Dorothy Eden by Sinister Weddings

Author:Sinister Weddings
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

9

ABBY KNEW SHE WAS going up to Kings Cross again. She had promised Luke to forget the foolish mix-up and he trusted her promise. But since then her suspicions had been aroused again, chiefly because the Moffatt family couldn’t let her forget that lipstick. She felt certain that it was the clue to the whole mystery, and if Luke couldn’t, or wouldn’t, explain it, she would find out for herself.

She had begun by going into one of the large George Street stores and asking the buyer behind the cosmetics counter if she ever bought the products of the Rose Bay Cosmetic Company.

“I’ve never heard of them,” the woman answered. “Where are they? In Rose Bay?”

Or in liquidation, Abby thought.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to trace them myself. They make a particular lipstick that I like.”

“Oh? What is it called?”

“Galah.”

“Well, I never. After the parrots, I suppose. Clever. But it’s never been advertised, as far as I know. If it had done well I’d have heard of it. We just deal with the well-known names here, Arden, Rubenstein and so on. We’ve a nice new range of colors if you’d like to see them.”

“Sorry,” said Abby. “I really did want this one.”

“I don’t think you’ll find any of the big stores stock it. I’ll make some enquiries if you like. If you leave your telephone number I’ll ring you if I find out anything.”

“That’s very kind of you.”

“Not at all. You’ve got me interested now. Galah. That’s an intriguing name. Sure you don’t want anything else? Skin lotion, perfume?”

“All I’m shopping for today is a birthday present for an eight year old.”

“Oh well, then, you’d want a toy of some kind, wouldn’t you? Books and toys are on the fourth floor.”

“A toy,” Abby repeated slowly, and that was when she decided to go back to Kings Cross. For now she had the perfect reason to go up those stairs again, and to get behind that partition to see R. B. Mitchell’s stock of toys. If any…

The door still bore the inscription “R. B. Mitchell, Toys”, but it was shut, as somehow Abby had expected it to be. She also knew that there was no use in knocking. Nobody would be caught that way again, and open the door to something she shouldn’t see.

So the toy business had been a cover up. She was certain it had been. But why did Luke refuse to believe it? Did it all sound too fantastic?

Abby went down the stairs slowly. Strangely enough, she was no longer frightened. The interior of the building looked just the way Luke must have seen it, a steep flight of stairs leading to a small back room which suggested a very struggling business, if any business at all. It was nothing to get fussed about. Certainly it could suggest nothing sinister.

But it had been important enough for someone, with furious speed, to provide a camouflage.

Or had she imagined the whole thing? Or was she in another building altogether?

On an impulse she went into the dress shop downstairs.

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