The Girl on the Doorstep: Berkshires Cozy Mystery by Andrea Kress

Author:Andrea Kress [Kress, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ibanez Literary Group
Published: 2021-10-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Not long after, John came back to the kitchen and beckoned me to follow him. We walked to his car, he held open the passenger door and said, “Let’s go up to Highfields.”

We didn’t talk on the drive up and he slowed down as we approached the house and looked intently at the front door area.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I don’t see anything resembling roses, do you?”

He drove slowly on the driveway to the back of the house, scrutinizing the landscaping and shaking his head.

“Something doesn’t add up,” he said. “Although Lulu was found on her back, the body’s lividity suggests otherwise. She was moved after death to this place is my guess.”

“From where?” As I asked the question, I had an answer. “Let’s go back to town.”

He pulled up in his driveway and I led the way to Glenda’s house. It didn’t take long for him to ascertain that the origin of the rose petals came from the pale-yellow climber that arched itself over the front door.

“I’d better call Inspector Gladstone,” John said wearily, going back to his house while I returned to Miss Manley’s and accompanied Glenda into the kitchen for a glass of lemonade. I was bursting with the news about the rose petals and John’s information about Lulu’s body being moved but was interrupted by Officer Reed looking for Annie, who was off on an errand in town. He always looked a little flushed, probably from the heavy uniform he wore, so I invited him to sit down and have a glass of buttermilk, a sure-fire cooling drink. A few minutes later, Annie returned with the Berkshire Eagle tucked under her arm and a packet of peaches from the greengrocer. I knew that there would be a conversation about ongoing events at Highfields, and there was no way I was going to miss it.

Without prompting, Reed launched into mild grievances about the Davis household’s reluctance to provide any information about whether either Monty or Christa or any of the staff knew Lulu Evans.

“Monty and Christa saw her perform at the Mountain Aire last night and they had mentioned they had seen her perform before,” I said.

“He might have met her before that,” Annie said. “Wouldn’t an aspiring actress know about Monty Davis living at Highfields?”

“How do you know she was an aspiring actress?” Reed asked with surprise.

“It stands to reason. She was a singer, and I heard the only reason she got her big chance to perform up here was that her cousin lost her voice. Everyone says she was very popular, and the men couldn’t stop talking about her. Surely she was hoping for something bigger.”

Reed raised his eyebrows in skepticism but said nothing. Like me, he was probably wondering where Annie got her information. I smiled inwardly, imagining her having a secret subscription to Variety.

“That’s not an unreasonable assumption,” Glenda said. “In New York show business you’ve got to have irons in every fire.”

“There was some loud conversation at the table with Cash Ridley and Monty where they were both extolling her talents and where she could best be used.

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