Murder by Bicycle by Veronica Heley

Author:Veronica Heley [Heley, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Felicity had given Ellie a prettily furnished guest bedroom with en suite, but she did not sleep well.

Nor, it appeared from the blue shadows under Felicity’s eyes at breakfast time, had Felicity. ‘Did you sleep well, Ellie? No need to answer. I heard you moving around in the night. This business is getting us all down, isn’t it? I kept having nightmares about being stuck in the garage with the car pumping out exhaust fumes . . . stupid, stupid!’

Felicity had opened the French windows on to the back garden and went to stand there, nursing a cup of coffee.

Ellie lied, ‘I’m fine.’ A radio was perched on the work surface, delivering unremarkable music and doleful news items.

‘Another fine day is forecast, though we could do with some more rain, really. What would you like for breakfast? The full English?’

Ellie shuddered. ‘Coffee and toast. Fruit juice if you’ve got any. Armand would have phoned if anything had happened, wouldn’t he?’

At that moment a phone rang somewhere in the house. Felicity snatched up her landline. It wasn’t that. She sought for her mobile and found it in the hall in her handbag. It wasn’t that.

‘My mobile!’ Ellie ran up the stairs and found it in her handbag, lost in the duvet which she’d thrown back over the bed. By that time it had stopped ringing, but there was a voice message on it. Armand.

‘Not to worry, my dear.’ Armand sounded remarkably lively. ‘I’m just off to school, but thought you’d like to know someone tried the old fishing rod trick at two o’clock this morning. You know, pushing a cane with a hook on the end through the letterbox, trying to pick up any keys that might be left on the hall table? I was fast asleep but Midge objected to this long stick invading his space and had a right go at it. What a champ he is, eh.’

‘Oh.’ Ellie sat down with a thump on the nearest chair.

‘. . . but not to worry. That cat’s such a weight, he snapped the tip off the bamboo cane, hook and all, and made such a row that he woke me. Whoever it was had gone by then, so I gave Midge a double helping of cat food and he slept on my stomach for the rest of the night. OK?’

‘Did you report it to the police?’ said Ellie, though of course Armand couldn’t hear her.

‘Oh, and I reported it to the police, but they said that if the chap had gone, they’d just come round some time to get a report. Said we were lucky. Said never to leave keys on the hall table. So I’m off now. Back this evening for the next instalment. Don’t forget to get that window mended.’ End of message.

Ellie took the mobile downstairs with her to tell Felicity what had happened. ‘I do usually leave keys on the hall table, only of course last night I brought them away with me.’

‘Diana thought you’d be there, and so would the keys.

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.