CRIME IN THE BOUTIQUE a fiercely addictive mystery by CATHERINE MOLONEY

Author:CATHERINE MOLONEY [MOLONEY, CATHERINE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller and mystery
Published: 2022-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen

Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men

Feared by the bad, loved by the good

Robin Hood! Robin Hood! Robin Hood!

‘Sounds a bit cracked like everyone’s jigging round a maypole or something. . . So anyway, they’re expecting dreamy music from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves but the old git gives ’em this Merrie England jingle like it’s some kind of nutty acid trip. His missus never shut up about it all the way through their honeymoon.’

Noakes sniggered and even Burton cracked a smile, though seeing a verger coming towards them, she swiftly rearranged her features. ‘Beautiful service,’ she said. ‘We’re just on our way now.’

Under his watchful gaze, they headed for the exit.

* * *

The ‘funeral feed’ on the third floor at Bromgrove Town Hall Extension was sufficiently generous for Noakes to award it full marks, with the ‘memorial menu’ featuring quiches, wraps, canapés, blinis, sausage rolls, tartlets and platters of other assorted finger food. Desserts were not wanting either, two trolleys bearing a selection of gateaux, trifles and homemade cakes. After helping themselves from the buffet, mourners sat down at long tables adorned with snowy linen tablecloths and tasteful floral arrangements. Uniformed waitresses circulated offering hot drinks, along with wine for those who felt the need of something stronger.

Markham noted wryly that there was no great rush to join himself and the team after they had paid their respects to the principal mourners, though this was hardly surprising in the circumstances.

Unabashed, Noakes got stuck in with gusto.

‘One of them lasses told me Santini organised everything,’ he said having made short work of the sausage rolls on his plate. ‘I’d have thought he’d be one for olives an’ salami an’ weirdy cheeses, but fair play to him, he steered clear of all that.’

The words ‘foreign muck’ remained unspoken, so clearly all those diversity courses hadn’t been entirely wasted on Noakes, Markham thought wryly. Just in time for his retirement.

His eyes scanned the throng for signs of unusual tension, but everyone was behaving well, Claudia Everard and Franco Santini on their return from the crematorium acting as hosts (while giving the police a wide berth). That being so, and with Burton casually patrolling the room, the DI sipped his coffee which was excellent and did his best to look unobtrusive, something of a challenge given Noakes’s bravura performance as gannet-in-chief.

But while apparently oblivious to everything except the food, his shrewd former wingman missed very little.

‘Lucy an’ the uptight one don’ seem to be getting along too well,’ he told Markham through a mouthful of chocolate cake, directing the DI’s attention towards Lucille Chilton and Maria Hagan whose set expression gave her an appearance of lockjaw. It looked as though Christina Skelthorne was attempting to shield the pair from notice, so clearly something was up.

‘Hagan’s probably itching to have another go at Osborne and O’Neill,’ Carruthers commented, pointing to Everard’s former employees who were now deep in conversation with Danielle Rigsby and a brittle looking blonde who Markham guessed was a correspondent from one of the glossies.

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