Death Takes A Trip (Julia Blake Cozy Mystery Book 5)

by Larkin, Gillian

  “I didn’t.” Helena stepped into the house after Julia.

  Julia moved to the sofa and gingerly sat down. It looked like it could do with a clean. She said, “Mildred asked me to pick up her pet, Cat. She used to belong to Douglas but Mildred has taken her in.”

  “I didn’t know that either.” Helena grimaced as she joined Julia on the sofa. “This place needs a good scrubbing. I bet you’re itching to give it a going over.”

  “Not really. I want to find Cat and get out of here as quickly as possible. There’s an oppressive feel to this house.”

  “I know what you mean. I met Mildred here on our first meeting but then I insisted on meeting in cafes. I’ll be brief, then we can both get out of here. Mildred hired me to follow Nina Sapphire. She said she didn’t trust her and suspected that she was cheating on Douglas. I could see what was really going on. Mildred was jealous and wanted to break the couple up. She hired me a few weeks ago. I came here today because she wasn’t answering her phone. Even though Douglas had died she wanted me to keep checking up on Nina.”

  “Have you found anything?”

  Helena shook her head. “Nothing. She hasn’t been sneaking off to see other men. Hasn’t been phoning or texting anyone. I bugged her phone. It’s all part of the service.”

  Julia nodded as if that was acceptable. “I see.”

  “I did discover a man that was following Douglas. He’s in his fifties, maybe sixties. When I’ve been watching Douglas and Nina together I noticed that the same man was watching them too. I also spotted Mildred following the couple. I had to tell her to stop doing that.”

  “Did the man see you watching him?”

  “No, I have a variety of disguises, no one ever spots me. I was wondering if the man was an ex-boyfriend of Nina’s. Perhaps he was jealous. I was going to ask Mildred if she wanted me to follow him, see what he was up to.”

  Julia thought for a moment. “Nina told me that when she was out with Douglas sometimes he would stop talking and look over his shoulder. He thought he was being watched. I wonder if it was this man.”

  “It’s possible. The man didn’t hide away, it was as if he wanted Douglas to see him.”

  “Do you think he might have something to do with Douglas’ death?”

  “Again, that is possible. That’s what I wanted to speak to Mildred about.”

  “Do you think Mildred is capable of murder?”

  “Hell yes! Have you seen the size of her? And the temper on that woman!”

  Julia smiled. “I wasn’t expecting that reply. What will you do now?”

  “I’ll go to the station and talk to her. If she’ll see me.”

  Julia said, “I know Mildred loved Douglas, she said she didn’t kill him. If she is innocent I’d hate for her to be convicted of a crime she didn’t commit. Could you find out who that man is? For me? I’ll pay you of course.”

  Helena reached into her pocket and pulled out a card. She passed it to Julia and said, “You don’t have to pay, I was going to find out who he is anyway, to satisfy my own curiosity. I’ll be in touch. Ring me if you need anything.”

  Julia stood up. “It was nice meeting you.”

  “You too, Julia. You’d better get back to Cain, he’ll be wondering where you are. Bye!”

  Helena left the house. Julia looked down at the card. Who was that man? And why was he following Douglas?

  Chapter 26

  Julia eventually found Cat, she was hiding under Mildred’s bed. Cat hissed at her for a while until Julia finally coaxed her out with an open tin of cat food that she’d found in the kitchen. Once Cat had eaten Julia picked her up and put her on the back seat of her car. She had a quick detour to Dad’s house.

  “Hello there!” Dad called out as he opened the door. “For me? How kind,” he said as Julia planted Cat into his arms.

  “Can you cat-sit for a while please? I’ll come back for her later. Thanks. Love you!”

  Julia was off down the path and into her car without a backward glance. When she drove into the car park at the canal side apartments she found Cain sitting on a low wall outside the nearest apartment block. He was looking at his phone.

  Julia walked to his side and said, “Hi, sorry for leaving you so long. Who are you texting?”

