The Ghostwriter's Study: a private investigator goes undercover (The Edie Fox Detective Agency Book 3) by Julie Highmore

Author:Julie Highmore [Highmore, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS bestselling mystery fiction publisher
Published: 2024-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

On Sunday the three of us met in the office at midday. I went first.

‘OK, so, as I told the police last night… if three in the morning counts as last night?’

‘I think it might,’ said Mike. He looked as exhausted as I felt.

I yawned, apologised and continued. ‘Although I’d heard Dolores crying in her room, I hadn’t got to know her well enough to say she might have been suicidal.’

‘Also,’ said Mike, ‘I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure people who jump don’t cry out.’

‘I think I’ve heard that,’ I said. ‘But why would anyone want to push her?’

Emily sighed. ‘She seemed really nice. And kind. Offered me her room to change Flo. She even took her pooey nappy away. She wasn’t exactly talkative, but, yeah, kind.’

‘I didn’t get to speak to her,’ said Mike.

Emily tapped her chin with her phone. ‘There was something a bit odd,’ she said, frowning. ‘You know how tidy Dolores’s room is?’

I shook my head. ‘Never been in it.’

‘Like absolutely nothing was out of place, and the bed was all neatly made. I was sitting on it for a while, cuddling Flo and trying to get her off to sleep. She likes Twinkle, Twinkle at bedtime, only it wasn’t working. So we were there for a while, and I tried Baa, Baa Black Sheep, and Mary Had a Little…’

‘Mike!’ I said, clapping to wake him.

‘Sorry,’ he said, shifting himself upright. ‘Sorry. Carry on, Em.’

‘OK… well, then I noticed a board and some tiles on the floor, like they’d fallen off this, like, table and hadn’t been put back? Anyway, I went and picked it up, and it turned out to be a Scrabble board.’

‘Dolores is a Scrabblehead,’ I said. ‘Was. She even did tournaments.’

‘Surely that would be a sign of depression?’ asked Mike.

‘Please don’t,’ I told him.

‘So…’ Emily continued, ‘I went and picked it up, along with the eight tiles. And anyway I sort of played around with the tiles, and then I realised…’

‘Yes?’ I asked.

‘OK, look. I’ll tell you guys the letters and you see what you make, yeah?’

She gave us each a pen and a piece of paper and reeled off the letters. I wrote mine down in a straight line, while Mike, I noticed, formed a circle.

‘Fuck you y?’ he asked.

‘Wow, you’re quick,’ said Emily.

‘Do we think she was going to make it Joey?’ I asked.

‘Or Lily?’ asked Mike. He folded his arms and scowled. ‘What speculatory route exactly are we heading down here? That Dolores put those words on the board and either Joey or Lily took offence and pushed her off a terrace? An extreme response, wouldn’t you say?’

‘But Joey was in his room,’ said Emily.

I nodded. ‘And Lily was in the garden.’

‘When did either of you last see Dolores?’ asked Emily.

Mike shrugged. ‘I wasn’t even introduced to her, so…’

‘In the garden,’ I said, ‘after the table and cake were set up, Suzie couldn’t get a response from Joey, so Dolores said she’d look for him. Obviously, that had involved going to the balcony.

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