Tennis Balls and a Body: Cozy Mystery (Courtside Cafe Cozy Mysteries Book 3) by Myrtle Morse & Ruby Loren

Author:Myrtle Morse & Ruby Loren [Morse, Myrtle & Loren, Ruby]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

12

Lessons Learned

“I don’t recall inviting you to my party,” Mrs Becker said, raising her voice enough to cause all of the guests to stare and whisper.

“I heard it was a surprise party,” Oliver replied, looking as cool as ever before grinning. “Surprise!” he added, strolling over and helping himself to one of the slices that was certainly not ‘just a sliver’. “Many happy returns and all that jazz.” He had the nerve to wink in my direction, as if we’d planned this interruption together.

“Young man, you’d better be careful, or I’ll be speaking to…” Mrs Becker started to say in the time honoured fashion of threatening Oliver with reporting him to a mysterious club owner. I suspected that all of those complaints were redirected to Oliver for him to deal with, and it was therefore completely understandable that nothing ever seemed to come of any words spoken against him.

“Please do speak to the club owner. He is always very happy to hear any thoughts about improvements that can be made. He cares about this club an incredible amount, even though he’s often too busy to have a presence here. He might leave again at any moment, so don’t waste the opportunity to get in a good talk with him!” Oliver said, smiling benevolently around at everyone.

I folded my arms, knowing that Oliver knew full-well that his stepbrother did not want to listen to an endless sea of complaints from members of a club that was probably close to being bottom on his list of businesses. I frowned as it occurred to me that, if the club really was that low a priority for him, why on earth would he bother reacting so violently to Gene Fowler’s thinly veiled threat? It also seemed strange that Gene was asking for a reduction in the membership fee when it probably would have taken him two seconds to change his contract and grant himself lifetime free membership at the new sports complex he was supposed to have been in charge of building.

Was the letter code for something else, or was the sports complex Gene’s idea of making someone like Gareth listen to him over his concerns about the tennis club’s fees? I bit my lip. Gene had seemed petty when I’d seen him battling tennis balls with Oliver and disputing the result of the tournament’s final, but surely he hadn’t been crazy enough to set up a whole property project just to get a discount at his local tennis club?

“No, no!” I yelped as a streak of ginger barrelled past at a surprisingly quick pace, leaving my hand grasping thin air as the kitten leapt up and over the bar in two big springs. Oliver looked mildly surprised when it made a beeline for his leg, but the surprise turned to shrieks when the kitten started to climb, using its claws as crampons.

“I’m allergic to cats! This is unhygienic!” Mrs Becker complained, the birthday spirit evaporating along with the last glass of rum and coke she’d swallowed down.

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