Death and a Dog by Fiona Grace

Author:Fiona Grace [Grace, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fiona Grace
Published: 2019-12-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lacey already knew what would happen next. Gossip. She braced herself. It would take all of ten minutes for each store owner on the high street to pass on the news to the next along, and the next after that, like a game of Telephone. It wouldn’t take long before everyone in town knew that the sextant had been discovered in Lacey’s store, propelling her right into the center of a murderer investigation. A second murder investigation, no less.

Lacey knew how it worked. The fact she had nothing to do with the slaying of Iris—something the police themselves had declared—would count for nothing. People would still think it was too remarkable a concurrence of events to be mere coincidence. She was going to become a suspect again, if not in the police, then in the minds of everyone in Wilfordshire. And she didn’t know if she had the strength to go through all that for a second time.

It took less than an hour for people to stop coming into her store. Her usual flow of customers dwindled to a trickle, before drying up entirely. This was another outcome that Lacey had anticipated. Last time, she’d almost lost her business over the lack of trade. She’d been exceptionally lucky to recover, and that was in large part due to Nigel choosing her to auction Iris’s entire estate. Without the commission she’d earned, she’d have gone bankrupt. But that was a one off. Now she relied on the income from sales to stay afloat and she was not going to be getting anything resembling a steady trade as long as Buck’s murder was hanging over her head.

She had no choice. She would have to find out what happened and clear her name.

Good thing I’ve got so much free time now, she thought dryly.

There was no point standing around hoping someone would come in, so she closed up shop and headed across the street to Tom’s to fill him in on everything that had transpired with the cops, and get some much needed TLC.

As she entered the patisserie, she discovered he was swamped with customers. They all seemed to sidestep as she entered, and she noticed people whispering behind their hands. She kept her chin up high and edged her way to the counter.

“Tom,” she said, trying to get his attention. He seemed extremely focused on boxing up a slice of gooey chocolate cream cake.

He looked up, the business in his eyes evident. “Lacey? What are you doing here? Is everything okay?”

“Not really,” she said.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“It’s the sextant,” Lacey said, having to project her voice over the thrum of noise in the patisserie.” It turned up at my store.”

“The what?” Tom asked, straining as if he’d been unable to hear her over the noisy customers.

“The antique! Someone put it in my store. Gina left the door unlocked.” She squeezed her hand into a fist, and muttered to herself, “I am going to kill her.”

A woman standing beside Lacey looked suddenly perturbed.

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