  “Not texting, playing Furious Fish. Have you ever played it? It’s awesome.”

  Julia looked at him. “You can play that in the car. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”

  “Okay,” he said. He stood up and walked whilst simultaneously looking down at his phone. Julia shook her head. If she tried that she’d most likely find herself falling down an open manhole. When she sent a text she had to be standing still so that she made sure she pressed the right buttons. Why did the buttons have to be so small on phones?

  Cain got into the passenger seat, his attention still on the game. Julia opened the boot and placed the cleaning bag inside. She closed the boot and then screamed.

  “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you okay?”

  Julia nodded to the young woman in front of her and waved a hand, “I’ll be okay in a second.”

  The woman said, “I’m Erin Matthews. You don’t know me but I’ve been following you all morning.”

  “Are you a private investigator as well?”

  The woman looked confused. “No, I work in a bank. I’m sorry, it sounds sinister to say that I’ve been following you. I didn’t have a choice. The police won’t listen to me and …”

  Erin burst into tears. Julia immediately opened the back door of the car and indicated for Erin to sit down. Julia went round to the other side and sat next to Erin. Julia said, “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  Erin sniffed and said, “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For listening to me. The police are not interested at all, they must think I’m some sort of mad woman.” She took a breath. “My granddad died recently. The doctor said it was a heart attack but I know that isn’t the real cause. He’d been hounded for weeks before he died. He’d been followed and he’d been threatened. All the stress weakened his heart.”

  Julia had a feeling that she knew where this was heading. Cain had now turned round in his seat and was listening to Erin.

  Julia said, “Has this anything to do with Adams Construction?”

  “Yes! Yes, it has. Have you had dealings with them too?”

  “A friend of mine has. Tell me more about your granddad.”

  “He lived on the other side of town. He had a lovely big house with a great big garden. He used to complain about all the new houses that were springing up on either side of him. He said the builders had approached him to sell but he turned them down.

  “Then something must have happened because I noticed a change in Granddad. He became more withdrawn and wouldn’t go out. On the few occasions that we did go out, he was always looking over his shoulder. And the amount of times he had accidents with his windows! He told me the windows were old and fragile, and that a slam of the door would break them. I knew he was lying but I couldn’t get him to tell me what the real problem was. He aged quickly before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do about it.”

  Tears flowed again down her face. She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her nose. “Then he died. Of a heart attack. That might be true but something had happened to make his heart weak.”

  “What makes you think it has anything to do with Adams Construction?” Julia asked.

  “They were the builders of the new houses that surrounded Granddad’s house. One of them approached Mum at the funeral about Granddad’s house, his funeral of all places! He asked if he could buy Granddad’s house. Mum didn’t want the hassle of putting it on the market so she said yes. She regrets it now, Granddad’s lovely house is going to be torn down. When I was walking back to the funeral car I overheard the builder on his phone. He was a young man, big build. I didn’t like the way he was smiling, it was like a shark’s smile. He said
on the phone that the plan had worked, the old codger was gone and they could have the land now.”

  Cain said, “That’s who Kirk Adams must have been talking about when we saw him in the pub.” He explained to Erin about Kirk Adams and the night in the pub.

  Erin nodded. “He looked a nasty sort. I know he’s got something to do with Granddad’s death, I just don’t know what. I came across another suspicious death of an elderly man, I think he was called Douglas. The report gave his street address. I drove there. The minute I saw that his house was surrounded by Adams’ houses I knew something suspicious was going on. They must be threatening people until they agree to sell their houses.”

  Julia said, “I worked for Douglas. He was murdered by a woman called Mildred Hepplethwaite. She’s in prison.”

  Erin’s face fell. “Are you sure she killed him? Are you sure it didn’t have anything to do with Adams Construction?”

  Julia looked over at Cain and said, “What do you think?”

  Cain said, “I think we’ve got more investigating to do.”

