The Mystery of the Village Theatre: A cozy-crime mystery set in an English village by JUDITH CUTLER

Author:JUDITH CUTLER [CUTLER, JUDITH]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books cozy crime thriller, mystery and suspense
Published: 2026-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Since I couldn’t raise Freya on either her landline or her mobile, I emailed her the details of my sighting of Charles Montaigne and the apparently friendly warning from Gorgeous Eyes. Until I’d seen Mrs Walker, who took Mondays off, there wasn’t much point in saying anything about the threatening customer.

The email went through, and I got her out-of-office standard reply. I tried her home address too, but there was no reply at all. Of course, she could have been cleaning her teeth or hanging out the washing or a million and one things. All the same, considering what Griff called her Condition, I found myself worrying. Not much, just enough to try her mobile. I had to leave a message. For a moment I thought of contacting Robin and asking if everything was OK, but since Monday was one of his lighter days, it occurred to me — at last! — that they might be doing something nice together.

I wouldn’t be nosing anywhere till Thursday, of course, so I told myself not to be a wimp and to get my head down and work. I obeyed so thoroughly that I hardly came up for air, working on several highly rewarding repairs simultaneously. It sounds impressive, but in fact all I was doing was getting them to the point where they had to rest for at least twenty-four hours before I started the next stage.

I managed to finish one spectacularly ugly but very precious Victorian vase on Tuesday morning. But then there was Griff’s lunch date with Andrew to think about.

I offered to drop Griff off at the Granville and collect him later. It meant he could have a glass or two of wine — he was now religiously drinking red, even when he was eating white meat or fish. Thinking I could kill two birds with one stone, I phoned my father to offer to bring over some lunch and do any shopping he needed. For a moment he sounded flustered, so he obviously had company, but he very audibly took a deep breath and said he’d love to see me, but not to bother shopping en route.

‘As a matter of fact,’ he announced as he greeted me, ‘I thought on a nice day like this I might come shopping with you.’ He patted his sports jacket, worn with his better trousers. He’d shaved, too, and remembered to brush his hair.

Catching sight of Titus’ car tucked deep into the overgrown shrubbery, I nodded. I always kept shopping bags in the boot, so I was happy with the change of plan. I thought I’d provoke him a little first, however. ‘What about the lunch Griff has prepared for us? Shall I just go and pop it in the fridge so you can eat it later?’

‘You’ve got to turn this splendid new car round,’ Pa said, grabbing the bag of food. ‘Let me deal with this.’

It was hard not to laugh out loud. Poor Pa. He really didn’t like expeditions

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