MURDER IN THE GARDEN a completely unputdownable cozy mystery by VERONICA HELEY

Author:VERONICA HELEY [HELEY, VERONICA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Ostara Classics
Published: 2023-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It was getting late. Ellie listened to the messages which had been left on the answerphone. Two were from Diana, asking plaintively where her mother was. One from dear Tum-Tum at the church, asking if Ellie were all right, and did she want to cancel giving everyone coffee after their gardening at church tomorrow?

One message was from Stewart, asking if Ellie would like to babysit on Thursday, as he and Maria had to go out. One from Roy, wondering if she’d like supper with him on Thursday, and asking when the plants for the gardens at the new development would be put in. Everything was for Thursday evening, when the Women’s Guild had an invited speaker at the church. Ellie had been looking forward to that.

It annoyed her that she’d nothing else in her diary all week, and now there were three things on the Thursday. Oh, and she supposed she’d have to make time to go out with Bill, too.

She scolded herself. How come she’d got so spoiled that she resented being asked out by two pleasant men? She decided it was she herself who was at fault, rather than them. All this looking back over her own marriage had made her wary of any more involvement with the opposite sex.

She rang Diana, and got an earful of complaints. Why hadn’t Ellie been round to see her that day? Ellie could at least have rung to see if her only daughter were all right, and not fainting away on the floor. Ellie could have helped by taking Diana to the doctor’s, though, as it happened, they hadn’t got a slot for her and she’d had to go down to Accident and Emergency at Ealing Hospital, and they’d wanted to keep her in, but of course Diana hadn’t agreed to that. And the least Ellie could do was to bring her round some nicely cooked supper. Oh, and while she was at it, Diana was out of butter and . . . oh, yes, some bread. And perhaps some of that thinly sliced ham from the deli . . .

Ellie listened with part of her mind on the mystery of the girl in the garden. Now that DI Willis had pointed out the agony of a mother not knowing what had happened to her daughter, Ellie found it hard to put it out of her mind.

She pulled herself back to the present. There would be no fresh bread left in the bakery at this time of day, but she promised Diana she would do what she could. She reminded Diana that Monday evening was choir practice but she’d pop in to see her after that. Predictably, Diana exploded. Couldn’t her mother cancel choir practice for once?

‘No, I couldn’t. I’ll be round after that.’ She put the phone down. Midge was sitting on the hall chair. Her hand found his head and stroked it. He liked that. Within reason. Presently he nudged her hand away and leaped down to make for the kitchen.

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.