EQ 18 Murder for Nothing by Heley Veronica

Author:Heley, Veronica [Heley, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery
Published: 2017-05-24T04:00:00+00:00

TEN

Monday suppertime

A shrug. Angelica said, ‘I didn’t know him. You’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t invite him. Clay – you know him? He’s always in the pub, offering pills for this and that … Well, he heard I was having a party and he said everyone would enjoy themselves more if he came along, and I agreed without realizing what he meant.’

Ellie’s eyebrows rose and so did Rafael’s. Did the girl really think they’d swallow that?

Susan said, ‘Ha!’ and dealt out dessert spoons to everyone. ‘Eat up.’

‘It’s true,’ said Angelica earnestly. Perhaps she even believed it herself? ‘Clay knew lots of the people who came to the party. He was a student at the uni himself, once. Photography, I think. Till he dropped out.’ A wrinkle on the perfect brow. ‘I think the pub banned him recently but he still hangs around, like, and people can always get his phone number if they want it.’

‘And you didn’t know he worked for Milos?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Pull the other one,’ said Rafael. ‘But I’m interested to know what sort of cut Clay was going to give you?’

Another wriggle. ‘You make it sound so horrid! It wasn’t like that at all. He just said that he’d love to come to the party and he’d make sure I wasn’t out of pocket. I had all these horrid bills to pay, and it’s no fun not being able to afford pretty things, so of course I said he could come, and I didn’t know there was going to be trouble, did I?’

‘What sort of “trouble” are we talking about?’

Lowered eyes. ‘How should I know? People getting high. Pushing and shoving. You know. I don’t like to think of such things.’

‘Come on, now,’ said Rafael. ‘You nicked the proceeds after the fight, or whatever it was. Probably just a scuffle? So you must have been there when fists were thrown around. You told us that it was only because this man Clay got knocked about in a fight that he gave you his stash to take care of.’

Angelica threw off a tinkling laugh. ‘Oh, no! I didn’t see what happened, honest! He came reeling out of the sitting room with blood on his face and thrust this package at me, but then Jake came and I was trying to talk to him and hardly took in what Clay was saying. It was a real shock to me when I found out what he’d given me, and that’s why I hid it. And now someone’s stolen it from me, and you’re all looking at me as if I had done something dreadful, when all I was doing was trying to give my friends a good time.’

Ellie started to say, ‘But—’ and got cut off.

Angelica said, ‘Look, everyone at the party was grown up, like. They didn’t have to buy anything from Clay if they didn’t want to, did they? I don’t know how he got hurt and I don’t want to know. I was upset when Jake said he didn’t like my party when I’d been to all that trouble to set it up.

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