An Alibi A Day: A Cotswolds Cozy Mystery (Allie Day Cotswolds Mysteries Book 1) by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters [Winters, A.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Allie resigned herself to the fact the she had indeed been tricked into going on a date with the handsome gardener. She didn’t think it was really what you were supposed to be doing in the middle of a murder investigation, but Jackie had strongly, strongly disagreed.

“There, you look lovely,” she said, standing back and admiring her handiwork.

The only clothes Allie had brought with her were her standard wardrobe—jeans and plain T-shirts. She was of the opinion that it’s much less stressful to start each day if you don’t have to make any difficult decisions like what to wear.

Jackie had done her makeup. Allie knew the basics but had never taken much of an interest beyond that. When she peered into the mirror, she was surprised at what she saw. Through some kind of trickery, Jackie had made her eyes look much bigger than they naturally were and her lips much plumper. Her skin had been smoothed out, and the way she’d applied the lipstick made her look almost... pouty.

“Are you sure you’ve done this right?” asked Allie dubiously.

Jackie nodded confirmation. “You look great. Your gardener’s not going to be able to keep his eyes off you.”

Allie poked at her face dubiously but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Who’s that?”

Jackie opened the door to their room and Grandma Em stepped in immediately.

“Wonderful! I can’t believe you’ve got a date, Allie. Jackie filled me in.”

“Oh, hi Em. Nor can I. I was trying to go for a quiet drive and... I don’t know what happened!”

“She met a handsome man, that’s what happened,” said Jackie sounding very pleased with herself.

“So, who is he? Who’s the lucky fellow?”

“His name’s Charlie, and he’s a gardener.”

Grandma Em looked up in thought. “Oh. Charlie? Young man, lives with Old Patricia?”

“That’s the one, he’s delish.” Jackie poked Allie in the shoulder. “Isn’t he?”

“He seems nice. He loaned me his car,” said Allie.

“He’s pretty new to town. I don’t know all that much about him.” Grandma Em said it in such a way that Allie just knew she was going to do everything she could to find out all she could.

“Allie’ll find out all about him, won’t you?”

She shook her head. “You know I’m not nosey. We’ll make polite conversation, but I’m not going to go prying.” She shook her head with determination to show she meant it.

“Don’t worry,” said Grandma Em, squeezing Jackie’s shoulder. “I’ll ask Old Patricia all about him. Find out everything.”

“Everything?” asked Jackie with a wicked grin.

“Everything.”

“It’s almost seven, so I’m going to go on this stupid date. You two can gossip amongst yourselves.”

“Don’t worry, we fully intend to,” said Jackie with a smirk.

Shaking her head in exasperation, Allie left the room and went down to the carpark. Jackie and Em were planning to go to the village pub for dinner, and Allie was jealous. Why couldn’t she be having a family dinner instead of going out with a stranger?

When she got to the carpark, Charlie wasn’t yet there. It was

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