Even though she bent her head, hiding her flaming red cheeks, Holly could feel the curious eyes staring at her. What had just happened?
She reached out her hand to pick up the almost empty glass of water for a sip. Her hand shook so much that if it had been any fuller, water would have splashed everywhere.
Don’t cry, Holly told herself sternly. That’ll just make people stare all the more.
She and Simon had never had such terrible arguments. After a second, Holly amended that to while they were together.
Once Simon had told her that he wanted a divorce, she’d come close to having a breakdown. On a morning soon after, Holly had viciously attacked him with a verbal barrage of insults in the lobby at work.
Holly liked to think of herself as stable and sensible, always in control. Considering her recent demonstration, that didn’t actually seem to fit the bill any longer. Having a screaming match with your new boyfriend out in public was something hysterical girls did—not sensible middle-aged woman in their forties.
When it seemed possible that her legs would carry her all the way to the door, Holly stood and walked out of the restaurant. A man was standing just outside the entrance and her heart skipped a beat, thinking that Aidan had stayed to apologize.
It wasn’t Aidan. The man stared at her curiously, then turned aside to continue his conversation on the mobile phone.
After feeling so happy just fifteen minutes before, now Holly was in the depths of despair. Was her oversight really so bad that she deserved to be yelled at?
A pointless question to ask herself—she really didn’t know the answer.
Suddenly, Holly felt a stab of loneliness. As much as she’d grown tired of her sister’s teasing about Aidan, never in a million years did she think their relationship would end so quickly.
The terrible funeral might had been a forewarning of the awful week to come. Holly could only hope that it didn’t sink any lower.
As she walked back toward her home, Holly’s feet took a stray turn and pointed her in the direction of Derek Masters’ house instead. She knew the place well, having been a pet-sitter for a short period of time when his dad was ill in hospital.
As Holly walked the few minutes to get to the driveway, she began to fathom why she’d made the turn to begin with. No matter what shocks the funeral had come with, it had also presented an opportunity. If the information that Steven Willoughby had stated on the recording and written in his sly little note was correct, then Holly had a half-brother. Samuel may not want anything to do with her, but she wanted to reach out and give him the opportunity at least. Perhaps their genetic similarities could reveal a greater bond that they might strengthen into a sibling relationship.
Maybe not. Probably not, given their late introduction.
Still, Holly wanted to give it a try.
Hopefully, Sophie would have a contact point for Holly’s new-found sibling. If not, she might need to hunt him down through other avenues but that was in the future.
Holly knocked on the front door and waited impatiently for it to be answered.
“Derek,” she said, giving him a short hug when he opened up. “I’d like to speak with Sophie, if she’s still here.”
Derek let Holly into the house and led her out to the back lawn where Sophie and Matthew were playing a game of cricket. Or, at least, it was a game that involved cricket stumps, a bat, and a ball. After considering their game play for a few minutes, Holly didn’t recognize any other elements.
“Hey,” she called out when an underarm pitch was knocked along to the opposite end wicket like it was croquet. “Can I join in?”
“Oh, no.” Sophie turned around with a grin on her face, crossing her eyes. “We’ll have to stop now, Matty. We have guests.”
As they headed back indoors, Sophie looped her arm through Holly’s. “Thank goodness you turned up,” she whispered. “I thought for a moment there I’d be stuck playing until the sun went down.”
Overhearing her, Derek chimed in from behind them. “That wouldn’t have got you out of it, you know.”
When Holly and Sophie turned their questioning faces towards him, he pointed to the side of the house. “Dad installed flood lights years ago,” he explained. “They’re so bright that if you wanted to play all evening long, nothing would stop you.” He winked. “But I won’t tell, if you don’t.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Sophie said. “I’ll have to make sure when my son challenges me to a game in future, I set stringent time limits on the thing.” She paused and tilted her head to one side. “And insist on keeping at least some of the rules from the original. I’m not sure at all that Matty’s batting method was fair.”
Derek laughed and ruffled the boy’s hair. Matthew turned and rewarded him with a wide grin, a far cry from the shy boy that Holly remembered from earlier in the week.
“Are you planning on staying in town for long?” she asked Sophie as they settled into the lounge. “I was half afraid that I’d missed you.”
“We weren’t planning on being here now,” Sophie said, her voice containing an edge to it. “Then Amber managed to go and get herself stabbed, and the medical staff doesn’t know when she’ll be well enough to leave.”
“I didn’t realize she was still in town,” Holly said, surprised. “I presumed that they would have taken her to Christchurch Hospital.”
Brian Masters walked in, nodding to the assembled group. “That would have been the preference, but the surgeon who stitched her up said she shouldn’t be moved.”
“But why does that restrict you?” Holly asked. “Surely, Amber’s big enough to take care of herself.”
Sophie nodded. “I just wanted to wait until she’s fully alert to say goodbye. We went to visit her the other day, and she was away with the fairies, they had her on such strong medication.”
“The police can’t get anything sensible out of her at the moment, either,” Brian added. “They asked Sophie to stay in town until they’re finished with their inquiries.”
