Orla and the Magpie's Kiss by C. J. Haslam

Author:C. J. Haslam [Haslam, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529509663
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2022-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

At ten to eight the following morning, Orla freewheeled along the quayside in St Stannard to where the Stannard Hotel lurked on the edge of a salt marsh as awkwardly as a big kid at a toddler’s birthday party. It was, thought Orla, an exceedingly grand building for such a tiny village: a Victorian pleasure palace of red brick and stained glass that looked like the kind of place where a genteel cocktail party might be interrupted by a murder.

To Dave, who had taken to jogging alongside the bike for exercise, the hotel looked like a trap. He paused to scratch his ears and, to be honest, catch his breath, letting Orla cycle ahead as he scanned the building. Three entrance doors and one fire escape – a green metal staircase bolted to the wall of the building – were visible, but there would be more exits on the other side. There was also a marquee set up in the courtyard: useful, thought Dave, for a soft landing in case an emergency escape from an upstairs window became necessary. He broke into a stiff-legged jog to where Orla was chaining her bike to a metal ring in the car park, a deepening sense of unease in his belly. When you’d been in the security game as long as he had, you learned to trust your instincts.

Orla glanced across the marsh to where a wall of black cloud was advancing from the North Sea, wondering if nature was sending her a warning. It was considered unlucky for witches to meet before the risen sun had passed its zenith – which was just another way of saying she should have waited until the afternoon. But there was no time for that, and she had hoped that her unexpectedly early arrival might unsettle her host. She took a deep breath, then let Dave lead her through the revolving door. With its framed maps, polished wood and deep carpets, this was exactly the place where a colonel in a cummerbund would be found dead from a single pistol shot, or a vain dowager poisoned by a crazed doctor. Except no colonels, dowagers or doctors were to be seen. Nor elegant ladies, dinner-jacketed gentlemen or white-coated waiters, because the entire property, as Uncle Valentine had said, had been rented by a short man in a black suit with painted fingernails.

Orla wiped her wellies carefully on the doormat, took a firm grip on her gwelen and let Dave take the lead. With ears four times more sensitive than a human, he heard the violin long before Orla. The target was on the first floor, so Dave moved fast through the entrance hall, past reception, a restaurant, a bar, a library and a ballroom, until they came to the foot of a grand staircase with polished brass finials. Now Orla heard the music, fast, furious and played by a maestro.

“Up you go,” she whispered.

Dave threw her a warning look. He didn’t like upstairs. You could get trapped and be forced to jump from a window.

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.