A Dress to Die For: Felicity Philips Investigates Book 4 by steve higgs

Author:steve higgs [higgs, steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

Quizzing Another Suspect

I got Mindy to stay behind with me when everyone else left. I needed her to call Clara again. I could have done it myself, but the two young women knew each other, and I figured she had to still be in shock from Annabelle’s death.

The purpose for the call was two-fold. To start with, I really did want to get hold of the extra material Annabelle had for the dress. Annabelle only did some of her work at the shop in the High Street, a lot of it was done from another building where there was more space for the equipment – the buildings in Rochester High Street were built when everything, including humans were smaller.

If the police hadn’t seized it or secured it to sift for evidence – I couldn’t think why they would – then that was where I expected the material to be.

The second, quite obvious reason for making contact, was the bit about her being a suspect for the murder in my eyes. Would the police look at her for the crime? I didn’t think it would even occur to them. Perhaps evidence would lead them in that direction, but was there any evidence to find?

“Hello?” Clara answered her phone with timidity. “Is that you, Mindy?”

“Yes. How are you doing, babes?” Mindy employed a kindly tone – we couldn’t treat Clara as guilty until we knew she was. However, if we expected Clara to lament about Annabelle’s death, we were to be disappointed.

“Is there any news from Mrs Philips on a new job for me?” Her response further cemented my worry that she might be behind the awful murder.

Speaking up, I said, “Hello, Clara. This is Felicity.”

Caught out, she said, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise I was on speaker phone.”

Mindy lapsed into silence, letting me take over.

“That’s okay. Please come by the shop in the morning so we can discuss your options over a cup of tea.” I wanted to look into her eyes and ask a few questions that had nothing to do with future employment. “There’s something else I need you to do before you get here though.”

“Of course, anything.”

“I need you to bring some of the material Annabelle had to let out the Kipling dress. Can you get hold of it?”

Mindy and I could both hear the curiosity in Clara’s voice when she replied, “Yes. I’ve actually got some with me. Why do you need it?”

Her question came across as a little impertinent, but I let it go – I needed her to feel she could trust me and that I was on her side if I hoped to catch her with her guard down tomorrow.

I told her the truth. “Mr Kipling dropped off a replacement dress. If necessary, I will have it let out to fit one of the brides.” I didn’t bother to say that there was only one bride left in the running; it was a detail she didn’t need to know.

From Clara’s end there was no response.

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