Dangerous Secrets: Patricia Fisher: Ship's Detective - A Cozy Mystery Adventure by Steve Higgs

Author:Steve Higgs [Higgs, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-02-16T00:00:00+00:00

Breakfast and Plans

I awoke the next morning feeling out of place. So used to waking in my cabin on board the Aurelia, even after nearly a week away from it, I was still surprised not to find myself there when my eyes opened.

Normally, there would be a small warm lump pressing against me too. Not from my boyfriend, Alistair, the captain of the ship, please get your mind out of the gutter. No, the small warm lump, or often two, would be from my mother and daughter duo of miniature dachshunds. I knew they were in good hands onboard the ship still, but that didn’t stop me missing them.

I rolled out of bed, found my slippers and a robe, and went in search of coffee.

Drifting off to sleep the previous evening, I came up with a way to find out more about the money. It was plausible someone in the church council would know something, but I had another idea I believed stood a better chance of hitting pay dirt and would avoid needing Barbie to employ her assets. Allen Gibson and the vicar himself were the two people most familiar with the church finances and neither was available to answer my questions.

However, I was sure the police would have taken the ledgers from Allen’s house when they removed his body and opened the investigation. They would have looked into the church bank accounts from a forensic perspective, so if I wanted to know more about the missing money, it was to them I needed to turn.

You, of course, are thinking Chief Inspector Quinn wasn’t going to tell me anything and you would be right. I wasn’t going to ask him though. I knew other officers in the local constabulary, ones who might be more forthcoming.

I didn’t have numbers for anyone though unless you count nine, nine, nine, but I had a solution for that too.

Jermaine was in the kitchen when I arrived, the smell of coffee dragging me through the house like one of the Bisto Kids.

“Good morning, madam.”

I bade him the same and slid into a seat at the kitchen table where the day’s paper was set out waiting for me next to a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

“Where’s Barbie?” I enquired, my attention on the front page of the paper.

“I believe she is in the gym, madam.”

Of course she was. The news made me glad to have been left in bed this morning. Barbie saw to my exercise program and wasn’t so sadistic that she thought I needed to do something every day.

Upon my request, Jermaine produced a ham and mushroom omelette. Part of me still hankered after a fat bacon sandwich loaded with HP sauce, but I had learned what gave me energy and what made me feel sluggish and tried my hardest to think of food as a fuel source, instead of the most glorious treat I could give myself multiple times a day.

My plate empty, I sent a message to Albert.

‘I think we should concentrate on finding out what the money was for.

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