Chocolate Cake and Chaos (Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 4) by Agatha Frost

Author:Agatha Frost [Frost, Agatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

The morning of Jim’s funeral came around quicker than Julia would have liked. She had hoped she would have landed on something vital to crack the case so she could look Jim’s family in the eye without being consumed with guilt, but luck had evaded her.

She had kept one eye firmly trained on Evelyn and another on Jeffrey, and despite neither of them appearing to slip up, it had been easier than she had expected to play spy. Evelyn had been visiting her café every day for tea and a scone. At first, Julia had suspected Evelyn had known about her over-the-wall peeking, but if she did know, she was a better actress than Julia had thought. Jeffrey, on the other hand, had been popping up in people’s gardens all over the village, no doubt thanks to Dot’s glowing recommendation and the juicy titbit about his criminal past. The sound of lawn mowers had been echoing around the village so much, Julia had wondered if she had developed tinnitus on more than one occasion.

She assessed herself in the mirror and attempted to brush Mowgli’s cat hairs off her black dress for the fourth time. She picked up her mother’s pearls, the only jewellery she had inherited after her death, and held them up to her neck. Squinting, she stepped back, deciding about the jewellery.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Jessie asked, appearing in the mirror behind Julia.

“You stay home and enjoy your day off,” Julia said as she turned to brush cat hairs off her backside. “You’ve earned it this week covering for me.”

“I don’t mind,” Jessie said with a shrug as she sat on the edge of the bed. “I’ve enjoyed it. If you dropped dead tomorrow, I think I could slip into your shoes, although not those shoes. I don’t do heels.”

Julia looked down at the black heels, wondering if they were too much. She could hear her sister’s voice in the back of her mind telling her they were the only shoes that would go with the dress, even if they did make her calves burn on the few occasions she had worn them.

“Are they inappropriate?” Julia asked as she wobbled on her six-inch stilts. “They’re not me, are they?”

“Yes and no,” Jessie said, rolling onto the bed to stroke Mowgli, who was curled on top of Julia’s pillow. “But who cares? Did you even know the guy?”

“Not really,” Julia said. “I knew him as Barker’s boss. I only saw him a couple of times, but I want to be there to support Barker. We did find the body as well. I feel like I need to pay my respects to his family.”

“Speaking of Barker, he’s in the living room.”

“How long has he been here?”

“Ten minutes?” Jessie muttered, more interested in Mowgli. “Maybe half an hour.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You told me to enjoy my relaxing Sunday.”

Julia left Jessie stroking the cat and hurried through to the sitting room, where Barker was fiddling with his tie in the mirror above the fireplace.

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