Chocolate Swirls and Murder (Holly Holmes Cozy Culinary Mystery Series Book 2) by K.E. O'Connor

Author:K.E. O'Connor [O'Connor, K.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: K.E. O'Connor
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

I tried back in the pub to see if anyone had seen Dennis, but there was no sign of him.

There were only two streets that had stores in Audley St. Mary, and we checked them all and asked the owners if they’d seen Dennis.

He’d been seen around the village first thing this morning, but there were no recent sightings of him.

I entered the lobby of Audley Hotel and went to the reception desk.

Bella Aldrin stood behind it and nodded a greeting when she saw me. “Can I help you with something?”

“I’m trying to find out if you’ve got a Dennis Lambeth staying here,” I said. “I need to ask him some questions.”

“Questions about what? We don’t usually give out guests’ details.”

I didn’t know Bella well and wasn’t certain if bribing her with cake to get information would work. “I don’t need to know which room he’s in, I just want to know if he’s staying here.”

“That should be okay. Let me check.” She typed information into the computer in front of her before nodding. “He has a room here.”

“Can you call his room and see if he’s available?”

“No can do. There’s a do not disturb message on his line. And I’ve not seen him all day. He didn’t come down for the complimentary breakfast, and I haven’t seen him walk through the lobby, but I’ve not been here all day. Is it urgent? You can leave a message with me. If I see him when he comes down, I can pass it on.”

It was strange that Dennis was hiding. It suggested he had a reason to keep a low profile.

I wrote down my phone number and name. “Can you pass this to him? I’d like to talk to him. It’s very important.”

“Will do.”

A commotion outside had me turning. A small crowd had gathered around something on the ground.

I hurried outside to take a look. As I pushed through the crowd, my eyes widened. Saracen lay flat out on his back, his arms splayed out around him.

Jenny Delaney, a local resident, stood in the crowd. “Don’t say you’ve hit someone else with your bike, Holly.”

“I was nowhere near him. And the bike’s at the castle. Did anyone see what happened? Did he get hit by something?”

“I saw,” a woman with bright red hair said. “He sort of swayed a bit and fell backward. No one was near him when it happened.”

I knelt beside him. “Saracen! Are you okay?”

He didn’t respond. His skin was pale and clammy, and his forehead was dripping with sweat.

I’d exhausted Saracen. I’d dragged him around for hours trying to interview suspects and hadn’t looked after him. I shook my head as I felt how rapid his pulse was. He was a grown man; he could have said if he needed to take a break.

“What’s wrong with him?” a man in the crowd asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “I thought he looked a bit pale earlier, but he said he was fine.”

“He’s got too many layers on,” the red-haired woman said.

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