Murder Makes A Claim (Julia Blake Cozy Mystery Book 8)

by Gillian Larkin

  Julia gave a pretend yawn and blinked. “Not tonight, thanks anyway.” She put her hand on Cain’s arm and steered him towards the lift doors. She’d just spotted a huge rat squatting a short distance from Cain’s feet. And the rat had brought two friends for company. Cain didn’t need to face his fears that intimately.

  Chapter 17

  The next day was Thursday and Julia couldn’t stop herself from yawning as she pulled up outside Cain’s house. When had she got so old? She used to be able to handle double shifts easily only a few years ago. She scowled at Cain as he leapt into the car, not a wrinkle on his youthful face.

  “Hiya!” Cain did a double take. “Didn’t you get any sleep last night? You look awful.”

  Julia scowled even more and then remembered the new wrinkles that had appeared on her forehead last week. She put a smile on her face and said, “No, Cain, I didn’t sleep well. I kept dreaming about vampire rats chasing after poor Fred. How are you today?”

  “Fine!” Cain fastened his seat belt. “Julia, do you want to do any horse riding when we go on holiday? There’s a jogging club too, they go on a midnight jog. I might do that.”

  “Why would anyone want to go on a midnight jog?” Julia shook her head. “Why would anyone want to jog when they’re on holiday?”

  “Your dad’s going to take a painting class, and a pottery one too. I might do that.”

  “Cain, we’re only going for a week.”

  “I know, but I want to make the most of every second.” Cain grinned at her.

  Julia was touched by his enthusiasm and wished she could be more like him. Not the jogging, of course, jogging was for crazy people.

  Cain said, “Did you do any sleuthing last night? Any looking into the dark and mysterious past of Inkwell’s Insurance?”

  Julia shook her head. “No, I just couldn’t face it. I watched Midsomer Murders instead. I’ll have a look later. We’re going to Ivor’s house first. It’s on the way to our first client’s house so it doesn’t take us much out of the way.”

  Cain rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait to start going through all his things. I bet we’ll find millions of clues!”

  Julia looked away from Cain. What had she turned him into? She suddenly felt like Frankenstein with a new breed of monster, a sleuthing kind of monster that would leave no stone unturned until it got to the bottom of a mystery.

  Julia set off in the direction of Ivor’s house. She listened to Cain as he went into further details about all the things he was going to do on holiday. Julia had spoken to Mum last night who confirmed that all their beauty treatments had been booked: facials, aromatherapy sessions, manicures, massages. And they’d even have time to join a chocolate-tasting club. A week wouldn’t be long enough.

  Julia turned off the main road and into a quiet tree-lined street. She checked the numbers of the houses as she drove slowly down the road.

  Cain let out a low whistle as they stopped outside Ivor’s detached house. “Ivor’s done well for himself,” he noted. “How many bedrooms do you think it has?”

  “He’s got four. I checked with him last night.”

  Cain’s left eyebrow rose. “And he lives here alone. Why does he need four bedrooms?”

  Julia switched the engine off. “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  Julia collected her cleaning bag from the boot out of habit, and then put it back. “We don’t need that. I’ll take some photos on my phone and then work out a quote later.” She pulled a face. “That sounds terrible, as if we’re spying on him. But I always take photos of clients’ homes, they know that I do. It makes it easier to give them a thorough quote. What’s wrong with me today? I don’t normally feel this guilty.”

  Cain gave her a wise look. “It might be your age. I was talking about you last night to your dad and he said you’ve been doing too much lately. You can’t take on as much when you get to your age.”

  Julia lifted her chin. “I’ll have you know that I’m in the prime of my life! Follow me, it’s time to get nosy!”

  Cain laughed as he followed Julia up the block paved driveway. She opened the front door and stepped through. Cain bumped into her as he entered. Julia moved to one side.

  “Wow, what a great place. I love it!” Cain said. “I like Ivor’s use of black and white.” He moved further down the hall. “And I like it that he hasn’t got any smelly candles or useless vases of flowers hanging around. This is a real man’s house.”

