Last Train for Murder: A totally gripping cozy mystery (The Edinburgh Murders Book 3) by Traude Ailinger

Author:Traude Ailinger [Ailinger, Traude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: THE BOOK FOLKS bestselling crime fiction publisher
Published: 2022-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Amy had spent an hour outside the flat where Shug McCain rented a room. She kept ringing the bell, but there was no answer. Her feet were numb with the cold, but at least it was dry. In Edinburgh in November, one had to be grateful for small mercies.

Amy had no particular desire to run into Shug McCain in the dark, nor to walk home on her own after sundown, for that matter. The incident with Cameron Coates had shaken her more than she admitted to anybody else, and she still could not rid herself of the feeling that someone was watching her, although any time she quickly looked behind her, she could not see anybody who suddenly turned away and slunk into dark doorways. ‘You’re being paranoid,’ she scolded herself, stomping her feet as if all this was the pavement’s fault.

She was about to give up on Shug McCain when the entrance to the flats opened to reveal an old woman who looked harmless enough. With her sunniest smile, Amy approached her slowly so as not to alarm her.

“Excuse me,” she said, “do you know where Shug McCain is? I was supposed to meet him here, but he is not answering the door.”

“You must have got your times wrong, dear,” the old lady croaked, “Shug is always in the pub round the corner at this time most afternoons, drowning his sorrows.”

“That is sad,” Amy said. “Is he still not over the divorce?”

The old lady eyed her suspiciously.

“Who did you say you were?”

“I’m his great-niece,” Amy improvised, “over from Australia for a couple of weeks. Discovering my roots,” she added for good measure.

“That’s funny,” the old lady said without a smile, “he has never once mentioned he has relations from down under, and you don’t sound like an Aussie. I could have sworn you are pure Edinburgh.”

She looked Amy up and down as if she was committing every detail of her appearance to her fading memory.

“My mum always insisted we spoke proper,” Amy ventured, feeling she was on dangerous ground here. “Thanks anyway, bye.”

She hurried off in the general direction where the woman had pointed, hoping she would find the pub with Shug inside before the neighbour could tell him all about the strange great-niece that did not exist.

When Amy turned the corner, there was not one pub, but three in her line of vision. She started with the first one, a grim place straight out of a 70s movie where the only punters were two men with arms like tree trunks and tattooed necks. Hearing the door creak, they put down their pool cues and stared at her. A seamless hundred-and-eighty-degree turn saw her back out in the street and walking towards the next one along the road.

This one was a lot more inviting with gold lettering over the entrance and a board outside advertising live music. Light spilled out onto the pavement through the windows, and she was greeted with laughter and the cheerful clink of glasses when she pushed open the heavy wooden door.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.