Bite Deep by Rebekah Turner

Author:Rebekah Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

Chapter 18

By Sunday morning, Lydia still hadn’t figured out what to do about Novak’s drunken stunt the night before. All she knew was he could thank his lucky stars Thomas Coulter had arrived in time to stop things from escalating, because she had been seconds away from shooting Novak in the balls.

She had risen early and killed time over coffee before she thought it was a reasonable hour to disturb the Solbergs. By the time 9 am ticked over, she was well caffeinated and beyond curious about Coulter’s interest in her mother’s old files.

She hurried down the short track that led to the cottage the old couple had rented for the last ten years. The sandstone cottage was hemmed by a well-tended garden, ringed by fragrant roses, lavender bushes and apricot trees. The garage attached to the cottage was empty, but she knocked on the door anyway. Footsteps sounded, then Dominic answered the door, a paintbrush stuck behind one ear. He was a tall man, with a quiet reserve that seemed to hold up well against his wife’s strong nature. His face broke out into a smile when he saw her.

‘Lydia, how lovely to see you.’ He stepped back, motioning her inside. ‘Come in, come in. Would you like a coffee?’

‘Sure.’

Inside the small home, bookshelves lined the walls, cluttered with tattered books on animals and anatomy. Twisted tubes of acrylic paint lay about, with paintbrushes tucked into a variety of chipped cups. The faded blue couch was covered with a black and yellow quilt and a thread-worn Turkish rug sat under a Balinese-style coffee table.

The cottage kitchen was cosy and Lydia sat down when Dominic pulled out a chair for her. He began to bustle around the kitchen, placing a stovetop coffee pot on a hotplate.

‘Greta baked bread this morning, can I offer you a slice with some homemade plum jam?’ he asked.

‘Sounds great.’

The silence between them was comfortable, and soon Lydia had a rich coffee in front of her, and was biting into a piece of soft bread topped with a sweet jam.

Dominic sat down across from her, stirring sugar into his own coffee. ‘How are you finding things?’

Lydia swallowed her mouthful. ‘Fine, I suppose.’

He shook his teaspoon at her. ‘Ah, you say this to me, but I see some worry in your face.’

Lydia deflected. ‘I have a lot on my mind at work.’

‘Yes.’ A shadow of sadness passed over Dominic’s face. ‘You mean the death of the young woman? Such a terrible tragedy.’

‘Greta mentioned that you used to be a priest. Is that right?’ Lydia asked.

‘Yes.’ Dominic placed his spoon back beside his cup carefully. ‘I was a Jesuit until I was in my forties.’

‘Then you met Greta?’ Lydia meant it as a light comment, but then immediately worried she’d stumbled onto a delicate subject.

But Dominic just shrugged. ‘By then I was no longer with the faith.’

Still worried it was a sensitive matter, she sipped her coffee, nearly going cross-eyed at the punch of caffeine, and tried to think of a new topic.

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.