Mystery at the Abbey Hotel: An utterly addictive cozy mystery novel (An Eve Mallow Mystery Book 5) by Clare Chase

Author:Clare Chase [Chase, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800193079
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

Eve gave up on sleep just before dawn the next morning. She’d been too keyed-up to rest easily and when she had dozed off, she’d dreamed of thudding feet. Thoughts of Haunted Lane’s ghost story filled her head. The footfalls were meant to be echoes of the hue and cry who’d chased the boy Elizabeth had protected, back in the eighteenth century. Hearing them was supposed to signify danger.

She shivered as she dressed in the bathroom, the first glimmer of light just visible in the sky.

A short while later, with Gus scampering round her ankles, she tugged on her navy puffa jacket and fleece-lined boots. ‘All right, buddy. I’m ready. A walk will do us both good.’

She loved the quiet peace of early morning. Turning right on Haunted Lane they had no need of Gus’s leash. The road petered out, leading only to a narrow path – Elizabeth’s Walk – that was bordered by dense gorse bushes, their yellow flowers palely visible in the dim light.

Gus dashed ahead, out of sight, but she knew he’d wait for her when the way met the estuary path which would take them all the way to the sea. She could smell the salt in the air now, brought in on the breeze, and a moment later she could see her dachshund again, peering at her over his shoulder.

‘So nice of you to check up on me.’

He dashed off towards the coast before she’d finished her sentence. Ah well.

The dawn chorus was already fading but to her right, Eve could hear a wren singing in the fields that lay between the path and the village. To her left, the dark smooth estuary stretched towards mud flats on the far side. It was bordered by patches of high reeds, so the view was intermittent, but the call of a curlew was ever present. A moment later she saw more birds on a sandbank.

She was so taken with the scene that it was a moment before she looked ahead again. Gus was waiting for her at another of his standard stops – a spot where the path widened, just next to an old mooring block. But beyond him, Eve could see a figure. Bulky, dressed against the morning chill like she was.

Chester Paxton.

Eve put up her hand to Gus. He knew that meant wait, and tilted his head to one side, as if to say, Seriously?

‘I understand your frustration.’ She crouched down next to him as she whispered. ‘But I want to know what Chester’s doing, sneaking down the estuary path this early in the morning.’ Access was easy enough. There was a route that led straight from the pub garden to join the path. But the timing was odd. I get he must work long hours in hospitality, but he doesn’t strike me as a dawn-walk kind of guy. Or outdoorsy at all, come to that. Eve couldn’t imagine him scrubbing mud off his shoes.

She put a finger to her lips, then nodded at Chester, gave Gus an apologetic look, and attached his leash.

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