The Hampton Case_A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella by Diana Xarissa

Author:Diana Xarissa [Xarissa, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Janet wasn’t sure how much she and Edward should tell Joan about their day. She knew Joan hated it when she thought Janet was snooping, but maybe she’d feel differently about it since she’d had Edward with her.

“So, what did you two do all day?” Joan asked once they were all sitting down with very full plates of lasagne and garlic bread.

“We drove past the shop so that I could see the damage,” Janet said, deciding to tell Joan everything because she knew she was terrible at lying to her sister.

“How bad was it?” Joan asked.

“It was strange,” Janet said. “From the front, you couldn’t really tell that anything had happened, except for an odd broken window. But the back of the building was almost burned to the ground.”

“So we’ll have to do all of our shopping at the big supermarket for the foreseeable future,” Joan sighed.

“Yes, and then we ran into Martha Scott. She lives on the road behind the shop. Apparently Simon Hampton was trying to buy her house and all of the houses on that road so that he could expand the shop,” Janet told her.

“Martha from your Ladies’ Club?” Joan asked.

“Yes, that’s the one,” Janet replied.

“I’d heard a rumour that there were plans to expand the shop, but I didn’t think they were true,” Joan said.

“Who told you about it?” Janet asked.

“Mary Long,” Joan replied.

Janet nodded. Mary was their neighbour Stuart’s wife, and when she was in Doveby Dale she was a continuous source of gossip, a great deal of which proved to be untrue. The sisters felt fortunate that she spent much of her time travelling between her three adult children from her first marriage.

“Well, apparently it is true, but he’s been having trouble getting planning permission,” Janet told her.

“Why would he want to expand?” Joan wondered. “His prices are too high as it is. Presumably, if he expanded, he’d raise the prices even more. The larger shop isn’t that far away. If he raised prices at all, I’d start doing all of my shopping there, and I don’t think I’m the only one. We already give them most of our business, really.”

“Yes, and now that the local shop is going to be closed for a while, we’ll start getting into the habit of having to drive a little bit further,” Janet said. “I wonder if he’ll get any business if he does reopen.”

“I wonder if he’s planning on reopening,” Joan said.

“He said he is,” Janet told her.

“When did you speak to him?” Joan wanted to know.

Janet took a big bite of her dinner and chewed slowly while she tried to work out exactly how to tell her sister about the press conference.

“I dragged poor Janet to Simon’s press conference,” Edward said before Janet swallowed. “We were doing some shopping in Derby when someone rang me and suggested that I should be there.”

“Why?” Joan demanded.

Edward grinned. “I’m afraid that’s classified,” he said. He took a sip of his wine while Joan glared at him.

Janet shoved a bite of garlic bread into her mouth to stop herself from laughing.

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