  Julia’s nose wrinkled slightly. “And it smells that way too. I wasn’t expecting it to be this stylish. From what I’ve seen of Ivor I was expecting lots of leopard skin and tasteless prints on the wall.”

  “Like some sort of seduction palace?”

  “Yes. Do you think his flirty ways are all an act?”

  “Could be.” Cain disappeared into a room on his right. He called out, “Erm, Julia, you might want to see this.”

  Julia walked into the room. A bitter taste flooded her mouth. “Really! Look at all those women! Does he need to have so many photos, and do they have to be so big?”

  Cain was inspecting the framed photographs that lined three walls of the room. “Ivor is in most of them. These must be his girlfriends. He’s had a lot of them, hasn’t he? And he’s been around the world.”

  Julia folded her arms. “It’s like some sort of trophy room. It’s disgusting! I’m going to have a quick look around the house and then leave.” She pulled her arms tighter. “I wish I’d brought my rubber gloves in with me, this house seems suddenly very grubby.”

  Julia left Cain to study more of the photographs. She quickly made a tour of the rest of the downstairs area, taking photographs as she went. There were no more surprises in store, the rest of the house was quite boring and obviously lacked the female touch.

  With trepidation Julia steeled herself to go upstairs. If Ivor had that horrendous display of past girlfriends downstairs, what would he have in his bedroom? If she found the slightest hint of anything bordering on … she couldn’t even finish the thought. But if she found anything disgusting, then she’d be out of there in a microsecond.

  She needn’t have worried. The boring black and white theme continued throughout the rooms upstairs. It was clear that Ivor’s house needed a good polish but it was quite tidy, for a man living on his own.

  Julia continued taking photos. She remembered the real reason why she was there. She returned to the main bedroom. What exactly was she looking for? Evidence that Ivor was having an affair with Olivia? Where would she find such evidence? Julia had a quick look in the wardrobe and through Ivor’s drawers. She felt grubby doing so and stopped after a while. She couldn’t do this, it wasn’t right. If Olivia was a regular visitor here, Julia couldn’t see any signs of it.

  Julia was about to walk away from the room when something caught her eye. There was a bin at the side of the laundry hamper. Something familiar was sticking out of the top of the bin. Julia walked closer. She’d seen that packet of sleeping tablets before. The image came to her. She’d seen the same packet when she’d emptied the bins from floor eight the other day. Had the packet at the office belonged to Ivor? If so, why was he bringing sleeping tablets to work?

  Julia’s hand suddenly flew to her chest. Oh! Karl had looked extremely tired when Julia saw him on Monday. Has Ivor been putting sleeping tablets in his drinks? Julia remembered the phone conversation that Olivia had with Ivor when she’d been in the lift with her and Cain. Olivia had mentioned a plan. Did that plan involve drugging her husband so that it would be easier to kill him?

  Julia put her hand out on the nearby set of drawers to steady her shaking legs. She’d have to let DI Clarke know. It might be nothing, but there again, it could be something. She knew that the sleeping tablets were a common brand but it was still suspicious that an empty packet had turned up at the offices of Inkwell’s Insurance.

  Julia reached for her phone. Cain raced into the bedroom. He jerked his thumb back over his shoulder. “Y
ou’ve got to see this.”

  Chapter 18

  Julia followed Cain downstairs and into the room with the photographs. Cain was standing next to one near the television. “Look!”

  Julia walked closer. “Is that Lorraine?”

  “It certainly is! And look how chummy she looks with Ivor.”

  Julia narrowed her eyes. “Her hair is a bit shorter there. At least she’s fully dressed, not like some of the other women. Well spotted, Cain.”

  Cain folded his arms proudly. “I knew I’d find something amongst these photos.” His arms dropped. “The baby! Lorraine’s baby. Do you think it might be Ivor’s? She hadn’t been seeing Joe long before she told him she was pregnant.”

  “You’re reading my mind. We are a suspicious pair, aren’t we? Let me tell you what I found upstairs.” She told him about the empty packet of sleeping tablets. “Do you think I should phone DI Clarke?”

  “Yes. It’s a clue. It might turn out to be useless but sometimes it’s the small things that give people away.”

