Caribbean Sunset with a Yellow Parrot (The Belchester Chronicles Book 5)

by Andrea Frazer

  ‘Aren’t you coming with me?’ she asked, much more relaxed now that she had had her supplier arrested. Hopefully the man who had been trying to blackmail her back home would be frightened off by her telling him that she only had to relate the tale of what was happening on Caribbaya at this very moment, to scare him off for good, and get back her peace of mind.

  ‘We have some matters to discuss when we get back home,’ ad libbed Lady Amanda, half-closing one eye at the others, to alert them that they still had things to deal with here.

  The four of them sat on the sand of the beach, which had now dried in the sun, and Lady Amanda asked the inevitable question. ‘What are we going to do about Windy and Beep-Beep?’

  ‘Why don’t we go and wait for the bus to come by, and go into town to the security force’s headquarters, and tell them what the two of them have been up to, for it concerns a lease on part of the island. At least if we could get them arrested, we might be able to get negotiations going with the island’s owner about renewing the lease to preserve the homes of those who have already been duped.’

  ‘Beauchamp, you’re a genius. Let’s get ourselves back to the main road and wait for it to come round. It may be a very roundabout trip, but I don’t fancy going back to the close, do you guys? It’s almost cost me my sanity since I’ve known about their duplicity, and yesterday it was particularly hard, biting my tongue.’

  ‘Well said, Manda,’ Hugo said, applauding her. ‘I really don’t think I could face either of them again, or those who have already bought properties, and those who are considering buying. Let’s head for that road. It’s not too far, but I certainly couldn’t have done it before my operations.’

  ‘Hugo, you couldn’t even have walked round the close before your operations, not without a Zimmer frame or two walking sticks,’ commented Beauchamp, though in a sympathetic manner.

  ‘Hear hear!’ responded Hugo. ‘Ain’t life grand?’ His face was all smiles as he contemplated the improvements to his life since Lady Amanda had come across him.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The bus took twenty minutes to come bucketing along the road, and a further forty-five minutes to get to the security firm’s office just outside the jewellery quarter, what with its frequent stops to let people off and on, and to wait a few minutes here and there, because a certain passenger was a regular and had probably been held up, and Winstone had to wait for them out of a sense of loyalty.

  Fortunately their story was believed when Lady Amanda told them that proof of the fraudulent transactions could be found easily in Cocktails itself, and eventually a car was sent out to arrest them. That was good, as they had not been alerted and would not, therefore, have had time – or opportunity with the seas still rough – to flee the island to join their money, wherever they had had it transferred. Maybe, if they coughed up this information, the other girls might even get some compensation. They also said that, as they would have to contact the island’s owner, they would apprise him of the situation, and see what he could do about issuing a longer lease, and how much it would cost.

  As Windy and Beep-Beep had built the houses out of their original stake and then with the money invested to buy a couple of them, the owner might even let them keep their homes, as there had been no financial cost to him in their erection, and the sale of the remaining villas would be at his discretion. Maybe the compensation received from the fraudulent couple might even cover the purchase of a longer lease.

  The officer who dealt with them thought that their case might be considered sympathetically, as the close was a regular source of revenue for the island, and if the rest of the houses were sold, it would only benefit local trade. The Belchester quartet had done as much as they could to help the old school chums, and the rest was out of their hands. Without their uncovering of the scam, two more elderly women would have been cheated out of their capital, and maybe even more in the future, as there were still ten properties unsold.

  Having returned to number fifteen after the couple at Cocktails had been taken away for questioning, and with their property undergoing a thorough search, the four of them sat down to a very welcome pot of tea, and a discussion about informing the other inhabitants of the treachery that had been practised upon them.

  They had to do no summoning, however, for someone had seen them return and, with the swiftness of any grapevine, word had spread from house to house that Windy and Beep-Beep had been removed in handcuffs and taken away, and that the missing four of their number had returned. They had not even finished their tea when there was a knock at the door and a ring on the bell, and they found that all the others had gathered and come to the house in a deputation.

  Horseface, who had been at the heart of the events at Old Uncle Obediah’s Rum Keg Landing Beach Bar – RIP – and the follow-up at the Lizard Lounge, had told an edited version of the drug smuggling – minus her involvement in it – and the murder of their darling Adonis, and they now wanted to know what on earth Windy and Beep-Beep had been up to. Surely they weren’t drug smugglers as well?

  Beauchamp led the explanation of what had happened to the residents of Cocktails, dealing diplomatically but firmly with anyone who got so agitated that they started shouting. ‘Let me finish. Let me finish, please,’ he called out several times, to the crowd in the sitting room, who became restive and agitated as the story unfolded.

  He ploughed through the details, explaining that the owner would be contacted, apprised of the situation, and asked if he would issue a longer lease. If the police finally caught up with the nice little nest egg that the couple had hived off to disappear after, as soon as the sale of their other properties had gone through, there was the possibility of some compensation, to be put toward a new lease. By this time they were much calmer.

  The butler finally explained to them that if Fflageolet and Droopy-Drawers still wished to purchase a villa, this would probably have to be conducted through the island’s owner, and when he finished, they were in a much more upbeat mood.

