Deadly Investment (A Fitzjohn Mystery Book 5) by Jill Paterson

Author:Jill Paterson [Paterson, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J. Henderson
Published: 2015-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

With a steady rain falling, Esme leaned on her walking cane with one hand, clutched her umbrella with the other, and felt her toes squelch in her rain soaked shoes while she stood at the curb and waited for the traffic to clear. She could see Mildred sitting in the window seat of The Green Door Cafe on the other side of the street. Warm and dry, she appeared to be in deep conversation with the waiter. At last, Esme decided to make a run for it and hopped off the curb, breaking into a trot across the street. As she did so a shooting pain went through her arthritic hip, a sharp reminder that she was eighty-one. Ignoring this fact, she burst through the cafe door to be met by the laughter and chatter of enthusiastic diners. Placing her dripping umbrella into a bucket at the door, she cast her gaze over the heads of those seated to where Mildred sat smiling upward at the dark haired, athletic-looking, young waiter. Oblivious to Esme’s presence, she jumped when Esme reached the table.

‘Esme, I didn’t see you come in and I’ve been keeping an eye on the door.’

Esme sat down and placed her rain speckled handbag and cane on the window-sill next to her chair. ‘You haven’t been watching at all Mildred. I’ve been standing across the street for the past ten minutes trying to cross and I could see you speaking to that new waiter.’

‘He’s French,’ replied Mildred with a dreamy smile. ‘I was captivated by his accent. You look damp, Esme.’

‘I am but I’ll dry off soon enough in here although I doubt my shoes will.’ Esme wriggled her feet out of her wet shoes and looked around. ‘It’s a good thing you got here early, Mildred. Otherwise I doubt we’d have got a table.’

‘I expected it’d be busy on a rainy day so I caught an early train,’ replied Mildred. ‘I’ve placed our order. I hope you don’t mind, but with the place packed, I thought it best. I got your favourite. Quiche Lorraine with salad and English Breakfast tea.’

‘That’s splendid. Thank you,’ said Esme.

‘You said on the telephone that you have news. Have you heard from that Chief Inspector friend of yours about Beatrice’s death?’

‘No, and I don’t expect to for some time. I think his enquiries will be at a standstill for a while because he and his sergeant were involved in rescuing a woman from a house fire. Didn’t you see it on the news?’

‘Yes, but I didn’t realise it was the policemen that you know. You’ve never mentioned their names. They seem to be all right though. The news reporter said that they’d pulled a woman from the building and that all three were taken to St Vincent’s with smoke inhalation.’

‘Mmm. That’s what I heard too. I’d phone the hospital but I doubt they’d tell me anything with me not being a relative. Hopefully there’ll be an update on the evening news. And as far as our enquiries about Beatrice go, we’ll just have to be patient.

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