An English Garden Murder: A utterly addictive English cozy mystery (Julia Bird Mysteries Book 1) by Katie Gayle

Author:Katie Gayle [Gayle, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803140667
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-05-04T16:00:00+00:00

21

The Buttered Scone was the perfect place for a fry-up and a gossip, but it was not the place to gather your thoughts and consider weighty problems. For that, Julia headed to one of the benches along the path by the river where no one would bother her, and Jake could have a bit of a sniff around.

Julia chose a bench in the sun, which was pleasantly warm, rather than hot. She freed Jake from the lead and took her phone and her newspaper out of the basket.

As she opened the paper across her knees, she heard a message arrive on her phone. It was a voice note from Peter. She still wasn’t used to the idea that she and Peter were friends – just friends. It was hard, this business of ex-husbands. But he was the perfect person to ask about the contract that Maeve had with Will Adamson, and whether it was really so watertight. Hopefully this voice note would shed some light.

‘Hey, Jules. Look, the contract is well drawn up, but because it’s so old – over twenty years – your chap’s lawyers should be able to get it dismissed. It’s unfairly onerous on him if he wants to sell. I can walk you through it if you like, but bottom line – there’s been a recent change to the law and while it might’ve held up before, the lease definitely wouldn’t hold up in court now; he could almost certainly get out of it. Chat soon.’

Julia typed a quick thank you. Looking down at her phone, she saw, on the open newspaper below, a picture of the man himself. Will Adamson. Berrywick businessman honoured read the headline.

Julia read the article out loud to Jake:

‘Berrywick property developer Will Adamson was awarded “Small property developer of the year” by the Property Association of Southern England. He received the award at a breakfast in Bristol on Wednesday. Mr Adamson said…’ But she never read what Mr Adamson said, because she suddenly realised the implications of what she had just read.

‘Jake! Wednesday morning. Will Adamson was in Bristol for breakfast, which means he wasn’t at the lake, killing Maeve Harold. And it seems he didn’t have the motive either, if the lease isn’t watertight. The Toby jug theory seemed unlikely – and Hayley certainly wasn’t buying it. So who killed Maeve? And why?’

‘Who killed Cock Robin?’ Edna asked from behind the bench, causing Julia to jump and Jake to give a small yelp of surprise from amongst the reeds. ‘“All the birds of the air fell a-sighing and a-sobbing…” Just like the girl. Poor lass. Or the mother. Not the man, though. No sobbing for him, no.’

‘What girl?’ asked Julia.

‘What girl?’ asked Edna.

‘What man?’

‘Who knows, now, rose? The nose knows,’ Edna said, tapping her own rather elegant nose as she shuffled off down the path.

Did Edna have some deeply buried wisdom or insight, or did she just emit random thoughts and phrases? There was the occasional string of words that seemed pertinent, even profound.

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