Murder Mystery in Melbourne by Victoria Kosky

Author:Victoria Kosky [Victoria Kosky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KoskyBooks
Published: 2023-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Her diaphragm tightened, making it difficult to breathe. Jane spotted her caller ID: Dominic calling to confirm that he’d collect her at three. While she tried to sound normal, she couldn’t prevent her heart from stuttering and doing a crazy jig in her chest. For heaven’s sake, Jane.

The wind outside started howling. She peered out her study window and spotted the silver birches bending in the wild wind. She smiled as turbulent clouds roiled overhead, pregnant with rain. Just the sound of his voice had Jane’s thoughts splintering in a hundred directions. She set aside the list she’d been mulling over: Missing Dearsley, Feed the Children, Trisec, and the Cayman Islands. Leonora, who? She made doodles around the missing Pollock and missing Chalmers. And added more question marks. Like a bubbling cauldron, questions were rising faster than solutions.

Jane planned to question the Chalmers’ neighbours. And she needed to confront the thieving physiotherapist. At this rate, she’d need to hire an assistant. Yesterday when she’d visited the nursing home, Mrs Ferguson had identified the redhead in the photo as Amanda Gummich. This morning she tried to get Amanda’s details from the administration, but they’d refused. Jane decided to wait. The physiotherapist had an appointment with Mrs Ferguson on Wednesday.

After rifling through her wardrobe a few times, Jane glared at her reflection in the mirrored robe door and gave herself a stern talking to. ‘Pull yourself together. You are a woman of fifty, not a ditzy schoolgirl!’ Even though she liked the feel against her skin, the long-sleeved white dress splattered with red roses looked wrong for the ominous day. Most of her mother’s outfits emphasised her gamine frame, but Jane decided that the next frock was too snug. She shouldn’t have eaten so many chocolates. After changing her outfit for the third time, she settled on the fine, charcoal wool suit with pencil skirt, cinched waist and stand-up leopard collar. The jacket had a peplum—longer at the back than the front—that covered her indiscretions. She wore her hair up and plopped on a beret that matched the collar.

‘You’re a silly goose,’ she told herself as she added high-heeled ankle boots that would help her compete with Dominic’s height. She wanted to look nice for him—not too flashy because he dressed casually, not too formal because it was a business meeting, not overdressed because she didn’t want him to think she was trying too hard.

When she joined Zora downstairs, it was twenty past three, and she was standing around, complete with handbag and beret, like a bump on a log. Zora turned from the transparent dough she was pulling on and looked Jane up and down.

‘You lookin’ sexy,’ said Zora. ‘Goin’ special place?’

‘No. I’m heading to Malvern Road to check out Marion’s shop,’ said Jane.

‘Hee, hee, hee, hee,’ she tittered.

That must have been Zora’s impersonation of Marion. She hoped to get away before being grilled by her perceptive factotum. It was a relief to hear the toot of a car horn. Jane said goodbye and fled.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.