Peridale Cafe Mystery 19 - Brownies and Bloodshed by Agatha Frost

Author:Agatha Frost
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Pink Tree Publishing LTD
Published: 2019-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

10

Dot spent the next morning at the café, slumped at the table nearest the window, ignoring her tea and anyone who attempted to talk to her. Instead, she sat in silence, eyes firmly on the church across the green. The police were still treating the area as a crime scene, not that Dot’s eyes were fixed on them. She just stared, blank and vacant.

“Her aura is grey,” Evelyn whispered to Julia across the counter as they both watched. “Perhaps I could cleanse her?”

“I think it’s best to keep your distance,” Julia said, repeating the same advice she had given her customers all morning. “I think she’s still in shock.”

Evelyn picked up her tea and headed to the door, but she hesitated at Dot’s table. Julia held her breath and felt Jessie do the same. Evelyn reached into her billowing green kaftan and pulled out her satchel of crystals. She perched one on the edge of Dot’s table before scurrying for the door; Dot didn’t so much as glance at the stone.

“We have to do something,” Jessie whispered as she emptied the coffee grounds from the machine. “She’s not said a word.”

Julia had been trying to give her gran space, but she had to agree. She wasn’t sure how much longer Dot could keep scaring off customers. The regulars had been taking away their orders all morning.

“Gran?” Julia said gently as she replaced the untouched, cold tea in front of Dot with a new cup. “Why don’t you go home and lie down?”

Dot continued to stare out the window as though Julia hadn’t spoken. Julia glanced at Jessie, who gave her an encouraging nod. Knowing she was risking her gran’s wrath, Julia sat across from her and waited, uninvited. To her surprise, Dot’s eyes drifted to meet hers. Julia was sure it took her gran a split second to even recognise who she was.

“He didn’t do it,” Dot muttered in a small, croaky voice. “He didn’t do it.”

“Gran, I know he—”

“He didn’t do it,” Dot repeated. “He didn’t do it, did he, Julia?”

“He didn’t, Gran.”

Dot went back to staring through the window. Julia wanted to reach across the table and grab her gran’s hands, but she kept them clenched in her lap under the table. She had no idea how to shake her gran out of whatever trance-state she had entered. She pushed the tea closer despite knowing Dot wouldn’t touch it.

“Do you think he did it?” Jessie whispered to Julia when she was back behind the counter.

“Of course not,” she replied quickly. “Barker said Christie was under pressure to arrest someone, and Percy was their lead suspect.”

“They must have something on him.”

“Not according to Barker.”

“So, why haven’t they released him yet?”

Julia glanced at the clock as the hands struck noon; she had been wondering the same thing all day. She had awoken that morning hoping Percy had been released during the night. For now, the police seemed eager to keep him for the full twenty-four hours allotted before they needed to charge him with something or release him.

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