Death by Cuddle Club by Norah Wilson

Author:Norah Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Something Shiny Press
Published: 2015-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

I WAS, for a change, alone at the office after my visit with Cathy Valentine. I’d stayed longer than I’d intended, listening to the merry widow. I liked her. Genuinely liked her. There was absolutely no pretense with Cathy, no hiding. And in my line of work, that’s incredibly refreshing.

And I liked her all the more for the information she’d provided me.

But I might have stayed just a tad too long. As Cathy was walking me to the door, the doorbell had rung. Muttering something about this being her day for unexpected visitors, she opened the door. And there on the threshold stood Dickhead.

“Good morning, Mrs. Valentine, I’m Detective Head from the Marport City PD. I wonder if I could I have a word with—” His smarmy smile froze and his words died off as he spotted me standing behind Cathy Valentine.

“Certainly,” Cathy had replied. “Ms. Davidson was just leaving.”

“Yes, Miss Davidson.” His voice had taken on a hard edge. “You look familiar...”

“Oh, you’ve probably seen me around. My sociology research puts me in all manner of unusual situations.” I smiled brightly. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I was just leaving.”

He stepped back, but not very far. I had to suck everything in to squeeze by him. Prick. But it wasn’t the first time I’d had that macho crap pulled on me and I’d learned a trick or two. I accidentally stepped on his foot on my way past.

He stifled a curse and I turned to see Mrs. Valentine trying to suppress a smile. “Bye, Cathy,” I called. “Thanks for the tea.”

Dickhead had sent me a venomous look before stepping inside and closing the door. And yeah, I knew I was in for a tongue lashing. Especially when he found out I’d then gone on to visit Faynelle’s son and Telly’s family. Well, I’d deal.

I went back to puzzling about Albert Valentine’s affair. I mean, first off, who’d want to sleep with him? He’d been short and squat in a Danny DeVito kind of way, but minus DeVito’s good looks, humor, and charm. Cathy couldn’t say who he’d been sleeping with, and didn’t appear to really care. But just knowing he’d been involved with someone at Gaetan Land was a giant step forward in the investigation.

And that’s exactly what I told Dickhead when he called to rag me out. Of course, I’d gone on the offensive, demanding to know what he’d learned.

What? You found nothing out from Faynelle’s grieving son? Only that she was a heavy smoker, and significantly overweight, and under the stress of union/management bickering at her hospital job—prime candidate for a heart attack? Oh, and let’s not forget everyone liked her. That’s all you got?

Okay, that’s all I got, too.

And Telly? All you discovered was that he had slightly high blood pressure (not a shock given his age), that he was pretty fit and lived a quiet life?

And yeah, I didn’t mention I hadn’t found much more.

I challenged him to impress me. Turns out he’d gotten even less from Cathy Valentine.

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