“I’m surprised they haven’t arrested someone already.” Holly shifted in her chair, pulling her skirt down where it had caught on her leg. “I wouldn’t have thought the pool of suspects was huge.”
“Was that why you dropped by?” Sophie asked. She accepted a cup of coffee from Brian, batting her lashes more than Holly thought necessary during the transaction.
Holly shifted on the sofa, clearing her throat while she tried to work out how to word her request. “I’m actually wondering if you had contact details for Samuel,” she said finally, deciding that being straightforward was best. “Although everything that came out at the funeral was bizarre—”
Brian Masters snorted, and shook his head. “To say the least,” he muttered.
“Well, anyway. I thought that it might be nice—”
“Of course,” Sophie said, cutting Holly off again. “You want to connect with your half-brother. That’s perfectly understandable.”
She walked away, holding up one finger to show she’d just be a minute. Brian waited for a few seconds, then raised his eyes and followed her.
“If she’s searching for her handbag,” he said. “She’ll be an absolute age. I don’t know how Sophie manages to lose things all the time, but she does.”
As he walked out into the hallway after her, Holly heard Sophie give a lighthearted giggle. Although she hated herself immediately for thinking it, Holly thought Sophie had moved on from grief over her dead partner remarkably quickly. Turning to Derek, she saw from his thunderous face that he was thinking along similar lines.
“How are you coping with your unexpected guests?” she asked him, nodding at Matthew. “Is it nice having someone else around?”
She knew from previous conversations that Derek had been very lonely. First off, because his father worked all manner of hours in his business. Secondly, after the disastrous run-in with his fiancée had nearly left him dead, he’d lost the only other stable relationship in his life
.
“I’ve been delighted to have someone young about the place.” Derek nodded to Matthew. “But at the same time, it will be quite nice to be able to get into the bathroom without tripping over lacy things hanging about the sink.”
Holly laughed, imagining the look on Derek’s face as he walked into “something lacy” without expecting it.
The phone rang a few minutes later. Derek answered it, Brian and Sophie still not returning from their handbag hunt.
“That was the surgical center,” Derek said as he put the phone down. “They said that Amber’s finally being weaned off the pain medication, so she’s awake and coherent if we want to visit.”
“I should get out of your hair, then,” Holly said, standing up.
“What’s this?” Sophie asked, walking into the room. “You’re not leaving?”
Derek ran through the explanation again, and Sophie’s face darkened. She turned to Brian. “I suppose that I should go and visit her. Will you come?”
“Of course,” he said, with a short bow. In other circumstances—ones that didn’t involve someone so recently widowed—it would have been quite cute. As it was, Holly felt increasingly uneasy watching the two of them interact.
“We should all go together,” Sophie said, clapping her hands. “Won’t it be nice to see your half-sister, Matty?”
The expression of horror that clouded his face sent a clear message that it would not. When Sophie tugged on Holly’s arm, including her in the invitation, it felt more like she was including a buffer zone than genuinely expecting her to want to go.
“I’m sure there’s too many of us to travel together,” Holly said, backing away from the group.
“Nonsense,” Sophie said immediately. “Brian’s car is more than big enough to fit us all.”
Not knowing quite how it happened and without any desire on her behalf, Holly ended up in the back seat between Derek and Matthew, all of them appearing equally dismayed at the prospect.
Holly kept her fingers crossed that with such a terrible injury, Amber would be tired out soon and need to rest.
The surgery center was so small that there were only two rooms out the back for patients. From the expression on the face of the first nurse who exited Amber’s bedside, it appeared that she was having the same effect on the staff there as she had on her family.
“You go in first,” Sophie said, pushing at Holly’s back to steer her into the room, a buffer between the two women.
Holly gave an awkward nod to Amber, who didn’t seem entirely as coherent as the staff had told Derek over the phone.
“It’s nice to see you,” Holly said in a stilted voice. “I’m so sorry that you’re sick.”
“I’m not sick,” Amber returned. “Someone tried to kill me.”
“Mm,” Holly murmured, having run out of things to say.
“Do you know who did it?” Derek said, moving to the side of the bed. “The police keep turning up asking a whole lot of questions.”
As Holly moved to stand behind him, it opened Sophie up to Amber’s line of sight. From her hospital bed, the woman’s eyes widened, and her hand raised from the mattress, finger pointing out in accusation.
“You!” Amber said, an expression of terror flooding over her features. She pressed backward, moving into a sitting position as she tried the impossible feat of backing away inside a bed. “It was you who stabbed me!”
Chapter Thirteen
Sophie shook all of the way back to the Masters’ house. Even as she got out of the car to walk the short distance to the front door, Holly had to support her arm. Otherwise, she would have sprawled in the driveway.
“I swear,” Sophie whispered as they walked inside. “I promise you I never stabbed Amber.”
“Of course not,” Holly agreed. Sophie seemed so frail next to her that it was impossible to imagine her stalking the hotel grounds with a knife.
Although, if not her, then whom?
Not Holly’s problem, she decided. The police could sort out the tangled mess to track down the killer. That’s what the public’s tax dollars paid for, and that’s where the problem should lie.
“Do you want to go through to the lounge or to your bedroom?” Holly asked as they walked through the lobby.