  Julia reluctantly looked at her phone. “But he’ll only ask what I’m doing in Ivor’s house, and why I was looking in his bin.”

  “But Ivor did ask you to give him a quote, that’s genuine enough,” Cain pointed out.

  Julia grimaced. “I don’t know if you’re a good influence or a bad influence on me. Okay, here goes.” Julia phoned the inspector. She listened for a moment. Her face lit up. “It’s his answering service! I don’t have to talk to him.” She left him a brief message about the sleeping tablets and ended the call.

  “You didn’t give your name,” Cain said.

  Julia put her phone away. “I think he’ll know it’s me. Right, I think we’ve seen all that we need to. I’ll work out a price and phone Ivor later. Or I could speak to him tonight when we clean the office. Are you sure you’re okay to come with me again? Don’t you have other things to do?”

  “I’m okay. I’m meeting your dad in the pub tonight. You can drop me off there later, if you don’t mind.” He gave her a grin.

  Julia shook her head. “I don’t know where you get your energy from.”

  They left Ivor’s house and went on to their next client’s home.

  As Cain cleaned the windows a short time later he said, “We don’t know what Olivia was doing at the time of the murder. Fred told us people have a code to get back into the building, do you think Olivia knew the code?”

  “It’s possible,” Julia looked up from her polishing. “That’s a good question. She could have sneaked in and killed her husband.” She waved her duster at Cain. “And the murder weapon was sharp and narrow. Did you notice the stiletto heels that Olivia had on her shoes? They look sharp enough to kill a person.”

  “Lorraine wears similar shoes.”

  Julia shuddered. “What an awful way to go.” She returned to her polishing. “And probably a waste of a nice pair of shoes if the blood doesn’t come out.”

  “Can you remember which pair Olivia, or Lorraine, were wearing on Tuesday? We could check out their footwear when we next see them.”

  “I’ve no idea what they were wearing. Cain, women have more than one pair of shoes. Just because you don’t see them wearing a particular pair again doesn’t mean that they’ve stabbed someone with them.”

  “It’s a possibility though. Is it two more cleaning jobs before lunch? I’m starving.”

  “You’re always starving.” Julia moved towards the ornaments on the mantelpiece. “I’ll tell you what, because you’ve been so helpful to me this week, I’ll take you to a nearby pub for a proper pub lunch. You can have whatever you like.”

  Cain looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide. “I can have anything?”

  “Anything. Even a starter and a dessert.” Julia felt hunger stirring in her own tummy. “Just two more homes to finish and then we’ll head to a nice pub that I know.”

  “Great!” Cain turned back to the windows with renewed vigour.

  They soon whizzed through their next two cleaning jobs. Julia admitted to herself again that Cain was doing more work than her, but for once, she didn’t care. She was too tired to care.

  It was two hours later when they drove into the car park of the local pub. Cain’s mouth dropped open as he looked at the huge menu board in the car park. “Can I have a steak? No. I’ll have a chicken pie. No. I like the look of those sausages and Yorkshire pudding. Argh! There’s too much choice!”

  Julia smiled. “Shall we turn around and go to a sandwich shop instead?”

  “No. I’ll make my mind up in a minute.” Cain leapt out of the car before Julia had switched the engine off.

  “Wait for me,” Julia ran after him. The smell of cooked food hit her the second she walked through the pub doors. Maybe having a full meal wasn’t a good idea when she was already feeling tired. Having a full tummy always made her sleepy. Oh! She could always have a coffee with her meal to perk her up.

  Cain was hopping from foot to foot. “Ooo! There’s a carvery too! Look at all that hot food. I don’t know what to do!”

  Julia took his elbow and led him over to a table. “The carvery is delicious. You can have as much as you like. And you can have turkey, beef, ham and gammon if you like. And you can have roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and new potatoes.”

  Cain sank into his seat. “Have I actually died? Am I actually a ghost and you haven’t told me yet? I must be in heaven.”

  Julia sat opposite him. Her heart twisted as she looked at Cain. Coming for a meal out shouldn’t be such a treat for him, it should be something he was used to. Poor chap.