  It was decided that they would have a celebration, of sorts, that night at number fifteen, to celebrate the sterling work of the detectives amongst them, and then they would keep pretty much to themselves until their date of departure. Things would work out somehow, despite any worrying on their part, and fretting about the situation wouldn’t influence the eventual outcome in the slightest.

  As they left to go back to their own bases, Horseface hung back to thank them again for their intervention in her terrible dilemma, and to say, with utter horror, that she couldn’t believe they had suspected she was indulging in a romantic dalliance with Short John.

  ‘Well, there’s no accounting for taste,’ Lady Amanda said, stating the obvious.

  ‘Precisely,’ replied Horseface, ‘I don’t even like men.’ She gave them an enormous wink and took herself off, back to number one.

  ‘Great Scott!’ exclaimed Lady A. ‘To think I’ve been to boarding school with her, and never suspected in the slightest that she might’ve batted for the other team.’

  ‘What other team?’ asked Hugo, whose mind had gone straight to cricket, and who could never pick up a nuance, or follow events quite quickly enough.

  ‘I’ll explain it to you later,’ she assured him, as she and Enid headed for the kitchen to get something ready for later. Although everyone would bring something with them, it would be as well to have a reasonable spread ready for the first arrivals, so that they didn’t look like a bunch of party-poopers.

  The shock of finding out how they had been duped or almost, in the case of some of them, followed by Beauchamp’s reassuring words about how the whole mess might be sorted out, produced a hint of euphoria in the old chums, and the party was in full swing when there was a pounding on the door, and Beauchamp answered it, more out of habit than anything else, and revealed the bedraggled and dishevelled figure of Albie Ross. His hair was standing on end and stained black with soot and smuts, as were his hands and clothes, and he looked like a s
carecrow out for the night.

  ‘Whatever happened to you?’ asked Lady Amanda, joining them to see who this latest visitor was. ‘Did someone put you on the top of a bonfire in place of the guy?’

  ‘It’s the Parakeet Club,’ he said, his voice high and somehow desolate.

  ‘What about it?’

  ‘It only went and got struck by lightning,’ he explained, standing firmly on the doormat so that he shouldn’t spread soot and dirt around the immaculate hall. Enid handed him a glass with a Blue Lagoon in it, and he drained it in one swallow. ‘Ooh, I needed that,’ he sighed.

  ‘What’s the damage?’ asked Lady Amanda, wanting the rest of the story.

  ‘It was struck and caught fire. I’ve been there most of the night, and all of today too, seeing what I could salvage, but there isn’t much left. The whole building’s gone, burnt to the ground, and all I’ve got left are some bottles of booze and the ice-buckets. I even lost all my clothes, because I lived on the premises in a couple of rooms at the back.’

  ‘Take off your shoes and jacket, then come in and go into the downstairs bathroom to get yourself decent. I’m sure our man Beauchamp can sort you out something to wear, while you think about what you’re going to do and where you’re going to go.’

  Beauchamp made tracks to number eight immediately, and Albie disappeared into the bathroom to try to make himself look presentable again. By the time he was clean, dry, and reasonably attired (as Beauchamp’s contributions towards his sartorial elegance were a little on the large side), he asked what other news there was.

  That kept the old girls entertaining him until nearly midnight, with their tales of the dark deeds of their old head girl and her partner, and of Short John’s double life. When they had finished their story, he was not only rather squiffy, but an idea was forming in his head.

  ‘Do you mean to say that the Beach Bar is completely done for?’ he asked, hope rising in his voice.

  ‘Just a pile of debris. It wasn’t exactly a sound structure, was it?’

  ‘No, but it could easily be rebuilt. It was all bamboo and palm fronds, which I don’t exactly have to get from a builder’s merchants.’

  ‘True enough,’ they all agreed.

  ‘Then if I can get some of the locals to help me clear the site, I can just build another structure like that on my site. It’s perfect for cocktails before dinner, and I could always scrounge some old tables and chairs,’ he decided.

  ‘This is the third establishment you’ve lost, isn’t it?’ asked Snotty, sniffing into her handkerchief, as usual.

  ‘It is, sod’s law confirms that I’ve no insurance.’

  ‘Then I think you’ve just had a very good idea of how to get out of the hole you’ve suddenly found yourself in,’ contributed Hopalong. ‘But where are you going to stay until it’s ready?’

  This was a good point, and one that silenced them all, until Hefferlump’s voice suddenly chimed up with, ‘You could always stay with me – if you’d like to, that is.’

  Albie looked at her, at her rounded figure in its usual T-shirt and shorts, and at her kind face and her snowy white hair. ‘Do you know, I think I’d rather like that,’ he replied. ‘I think I’d like that very much indeed. Thank you very much, dear lady.’

  ‘And please call me Dorothy,’ said that lady, looking very pleased with the deal she had just sealed.

  ‘Just make sure there aren’t too many sparks flying between you two,’ called Wuffles, never very diplomatic. ‘We don’t want your house going up in flames too.’

