MURDER BY ACCIDENT a completely unputdownable cozy mystery by VERONICA HELEY

Author:VERONICA HELEY [HELEY, VERONICA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Ostara Classics
Published: 2023-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Ellie said, ‘Another suspect? Another red herring? Won’t the police catch on?’

A twitch of a smile. ‘I did not find Ms Willis sympathetic.’

‘No. She’s honest, dogmatic, persistent. I think she’s probably a good policewoman, though not intuitive.’

‘You are intuitive, Ellie.’

‘I know when you are trying to bamboozle me, if that’s what you mean. Who is this other person? Anyone I know?’

Aunt Drusilla shifted in her chair, ‘I rather think that one of the stockbrokers I use has been cheating me, though it’s going to be difficult to prove — hence my need for the services of your friend.’

‘I don’t suppose I’d understand what he’s been doing, but . . .’

‘Put simply, the stock market has taken a hammering recently, and I was not particularly surprised to find that I was losing money. Naturally, I check the performance of my stocks daily. Then I noticed that he was moving my money around far more than seemed appropriate. You look puzzled. Every time stocks and shares are bought or sold, my stockbroker charges me a fee. Unnecessary movement is called “churning”, and can provide a nice little income if it remains undetected. I want your friend Kate to detect it, and then I’ll pass the information to the police for action.’

‘But even if you’re right, would it provide him with an incentive to harm you?’

‘Probably not,’ admitted Miss Quicke. ‘But it might help to muddy the waters.’

Ellie went to switch on the kettle. So Miss Quicke really did believe Diana was guilty. Ellie felt hollow inside. It was one thing for her to suspect Diana, but quite another to have her suspicions echoed by the astute Miss Quicke. She made herself some instant coffee and took it back to the conservatory.

Miss Quicke sighed. ‘I tell myself that I must be wrong, that Diana would never mean to murder me. However, I fear she would not in the least worry about giving me an electrical shock, if it meant she could throw me off balance enough to get her own way. I understand Diana. I was like her myself, once. She takes after her father . . .’ She shook her head.

Ellie was horrified. ‘Frank was an honest man. He’d never have . . .’

‘Oh yes, he would, my dear. As I did when I was younger and thought I could get away with it. When I first started out buying up flats and doing them up for resale, I tried to gloss over any problems but was soon found out and had to learn the hard way that honesty is the best policy. This tendency to cheat must be in the genes. My father cheated his customers and was proud to “do the fools down” as he put it. Frank’s father was a weakling, always took the easy way out. I could never get him to see that cutting corners was the quickest way to lose his reputation.

‘I struggled to bring Frank up correctly but he broke out, time and again .

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