A Body in Seaview Grange by Dee MacDonald

Author:Dee MacDonald [MacDonald, Dee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838882136
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2020-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

It was now two weeks since Edina’s death and Kate hoped that the police were making more headway than she was, but doubted it. As she left work, her thoughts turned to Angie. What was Fergal playing at? She hadn’t had the opportunity to ask her sister what had happened yesterday, but when she got home that was overshadowed by a phone call Angie had just received.

‘Apparently, Maman is on her last legs,’ Angie said. ‘That was Paul, my brother-in-law, on the phone.’

Maman was Angie’s ancient mother-in-law who was French, and had been living as a recluse in Essonne, near Paris, for the past forty years. She must be at least ninety, Kate reckoned.

‘The old vache is eighty-nine,’ Angie continued, ‘and Paul says she’s only got a few days left.’

Maman had married an Englishman some sixty-five years earlier and decamped, much against her will, to leafy Surrey. She’d had two sons, Paul, who was the older, and George, Angie’s late husband. When her own husband had died, Maman shot back to France and rarely crossed the Channel again. Angie and George had made an annual pilgrimage to visit her, but since George’s death Angie had only visited her once as far as Kate could remember. Angie’s son, Jeremy, lived and worked in Sweden and had made the trip with his Swedish wife and two boys every couple of years, not so much on account of Maman’s great charm but more on account of her very considerable bank balance.

‘Will you go over there?’ Kate asked.

Angie wrinkled her nose. ‘Not much point if she’s at death’s door but I’ll have to go to the funeral, I suppose. Why do all these dramas happen at once?’

‘Talking of which…’ Kate looked at her.

‘Yes, Fergal,’ said Angie. ‘Oh Kate, he’s absolutely broke! You know his wife emptied their bank account and then went off to the States? This was back in Ireland, of course, and at the same time some friend had advised him to invest what little money he had left in some fancy scheme or other which, wouldn’t you know, crashed. He’d lost everything but, fortunately, he had no kids, so no ties, and he decided to head for London – which he hated. So he took to the road and ended up in Plymouth which, for some reason, he liked. Says he needs to be close to the sea.’

‘So what happened in Plymouth?’

‘He got a job valeting cars, and found some cheap lodgings somewhere, which he described as a flea-infested slum. Then he heard that this company were looking for salespeople to flog their cards and things. He’s got the gift of the gab, as you know, so he was offered the job. And, even better, although it was part-time, it came with a car. Then he heard about Raleigh Park where he could buy a cheap caravan on the never-never, and that’s what he’s doing. He’s continued with the odd day of car valeting, and spent all his free time familiarising

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