A Corpse at a Wedding: A Funny, Twisty Murder Mystery (The Izzy Palmer Mysteries Book 8) by Benedict Brown

Author:Benedict Brown [Brown, Benedict]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heathdene Books
Published: 2022-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

“Thanks for coming, Gaz.” I motioned to D.I. Irons to leave us alone as, the last time I’d spent any time with Ramesh’s schoolfriend, he’d called me a “top bird” and tried to lick my ear. I removed my wig and moustache, hoping to make use of my feminine wiles.

Ha! Now that is a good joke.

He didn’t look quite so boisterous this time and landed down in the throne with a thud. He could barely look at me, which would make taking his photograph difficult. With his eyes on the floor, he kept stroking the short hair at the back of his neck as though he’d got chewing gum stuck in it. Incidentally, if such misfortune ever befalls you, do not let your mother put your head in the freezer in an attempt to snap off the offending substance. I had chilblains of the scalp, which rather impressed my doctor as, until that day, he hadn’t believed such a condition to be medically possible.

“How are you doing?” I thought I’d start with a nice, easy question. After our first encounter at the strip club, I couldn’t be entirely sure of his intelligence level, or whether he actually had one.

His reply came in a small, fragile voice. “I’m doing alright. Bit shaken up really.”

“I suppose you’ve admitted to the police that you didn’t kill Sindy then?”

His eyes locked onto mine at that moment, and his anger flashed like lightning. “Don’t you start. I told them it was me, and that bloody inspector wouldn’t believe a word of it. He reckoned I was doing it for attention. He said that, unless I could prove what happened, he wasn’t interested.”

I was surprised that he was continuing with the story but could see that confronting him over it wouldn’t do any good. In my softest, sweetest, perhaps a little bit flirty voice, I said, “You can tell me all about if it would make you feel better.”

He shook his head despondently. “I never meant to hurt her; you’ve got to believe me. I mean, no one else does, but I’d appreciate it if you’d give me the benefit of the doubt.”

I didn’t think it was the moment to offer him a Groucho Marx nose, moustache and glasses combo, so I stepped out from behind the camera. “Go on, I’m listening.”

“I just wanted to talk some sense into Sindy. It’s no secret that I’ve never got on with her, but I couldn’t stand to see the way she’d been hurting my friends. Not just Ramesh and Patricia either, but Tog too. I mean, my friend Toby Gatling. You might remember him as an Oompa Loompa?”

Gaz didn’t seem like such a bad guy right then (despite confessing to a brutal crime) and I felt a bit guilty about our previous meeting. “I’m so sorry that I stole your plastic breasts last weekend. Those cocktails went to my head and–”

His smile was just as shy as I felt. “Don’t worry about it. Me and the boys act like prats when we’ve had a few drinks.

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