  Their remaining time on the island of Caribbaya flew by, but allowed Hugo his time lying in the dying rays of the sun, admiring the beauties of the sunset and sipping a sundowner. He finally got his tropical relaxation, without Windy continually organising his time for him, and even went for a couple of dips in the bathwater-warm sea, just for the hell of it, and because he could. He was unlikely to find himself in such a place again, and he had determined to make the most of it.

  Beauchamp and Enid retired to number eight to resume their interrupted honeymoon, and Lady Amanda gave Hugo a bit of peace and quiet, as she had got herself involved in the negotiations with the owner about the new lease, and spent any other free time she had badgering the security service, to see if they’d heard anything from the mainland police regarding Windy and Beep-Beep, and the money they had tucked away for their future.

  It seemed no time at all before they were boarding the tin cigar to fly them home, all the old St. Hilda’s girls who lived there waving from just outside the perimeter fence. ‘Well, I’m glad to be going home. It seems an awfully long time since we’ve seen dear old Belchester Towers,’ said Lady Amanda to Hugo, who had a seat beside her in the body of the plane – but not in the window seat, of course.

  ‘Me too, but I did enjoy the last bit, where I really did feel like I was in paradise,’ he replied, slightly dishonestly. This was only half the story, and the thing he had enjoyed just as much was the fact that his housemate was so busy with other matters. He was very fond of her, but after the hectic time they’d had it was good just to feel like he was on holiday, with nobody hassling him to go here, go there, do this, or do that.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Belchester Towers was musty and airless when they arrived home. It had that forlorn appearance that properties adopt when unoccupied for a while. Beauchamp made it his first job, after bringing in the luggage and stowing away the Rolls, to open all the windows and doors to air the place, leaving Enid to provide their employer and her housemate with a pot of tea, before disappearing upstairs to empty the suitcases and other receptacles that had travelled back with them.

  She started with Lady A’s and Hugo’s luggage, sorting the clean from those items that needed cleaning. The former she hung away in the wardrobes, then sorted the more rumpled and grubby items into ‘for laundering’ or ‘dry clean only’.

  This task completed, she went into what would be her new abode, to the bed she would share, for the first time, with her new husband, and did the same with their garments. A thrill of excitement ran through her, as she looked at her new sleeping arrangements, the sheets having been changed just before they left for their honeymoon.

  With a wave of pure joy, she pulled back the top bedding to air it, feeling slight butterflies in her stomach at the thought of sleeping there, even though they had been together throughout their tropical honeymoon. Tonight was the first night she would sleep beside Beauchamp the butler, instead of with her new husband. It was quite a different prospect. With a little shudder of anticipation, she went downstairs to see what was in the freezer and larder, so that they could eat tonight, thinking wistfully of the small but very important task she had to carry out in the near future.

  After opening up the house, Beauchamp changed straight into his butler’s uniform, and went off on a property inspection to see if anything had happened that needed attending to while they had been away, also contemplating his first full night with Enid under Lady Amanda’s roof with keen enthusiasm.

  Enid, having set meat to defrost in a sinkful of water, realised that no one had rung for her to chide her for using made-up powdered milk to go with the tea, and surmised that the other pair were happy to be back, too.

  In the drawing room, Hugo was slumped comfortably into an armchair, his cup and saucer on a small table beside him, a smile of contentment on his face. It had been an interesting interlude in the Caribbean, but there was no place like home, and he really felt at home in Belchester Towers. He had known the place for so much of his life, through the friendship between his parents and Manda’s, and it had truly become his home since he had moved in. He was happier than he had been for years, he thought, finishing his tea with an audible slurp.

  As he put down his cup, he was interrupted in his reverie by the sharp voice of the owner of the property.

  ‘Come on, Hugo; up you get. This won’t get the baby boiled. We never did get that antiques business going. Let’s get off
and choose a room then you can start rummaging with me. And we haven’t got a name for it yet. Got any ideas?’

  Hugo sighed, heaved himself into the best approximation of an upright position that he could manage, now that the balmy temperatures were a thing of the past, and stumped off after her, as she trudged out of the room, heading down the hall to the back of the house.

  ‘We’ll go through the back rooms first. There are a lot of them not in use at the moment, and we don’t want anything too near our living quarters, do we?’ Her voice floated over her shoulder to him, and he heaved a great sigh of resignation. She was off again, but at least life was more exciting with his old friend than it had been for many a long year.

  Enid left the kitchen and began to visit the rooms in everyday use with a feather duster. Later, she would go round with the vacuum cleaner. She had hated the way her last home had become such a midden, with that manky old cat she had owned, and her mother living with her. She was as house-proud of Belchester Towers now as if it were her own.

  Life gradually settled down into a familiar pattern, the only difference discernible, being that Enid was there first thing in the morning as well as last thing at night, as Beauchamp did not have to drive her to and fro now, as he had before they married. She had even bought her sturdy old bicycle with her, so that she could get out and about on her own without disturbing her husband in his duties, which were many and varied.

  She was on her way to visit her mother at her sister’s house, having left Beechy – as she referred to him – up a stepladder reaching as high as he could with the extending feather duster, into the topmost corners in the high-ceilinged rooms, giving them a bit of a tidy-up. The spiders had really been busy, and if one looked upwards, things were beginning to look a little neglected.