Romance is Dead: A cosy Scottish mystery novel (The Wronged Women's Co-operative Book 3) by T E Scott

Author:T E Scott [Scott, T E]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shuna Publishing
Published: 2023-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26: Bernie

It was her sister-in-law Cathy that brought Bernie the breakthrough she had been looking for. Cathy was calling on behalf of the rest of the family to guilt trip her about Alice. That was clear from the moment that she called up out of the blue. But Bernie wasn’t having any of it.

“It’s a business matter, Cathy,” Bernie had told her, “and I’m not going to discuss it.”

“Come on Berns, she’s only a kid.”

“She’s twenty-two. I seem to remember that at that age you had already been divorced once.”

Cathy didn’t laugh. “That just goes to show that you shouldn’t be allowed to make any important decisions until you’re twenty-five. Why don’t you just give the girl a chance to –”

“Was there anything else you wanted?”

“No, I suppose not.”

A flash of inspiration crossed Bernie’s mind. “You’re still working over in Edinburgh, aren’t you?”

“Aye, commuting back and forth every blooming day. Half the time there’s an accident on the M8 and it takes twice as long to get home.”

“You work for that big cleaning firm, don’t you?”

“Forth Cleaning. Yes, I’m in the office doing the accounts.”

“I don’t suppose you would know if Jock Devon was one of your clients.”

“We don’t do many domestic houses these days.”

“That’s what I mean. This guy owned a load of nightclubs and snooker rooms. Rough kind of places, but I’m guessing they would still need a cleaner.”

There was a short pause on the other end of the line. “I could check I suppose. Is this to do with an investigation for your agency?”

“It might be,” Bernie said. “I was thinking if I could find someone that worked with this guy who was killed, Mr Devon, then they might be able to tell me something about him. Something that the police might not know.”

“All right, I’ll check it out for you. And about that other thing –”

“Call me back when you find something,” Bernie said, hanging up the phone.

Within the hour Bernie’s phone was ringing once more.

“I’ve solved it all for you,” Cathy said as soon as she answered.

“Solved what? The murder?”

“Well, not yet, but I’m sure it can’t be that hard. No, I’ve found a contact for you.”

Bernie drummed her fingers on the kitchen counter while Cathy regaled her with her afternoon’s activities.

“I started by looking through our accounts. I couldn’t find any mention of the name Jock Devon, so I did an internet search. From what I could see, this Devon guy owned his properties through a company called North Bridge Management Ltd. So I checked it out.”

“And you found his account?”

“No. We have never worked with Jock Devon or his company.”

Bernie nearly bit through her lip in frustration. “Then why…”

“Hold your horses. Look, there are only a few big commercial cleaning companies in Edinburgh, and I know most of them. So I called around. Turns out that my friend Paula’s company worked for Jock Devon. And charged him double, by the way, as his places were always filthy.”

“And did any of them work

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