A Landslide, a Bride and a Fatal Ride: An English Seaside Small Town Cozy Mystery (Shiraz Jones Marine Rescue Mysteries Book 3) by Simon Michael Prior

Author:Simon Michael Prior [Prior, Simon Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Cozy Cabin Press
Published: 2024-08-27T00:00:00+00:00

Emily was relaxing at our flat, reading a book on the couch with Boots curled up on her lap. Sunday was the only day the café closed, and I knew she treasured these moments, so I slipped in and opened the fridge, wondering what to have for lunch.

“Hi, Shiraz,” she said. Her book shut, and Boots’ paws pa-doomphed onto the floor. “Where’ve you been this morning?”

“At the hospital, visiting John Smith.” Boots smooched around my legs and miaowed loudly. “Boots, I’m not opening the fridge for you. Sorry. Your dinner’s still hours away.”

“John Smith?” asked Emily. “Why did you go to see him? Smelly old tramp.”

“I was curious. Why does he keep returning to Golden Beach? Why is he so obsessed by the place? And he related a long story.”

“Ooh, I love stories. Shall I make lunch and you can tell me about it? Are yesterday’s café leftovers okay?”

I laughed. “Of course. What’ve you got? I’ll boil the kettle.”

“Filled rolls or a meat pie.”

The thought of John’s preference of meat pies over beef something-off made me smile to myself.

“Where to start with John Smith?” I said, as Emily pulled containers from the fridge.

“D’you think that’s his real name?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“John Smith’s a generic name. It’s like he made it up.”

“There must be people christened John Smith. Anyway, get this, it turns out he’s Mary’s younger brother.”

“Mary, the skeleton in the car, Mary?”

“One and the same.”

“Wow. That explains his obsession with the location, I guess.”

“Yes, but he doesn’t know what’s happened to her. He came to Redcliff to find her, as he hadn’t seen her since they were teenagers, and he didn’t know about the landslip or anything.”

“How tragic, to have come all this way and then find out she died decades ago.”

“He doesn’t know she’s dead at all. Their last communication was a letter from her when he was seventeen.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

“Not yet. For one, I don’t think it’s my place to release information about a deceased person to their relatives.”

“Quite right. Murph told me if we ever find a body during marine rescue, we must let the police break the news to the family.”

“Right. The other thing is, we’re not sure the body in the car is Mary, are we?”

“It has to be. She went missing after the disaster, and a skeleton of a woman turns up in a subsequent landslip in the same make of car as the one in her wedding photo. It couldn’t be anyone else.”

I rubbed my chin.

“Oh, no,” said Emily, placing a plate in front of me. “What are you thinking?”

“I know how we could tell for certain the body’s Mary’s.”

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