  “I agree.” Julia turned to Erin and said, “Give me your details, I’ll give you my phone number.” She stopped, her eyebrows raised. “Hang on, how did you know to follow me?”

  Erin looked embarrassed. “After I’d been to your friend’s house I drove to the local police station. I overheard you talking to that man with the bright blue eyes. He told you to stop bothering him about Adams Construction. I knew I had to speak to you.”

  “I had no idea that I was being followed. Are you sure you’re not a private investigator? You’d make a good one.”

  Erin smiled. “Do you think you could help me find out what Adams Construction are up to, maybe get some evidence?”

  “We’ll certainly try,” Julia said. “And I think I know where to begin.”

  Chapter 27

  As Julia drove away she said to Cain, “I knew that Kirk Adams was up to no good. We have to collect enough evidence so that the police will take this matter seriously.”

  “But what can we do?”

  “Do you remember when we went to see Gloria, that ex-neighbour of Douglas’? She told us about her other neighbour, Stan. From what she told us it sounds like Stan might have been threatened by Kirk Adams too. If we could speak to him and find out the full story, then we would have more evidence against Kirk.”

  “Gloria doesn’t know where he lives. How are we going to track him down?” Cain looked out of the window. “What are we doing here? Are you going to confront Alexander Adams? Tell him how nasty his son is?”

  Julia parked next to the show house that she and Dad had visited previously. “I’m hoping that we won’t be spotted by Kirk or Alexander.” She peered through the front and side windows of the car. “I can’t see anyone working on the new houses, they must be on their lunch breaks.”

  “Can you tell me what your plan is?” Cain asked. “You’re not going to sneak into the site manager’s office, are you?”

  “Oh, I never thought of that. No, I’m going to find out where Stan moved to, hopefully. And you’re going to help me.” Julia told Cain what she intended to do.

  They walked into the show house and were immediately met by Delilah. She beamed at them. “Hello, and welcome to the Windsor. I’m Delilah.” She looked closer at Julia. “I’ve seen you before. You were with your dad. I see you’ve come back for a second look, I don’t blame you! Is this your son?”

  “Yes,” Cain said before Julia could say she was far too young to be his mother.

  “I can see the family resemblance,” Delilah said with a smile.

  Julia and Cain exchanged a quick look. They looked nothing like each other. Julia thought Delilah must be eager to make a sale.

  Julia smiled and said, “I was so impressed with this house that I had to bring Cain with me.”

  Delilah clasped her hands together. “That’s wonderful news! We don’t have many of these houses left, they’ve been selling like hot buns!”

  Julia nodded. “I can quite understand why. As much as I love this house I would prefer to see the ones that you’re going to build on that land behind this one. Do you have any drawings you could show us?”

  Delilah’s smile dropped slightly. “Ah, yes. There has been a slight hiccup with our plans. All legal stuff, but it will be sorted out soon!”

  “That’s a shame. Do you have any actual plans of the development? I’d like to see the layout of the proposed houses.” Julia moved closer and gave Delilah a knowing look. “I’ve recently come into money and I was planning on buying more than one house. I’d like my family to be near to me.”

  Julia could almost see the pound signs lighting up in Delilah’s eyes. Julia felt a pang of guilt for deceiving her, but then she remembered who Delilah was working for.

  “Family is so important,” Delilah said. She went to the front door, opened it, looked outside and then closed it. “I don’t suppose it would do any harm if we looked at the plans, just don’t tell anyone! Come into the office.” She unlocked a door at their side and led them in.

  Cain took his phone out and started tapping away on it.

  Julia said, “Excuse my son, you know what young people are like with their phones.”

  “I do,” Delilah said with a nod. She opened a filing cabinet and pulled out some papers. She laid them out on a desk. “These are going to be our finest houses ever. You won’t believe the features that they’re going to have.”

  Julia looked over the plans. “Cain, come and look at these.”

