
Rosie nodded in silence, she was only half-listening and was busy trying to get inside the tin box. Perhaps it would open just when it was meant to? It certainly wouldn’t open right now, Dorothea wouldn’t let it!
“I have to go, James. Things to do…”
“And people to see. Ciao darling. Ta-ta for now.”
Rosie took the tin box. It was going down to the basement for safe-keeping. Besides, they had a wedding very soon and there was still so much to do.
Bear ran around and around her legs. “Okay, boy. We’ll go out in just a minute. I owe a certain lady a box of cream cakes!” Rosie smiled, it had all ended perfectly.
About the Author
Trisha J. Kelly is an author living in Norfolk, UK.
She is a multi-genre writer with many published books available on Amazon and several more due for release in the future.
To date she has written an award-winning middle-grade fantasy series for reading age approximately eight years and upwards. With many favourable five-star reviews from around the world. The books are equally enjoyed by adults and have generous comparisons to Enid Blyton and J. K. Rowling for the sheer imagination of the content. If you like magical adventures, quests and puzzles then jump onboard the totally unique Scarlett and Mason Series.
In order, the books are:
Discovering Witchetty Waters
In the Wrong Lifetime
The Rise of Sorcha
When Some Were Missing
The Great Storm of 1397
The Mystery of the Ancient Key
Staying with books for even younger children, Trisha has also published three more books. Again, these are suitable for a younger audience with help from an older reader.
24 Sleeps to Go is an adorable book of short, but filling Advent stories. One Christmas themed tale for every night from the 1st to the 24th December. A special keepsake and countdown to Christmas that children will love being read to them, or they can read for themselves. Trisha hopes to bring out a second book of 24 Sleeps to Go – Edition two soon.
Keeping with the Christmas theme and young readers of eight and over, Trisha also released a wonderful Christmas story entitled Blinky, Nutkins and Friends. When a group of forest animals team up with an eccentric professor and his pets anything is possible as they set off in search of Santa’s Village.
For those who love nonsense verse, Once Upon a Timeshift is a delightful pantomime style story completely set in rhyming poetry. Will Princess Fae save her land from a wicked Queen, a devilish leader and a creeping, crawly plant threating to take over their world?
For adults, Trisha has released a wonderful mystery, the first in the series of cold cases regarding missing people, intertwined with fresh murders along the way. Intricate plots laced with plenty of humour.
A Tropical Murder is available on Amazon and will be followed up with A Lakeside Murder then A Campsite Murder.
The Case of Amy Owens. Follow Anna Hamilton, private investigator as she starts her career with this puzzling cold case.
Not stopping there, Trisha has also published a gritty two book series of crime thrillers.
Harry’s Secrets and The Conflict are both available on Amazon, and again, have some very good 5* reviews. Trisha has shown her adaptability in her writing styles by producing two addictive books favourably compared to Martina Cole and Mandasue Heller.
Why not read the reviews for all her books. Follow Trisha for news of all her latest releases.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trisha-J.-Kelly/e/B06XHJZPDP
For a peek inside some of the books, you can find Trisha’s website here:
https://www.trishajkellypublications.co.uk/
Also, in the pipeline and coming your way soon, more books in the brand-new Wodehouse Mysteries. Follow Rosie and the other characters in the upcoming cases.
‘The Tones of War’. Historical fiction coming soon. Follow some East End families as they live through the horrors of WWII. Also, see the second world war through the eyes of the painter. A man given the responsibility of taking in two evacuees.
Coming up also; a YA trilogy. Follow Wynter and the trials and tribulations of The Econians. A race of people trapped in another existence. Among them a father the heroine has never met. Wynter will be the first book of the Econian Legend series, followed by Helena and Artemus.
; Not stopping there, if horror is right up your street, then hide behind your cushions and sleep with the lights on. Silence will be sure to chill you to your bones. Coming soon.
Why not connect with Trisha on social media. She runs a group for indie authors and moderates and administrates on others.
Thank you for reading a little about her books and please, reviews are always very welcome for any writer.
https://www.facebook.com/TrishajkellyAuthor/
https://twitter.com/Trishajkelly
