Royally Snuffed: An Amateur Female Duchess Detective Cozy Mystery (The Duchess of Snodsbury Amateur Detective Series) by P.C. James & Kathryn Mykel

Author:P.C. James & Kathryn Mykel [James, P.C. & Mykel, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

13

BLOOMS AND ALIBIS

Margie

By four o’clock in the morning, Margie had almost succumbed to exhaustion. The wave of excitement that had sustained her through the dark hours was fading, leaving her eyes gritty, dry, and itchy, with heavy eyelids. Her spirits dipped low. She got up, stretched, and walked around the room, doing anything to stave off sleep, though she knew the neighbor had likely already made his escape.

The sky lightened, and daylight began creeping into the room.

Returning to the window, she saw something that puzzled her. A car sat parked on the main road, almost invisible behind a hedge and trees, between the Snodsbury estate’s gatehouse lodge and the driveway to Smythe’s house. She stared. Was that there already, and I missed it? Did it drive up and park while I stretched? Is it the police? That looks like a police car—though it doesn’t have a blue light on top. Should I wake Lady Mary?

Margie scanned the scene outside the window, hoping to see the constable patrolling the neighbor’s gate and boundary. Where is the police officer on duty? He’s not to be seen. Maybe the car is a police car, and he’s inside handing over to the next shift? Margie’s panic grew as she wrestled with how she should proceed.

A movement in the bushes beside the car, made the decision for her. She picked up the hand bell they’d made ready for raising the alarm and shook it hard. Its loud clanging echoed from the walls of the room, and she rushed to the door and flung it open so the bell’s clamorous notes would reverberate along the corridor and down the stairs. Torn between continuing to ring the bell and getting back to the window to see what happened next, Margie yelled as loud as she could, “He’s running!”

She headed back to the window, still ringing the bell, just in time to see the car’s lights flicker on as it pulled away from the curb. Dropping the bell, she grabbed the binoculars, desperate to catch the numbers on the car’s plate through any gaps in the bushes. But by the time she focused the lenses, the car had already disappeared behind the trees. Seeing Ponsonby and Barkley race down the drive toward the road offered her the only glimmer of hope. Her stomach churned. She’d hesitated when a hero would have acted, and now the villain had escaped.

Running downstairs to the front door, she hoped Ponsonby would return with the car’s plate number or description and recover some vestige of value from this awful moment. She found Mary on the hall phone, talking to the local police station.

Placing her hand over the phone, Mary asked, “Which way did they go, Margie?”

“East,” Margie said, her voice quavering. “And it was a dark car, like a police car.”

Mary relayed this to the police saying, “He’ll be heading for the coast. He must have a boat nearby, or know someone who does.” Mary nodded and hung up the phone.

“Well done, Margie,” Mary cried.

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