“Upstairs,” Sophie whispered. “I just want to go straight to bed.”
Unlike his mother, Matthew seemed energized by the encounter. He was back to whirring about the house, pretending that he was an airplane. Holly smiled as he whistled past, making a noise that sounded more like a grumpy taxi driver than a flying piece of modern engineering.
“Which room?” Holly asked. When Sophie pointed down the hallway, for one horrified moment Holly thought that the woman was pointing at Brian’s room. Then she sighed. The finger was shaking but definitely leading her in the direction of a spare bedroom just before Brian’s office.
“What would make her lie like that?” Sophie asked as she lay down on top of the covers, fully clothed. “I know that Amber and I don’t get on, but what could’ve happened to make her believe I’d stab her?”
“I don’t know,” Holly answered, feeling useless. “Perhaps she imagined that she saw you attacking her because there’s been some bad blood between you lately. Maybe she didn’t really see who did it and just leaped to an assumption.”
“Even an imbecile could see that I’m not in a fit state to tackle anyone with a knife. If I tried, I’m sure I’d be the one lying down with a weapon in her belly.”
Holly gave a small laugh, agreeing with Sophie entirely. Even if she hadn’t been distraught with the specter of that terrible funeral lying chief in her mind, Sophie was tiny compared to Amber. If Amber honestly had seen her attacker, that meant she’d been approached from the front. One lunge and Amber could have bested Sophie and grabbed the knife away.
On the other hand, it was a far cry from having an argument with someone in the street to bearing false witness against them. Holly hoped that if Amber were fibbing, either because she didn’t know or wanted to hurt Sophie, then she’d stop before the police got involved.
Leaving Sophie lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, Holly made her way downstairs. The sound of raised voices in the lounge made her pause. She should just head on home. Whatever was happening here wasn’t any of her business.
Then the voices went back to a normal level and Holly remembered that she still didn’t have what she’d come for.
Samuel’s phone number or address.
For a second, Holly hesitated. She wanted to leave. She also didn’t want to come back.
If she went now, without the contact details, then the thought of having to return would loom over her like a bad mood.
Turning on her heel, Holly walked into the lounge and waved in a feeble gesture of hello. Brian stood by the windows, staring out, although he couldn’t have seen much considering that the room was brightly lit and outside was not.
He had a glass in his hand—scotch it looked like. Holly tightened her jaw as she walked over to him, inside shaking her head. Derek was an alcoholic, in recovery just like her sister. For a parent to continue to drink in front of their struggling child…
A flood of heat washed through her cheeks as Holly realized that the drink was just plain ginger ale—no scent of alcohol at all. Perhaps now was a good time to stop rushing to judgment?
“Do you need a lift home?” Brian asked, rubbing his temple as he turned around. “I can take you.”
“No, thanks,” Holly said. After her dreadful thoughts, she didn’t want to impose. “I just wondered if you’d found Sophie’s handbag before, with the address for Samuel?”
For a moment, Brian stared at her with a blank expression, then he nodded. “Of course. I clean forgot.” He frowned for a moment in concentration, then brightened. “I’m sure she wrote it down. Didn’t she give it to you?” As Holly shook her head, Brian laughed. “Of course not. If she had, you wouldn’t be asking. We were just out in the hall at the time…�
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After a long pause, Brian snapped his fingers. He walked quickly out of the room, leaving Holly unsure of whether she should follow him.
“Where’s Mommy?” Matthew asked, running back into the room and flopping down on the couch. “I want her to tell me a story.”
“She’s gone to bed early,” Holly told him. “I’m afraid she’s had a shock. What story is she reading to you?”
“I don’t know,” Matthew said. “Something about a large peach and a whole lot of giant insects.”
Holly smiled and nodded while Derek called out, “I know that one. If you want, I can read it to you, but you have to get ready for bed.”
“Okay.” Matthew jumped up and ran over to the stairs, doing a broad jump up each individual step.
“Where on earth does he find the energy?” Derek asked under his breath as though he was Holly’s age, rather than a sprightly man in his young twenties.
“Here we go,” Brian said, bringing a slip of paper back into the room. “For some reason, he chose a different hotel to the others. He’s staying at the Falcon Lodge.”
Holly could easily guess why someone from the Willoughby family might choose to stay in a different hotel, but she didn’t say anything. Her thoughts had been quite bad enough today just being kept to themselves.
“Thank you for this,” Holly said, waving the paper at him. “I’ll let you get back to it.”
Brian walked her to the front door, opening it just as a bright pair of lights spilled into the driveway. Blinking against the sudden glare, Holly stood with Brian in the doorway as the car pulled to a halt and someone stepped out.
It took another few blinks for her to be able to see the distinctive coloring along the side of the car. Brian whispered, “Oh, no.” A second later, he slammed the front door closed, with him and Holly on the inside of it.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You can’t just leave the sergeant out there. He won’t go away.”
“I know that,” Brian said with an angry huff. “But Sophie’s not in any state to be answering all their questions. Why can’t they come by at a decent hour like normal people?”
The Sweet Baked Mystery Series - Books 1-6 Page 38
