Murder at the Gardens: A totally gripping English cozy mystery (A Belinda Penshurst Mystery Book 3) by Lisa Cutts

Author:Lisa Cutts [Cutts, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803142043
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2022-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

21

Harry had to admit that he was worried about Belinda. He was used to seeing dead bodies often in a more alarming state than Drew’s or Simon’s had been, but perhaps this was one too many. She didn’t talk to him until he had driven her back to the security office and parked alongside the other buggies lined up in an orderly row.

‘H,’ she said, as he went to get out, ‘something’s bothering me.’

‘The bloke with several mangled limbs, I’d guess. I think we need to talk this over, make sure you’re all right.’

Belinda gave him a grateful smile. ‘I know you’re looking out for me, but truly, I’m OK. Besides, I wanted to speak to you about Ivan.’ Harry turned, which made the lightweight cart bounce up and down as he caught his knees on the console. ‘Just before I went to the hyena enclosure, I saw Ivan on the land train. That was why I walked in that direction in the first place.’

‘Go on,’ said Harry, not wanting to say too much before his friend unburdened herself. He was steeling himself to hear that she was going to make another go at a lasting relationship with the enormous-foreheaded South African. If that was what she wanted, as painful as it would be for Harry, he would put Belinda’s happiness first.

‘Ivan was already on the train when it went past me – I was over by the brown bears. Please don’t look at me like that: I wanted to see if I could pick up on anything we might have missed yesterday. It struck me as strange that Simon was around the back of the hay store, somewhere he really had no business to be. But if we’re to take the VIP Safari Experience ticket found beside Drew’s body, I guess that would explain how he was lured there.

‘Anyway, as I didn’t know about the ticket then, curiosity took me towards the train’s first couple of stops. The first being the gate, where we know James, Carmel and their rivals are camping out, the second about a hundred yards from the hyenas. That’s when I saw the shoe, followed by the damaged branches, and then, well, the rest you know.’

‘There’s something bothering me about the shoe,’ said Harry. ‘Other than it being nibbled at by a hyena, obviously. Yesterday, Drew was wearing Reebok trainers. Today, he put on black slip-on shoes and climbed a tree. No wonder he lost his footing and fell.’

‘It does seem odd,’ said Belinda.

‘It still doesn’t help us work out what he was doing up the tree in the first place,’ said Harry.

‘I agree,’ said Belinda, a look of concentration on her face. ‘I don’t buy Vince’s idea that he was trying to help the protestors.’

‘If our theory is correct that Simon was killed because he was a threat to the future of the zoo,’ said Harry, ‘it wouldn’t make sense that the murderer is also trying to sabotage it at the same time.’

‘Perhaps we’re looking at two different people,’ said Belinda.

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