  Cain tutted and came to her side, still on his phone. He glanced down and said, “Yeah. They just look like houses to me.” He retreated and turned his attention back to his phone.

  Julia gave a forced laugh and said, “I’m so sorry. I brought him up better than that. He doesn’t appreciate the beauty of your houses.”

  Delilah nodded in an understanding manner. “I quite understand.”

  Julia carried on, “He doesn’t even want to look around this house! He won’t listen to me. Mind you, I’m not a brilliant salesperson like you. I bet you could convince him that this house is perfect.”

  Delilah clapped her hands together like a small child. “Would you like me to show him around this house?”

  “Would you really? That would be so kind of you, thank you.” Julia pulled Cain’s phone out of his hands and said, “Delilah has kindly offered to take you around this house.”

  Cain shrugged and mumbled, “What’s the point? It’s just a house, there’s nothing special about it.”

  “Young man! This is the Windsor,” Delilah said. “There are features in this house that you have never seen before. Follow me!”

  Julia took a chance and said, “Would you mind if I had a closer look at these plans? I think my sister might be interested too.”

  Delilah waved a hand at her. “You go ahead!” She addressed Cain, “Let’s go to the kitchen first! You’re going to be amazed!”

  Cain shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled behind her. As he left the room he looked back at Julia and grinned.

  Julia felt terrible about Delilah. Then she wondered if Delilah knew what sort of a man Kirk Adams was. If she did, and she was okay with his thuggish ways, then Julia shouldn’t feel guilty. And if Delilah didn’t know about Kirk, then Julia was doing her a favour by exposing him. She nodded to herself, happy that her conscience was now clear.

  She cocked her head. She could hear Delilah’s enthusiastic voice intermingled with Cain’s occasional disinterested grunts. He was playing his part well.

  Julia waited until she heard them walk upstairs. She went to the filing cabinet and searched through the files inside. She didn’t even know if the information she needed would be in here. Her heart rate speeded up as she came across a file with the name of Douglas’ street on it. She quietly pulled it out and laid it on the table. Her heart thudded in her ears and her hands shook as she looked through the pages.

  There! There was Stan’s n
ame. She ran her finger down the sheet of paper.

  Bingo! His forwarding address. He might not live there any more but it was a start. Julia jumped as she heard footsteps outside the room. The door opened slightly. Julia felt her heart stop as Delilah began to enter the room. Delilah’s head was turned towards Cain, she hadn’t seen Julia. Cain had. He quickly took in the scene and cried out, “The kitchen! I want to see the kitchen again!”

  Delilah said, “Of course! This way.” She left the room.

  Julia whipped out her phone and took a photo of Stan’s details. She hurriedly put the file back together and returned it to the filing cabinet.

  Delilah waked into the office, a big smile on her face. “I think I’ve convinced your son.”

  “Have you? How wonderful! Thank you so much!” Julia realised her voice was a bit too high. She coughed and said, “We really have to be going. You’ve given us a lot to think about. Thank you for your time.”

  “My pleasure,” Delilah said.

  The guilt washed over Julia again. She pushed it to one side.

  As soon as they were in the car Cain said, “Did you find out where Stan lives? Are we going there now?”

  Julia pulled a face. “Not unless you want us to be driving for hours. Stan lives in Edinburgh.”

  “Oh. What are we going to do?”

  “Phone him. There was a number listed for him. Whether he will talk to us, well, that’s another matter.”

  Chapter 28

  Stan wouldn’t talk to them. Julia tried his number the minute that they returned to the car. As soon as Julia mentioned Adams Construction he hung up.

  “At least I got him to confirm his address before he hung up,” Julia said.

  “Are we going to Edinburgh then?” Cain asked hopefully. “I’ve never been there before.”

  Julia started the car. “I don’t know what we’re going to do about Stan, but we’d better get on our way, Delilah has been staring at us for the last five minutes out of the window. Thanks for helping me in there.”