A Scrap of Silk by Virginia King

Author:Virginia King [Virginia King]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Virginia King
Published: 2023-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

The knock on the front door makes me jump.

“Whoever you are, go away.”

“Tiggy, it’s Nick. Just me and a bottle of wine.”

Really?

With Raider as bodyguard, I open the door a crack. “Sorry, I thought you might be … someone else.”

“After the day you’ve had, I don’t blame you for being jumpy. But since we’re both new to Punt Lane, I thought we might go out for a bite to eat.”

“A date?” Do I do dates?

“More of a casual pig-out for two. I noticed your fridge is as empty as mine.”

The thought of food and company on a warm summer evening by the estuary almost makes me swoon. And I’ve just stepped out of the shower and into some stylish-enough linen pants and shirt, ready to order a takeaway-for-one and pretend I’m on holidays.

“You’ve talked me into it,” I say. “Come in while I run a comb through my hair and put on some shoes.”

As Nick sits on a kitchen chair and pats Raider, I talk to him from the mirror on the wall outside my tiny bathroom. “Do you have anywhere in mind? I haven’t had a chance to try the local cafés yet.”

But I’ll be dining with Henry next week to celebrate our auction of the buttons.

“I went for a stroll up Punt Lane and found a place called Fish List. Their gourmet fish and chips sound about right. They also welcome dogs. If Raider hasn’t eaten yet, their dog-ustation menu looks pretty good.” He grins and I groan. “I took the liberty of booking a table outside. It’s also BYOB night.” He points to the wine.

He’s guessed I wouldn’t go without Raider. And should I care that he was sure I’d say yes?

“Great.” I apply a quick swipe of lip gloss.

But as I grab my shoulder bag and head for the door, he gets up from the chair and calls me back. “There’s just one thing. I don’t want to spoil our evening, but …”

My smile freezes. Is this a ruse after all? “What?”

“I’ve been wondering about your trapdoor incident. It was either opportunistic and a casual visitor saw their chance to trap you down there. Or … someone knew you’d opened the cellar.”

“I wondered about that myself, but how could they know?”

“I’ll show you. Do you have a step-ladder?”

“No.” Rupert had to bring his own.

“That’s OK. I think I can reach it.” He carries his chair over to the kitchen cupboards and tears off a piece of paper towel from the roll on the wall. Then he climbs up to the shelf where Rupert put his ladder. Reaching up, he uses the paper towel to take a small semi-circular shaped clock from the shelf. It’s about the size of the object Baxter thought Rupert put in his pocket, but it’s black.

When Nick climbs down, he returns to the table and uses his fingernail to open the back of it and pop out the battery. “You can buy these for a few pounds. It’s a surveillance camera.” He points to the tiny lens.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.