  A smiling waitress appeared at their side, notepad in hand. “Hello there, what can I get you?”

  Cain sat up straighter and said, “Please could I have a go at the carvery. Please. If that’s okay. Thank you.”

  The waitress smiled and nodded. “Of course. Go up and help yourself when you’re ready.” She turned to Julia.

  Julia ordered the same knowing that she wouldn’t enjoy a salad if Cain was sitting opposite her tucking into a feast.

  The waitress walked away. Julia said, “We’d better go to the carvery together. I’ll show you what to do.” Cain jumped up and walked behind her like an eager puppy. Julia showed him how the carvery worked. She was sensible with her own portions. She couldn’t say the same for Cain.

  Julia walked away from the carvery and back towards their table. She froze as she saw Ivor sitting at the far end of the pub. A woman was leaning on his shoulder. Ivor had his arm around her.

  Cain stopped at Julia’s side and looked in the same direction that Julia was. He hissed, “It’s Olivia! Look at them! They are more than friends! Are you going to talk to them? Let them know you’ve caught them in the act?” He looked down at his plate. “I’d come with you but someone might steal my food.”

  Julia walked back to their table, put her plate down and said, “I won’t be a minute.”

  Cain was already sitting down and attacking a piece of ham.

  Julia headed towards Ivor’s table. He must have sensed her imminent arrival because he pushed Olivia to one side and tried to look innocent.

  “Hello Ivor, sorry for disturbing you,” Julia began. “I’ve been to your house this morning …”

  “Who’s that woman?” Olivia snapped. “What’s she going on about?”

  Ivor raised his hands in Olivia’s direction. “It’s just a cleaning woman, she’s giving me a quote.”

  Olivia gave Julia an icy stare. “You can talk to Mr Walsall later. He’s busy at the moment. Goodbye.”

  Ivor gave Julia an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Can you contact me later?”

  “Of course.” Julia knew when she was being dismissed. She quickly looked at Olivia’s shoes. She was wearing stiletto heels again, sharp stiletto heels. Did Olivia kill Karl?

  Chapter 19

  Julia passed Cain a tissue. “You’ve got chocolate on your chin. And you’ve still got a dab of gravy on your nose.”

&nbs
p; Cain wiped his face. He leant back in his chair and rubbed his flat tummy. “That was the nicest meal I’ve had in ages. Thanks, Julia.” He smiled happily.

  “You are more than welcome.”

  Cain’s smile dropped as he caught the sad tone in Julia’s voice. “What’s wrong? Is it Olivia? Don’t let her get to you.”

  Julia let out a sigh. “I know. It’s just that some people speak to me as if I don’t matter because I’m a cleaner. It’s like I’m invisible to them. She spoke to me in the same way that Lorraine did.”

  “People like that are covering up their own insecurities. It boosts their ego to be nasty to people. It proves one thing though, Ivor goes for a certain kind of woman. Are you going to say anything to Joe about that photograph we saw in Ivor’s house?”

  “No. I don’t want to get involved in Ivor’s business. Whatever is going on with him and Lorraine is nothing to do with me. Oh, hang on, my phone’s ringing. I hope it’s not DI Clarke.”

  Julia answered her phone. She looked back at Cain and said, “It’s Ellen. She wants to know how we’ve got ourselves involved in a murder enquiry.”

  Cain pointed to Julia’s half-eaten chocolate cake. “Have you finished with that?”

  Julia pushed the plate towards him. She turned her attention to Ellen and asked how her holiday was going.

  “Fantastic! I’m having a great time. I haven’t lifted a duster once since I got here. Right, back to Karl Rayburn. Tell me everything.”

  Julia chatted with Ellen for five minutes whilst Cain polished off the last of her cake. Julia ended the call and said, “Ellen is surprised that I think Olivia and Ivor might be a couple as he likes his women to be younger. She’s not surprised that I found a photo of Ivor and Lorraine together. She always thought something funny was going on between them. Ellen thinks Ivor could be the father of the baby because Lorraine is devious enough to trick poor Joe. She doesn’t think Joe could be capable of murder because he seems too friendly.” Julia paused for breath.