Mulled Wine and Murder: A Charleton House Mystery by Kate P Adams

Author:Kate P Adams [Adams, Kate P]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-11-11T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

I thought about waiting for Craig, but I’d come to the service to see and hopefully talk to Sian and Verity. I’d ticked one of them off. It was time to find the other.

Verity Duff was easily recognisable by the red duffel coat she had taken to wearing in the colder weather. It made her look like Paddington Bear – Paddington Bear in high-heeled leather boots and thick eyeliner. She’d almost made it to the car park by the time I caught up with her.

‘Verity, Verity, do you have a minute?’

‘Oh, it’s you. Sian said you’d been grilling her.’ I doubted Sian had told Verity much else about our conversation. ‘I have somewhere to be.’

‘Please, it will only take a minute.’

We had reached her car, a little red thing that matched her coat. I could see that the seats had been upholstered in matching black and red fabric. As I got closer, I saw that big plastic eyelashes had been attached above the front lights. It was effective, but looked ridiculous.

‘What?’ She placed a hand on her hip. Her makeup was perfectly although heavily applied and I was hit by an overpowering aroma. It was like walking down the aisle in a department store and being targeted by a salesperson with the latest sickly perfume.

I didn’t get a chance to ask a question.

‘Look, I didn’t poison anyone. I got sick, too, for heaven’s sake. It was awful. I actually considered moving the TV into the bathroom at one point, I was spending so much time in there. Horrible, it was.’

‘Is there anyone who might want to poison you?’

‘What are you saying? I don’t have enemies, I’m nice to everyone.’ She spat out the words. ‘If you want to point the finger at someone, point it at Harriet. She was the one banging on about the mulled wine and refusing to try a new recipe. She could have poisoned her own mulled wine that night, the perfect distraction, make me look bad, like I was trying to prove that her mulled wine was no good and we should go with my idea.’

I knew she wasn’t serious, but she was so riled, I half expected steam to come out of her ears if she kept going like this.

‘What about Sian?’ I butted in.

‘What about her? Good for a laugh, I suppose, but I do wish she’d leave Kenneth and I to it sometimes. We don’t always need her hanging around like a spare wheel. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have nothing more to say.’

She bundled herself into the car and, looking like an enormous ripe tomato, drove out of the car park. Or was it an enormous winterberry? What did Kenneth see in her? Perhaps he simply enjoyed female company. But she really wasn’t keen to talk to me, and that always made me suspicious.

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