Catching the Ice Queen by Katie Simpson-Shaw

Author:Katie Simpson-Shaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance suspense, police
Published: 2019-09-04T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

It had been too late to speak to Sue by the time she’d got home, and so Robin wasn’t surprised to find her landlady in the kitchen when she came down to get some breakfast the next morning. Sue looked nervous, hovering about and fiddling with the arrangement of plant pots on the windowsill. Robin made herself an instant coffee before speaking; she had slept like the dead but was still feeling shattered after everything that had happened yesterday.

‘Everything ok, Sue?’ she asked, after swallowing a big mouthful.

‘Oh yes!’ The little woman’s face told a different story. Robin put down her cup and went over.

‘Are you sure?’

‘It’s just the house,’ she blurted, catching hold of Robin’s hand and squeezing it. ‘We’ve decided to put it on the market now.’

‘Oh. I thought you were going to wait until the summer?’

‘We were, but then Derek’s son is an estate agent and he said the best time to sell is Spring, and if we’re going to get it online before the Easter holidays we need to crack on now.’ Having said this in a rush, she drew breath. ‘And so the photographer is coming today, but I can put him off because we didn’t manage to speak yesterday to let you know about it…’

Robin hastily inventoried her room. ‘No, it’s fine, everything’s quite tidy and feel free to shove things in the cupboard if you need to.’

Sue’s kindly face was crinkled up in concern. ‘I just haven’t closed my eyes all night because everyone’s saying that the house will probably sell quickly, and I am sorry, Robin, because it means that you’ll need to find somewhere to live much sooner than we’d thought.’

That thought had just occurred to Robin too, and her heart sank to her boots. She managed to smile. ‘Really, it’s fine, Sue, not a problem. I’ve been looking at a few places already and there are lots of possibilities.’

Her landlady brightened at this lie. ‘Oh, I am so pleased to hear that! You’ve been a lovely tenant and a friend and I hate the thought that you’ll be inconvenienced.’

Robin gave Sue a gentle hug. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be fine. And this is a really exciting time for you and Derek! Does this mean that you’re going house-hunting yourselves?’

She leaned against the kitchen counter and smiled and nodded as Sue launched happily into an explanation of exactly what she and her boyfriend were looking for, and what appointments they’d already made for viewings. Under the anxiety of where she was going to live, Robin now also recognised a sadness that she didn’t have anyone to share such hope-filled dreams.

She drove to work assuming that, if nothing else, she’d be distracted from her plummeting mood by being privy to the latest twists in the murder case. Unfortunately, the DCI had decided to not to invite her back in, and had loaned her to an on-going fraud investigation instead.

‘It’s for your own good, Robin,’ he said, not unkindly. ‘Just in case Sylvie decides to contact you again.

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