Seven Lively Suspects by Watson Katy

Author:Watson, Katy [Watson, Katy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Published: 2024-07-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Dahlia raised her glass to clink against Johnnie’s. ‘To friendship,’ she said. ‘The one thing that makes everything else bearable.’

Dahlia Lively in Look Lively, Dahlia

By Lettice Davenport, 1936

Posy

Darkness had already started to fall before anything happened. Then, suddenly, festival volunteers were everywhere, herding unsuspecting first-timers towards the door, and urging them to put on their masks and capes.

‘I’m not sure I like this,’ Caro muttered, as she stretched the elastic of the mask over her dark curls. Her familiar face disappeared behind the stark black and bone white of the mask, and Posy shuddered at the sight.

She didn’t like putting her own mask on much, either – and not just because of the way the elastic dug in behind her ears.

There was something … Dahlia would have called it ‘unchancy’ about the whole set-up. Skeletons and torches and a whiff of death in a festival where an actual murder had taken place, just a few years ago.

But then, everyone here wrote and read about murder for fun. Probably this was like trick or treating on Halloween for them, and she was just being a big baby about it all.

Telling herself that didn’t do anything for the strange weight in her chest, though.

Outside the hotel, the streets were already filled with people – many of them wearing the masks and capes, but not all. Posy guessed that perhaps the locals came out for whatever was about to happen, too. There were even some kids up front holding glow sticks, bouncing with the excitement of staying up late.

Okay, maybe this isn’t as creepy as I thought.

‘Come on,’ Rosalind said, taking Posy’s arm in a firm grip. ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it properly.’

They jostled their way through the crowds, towards the high street, but since none of them knew what they were there to see, it was hard to figure out where to stand.

Through the mass of people, Posy spotted one she recognised. Danny was just a few metres away, his tall, broad frame standing out among the people around him, and his skeleton mask pushed up over his head, ruffling his carefully styled dark hair. Posy shoved hers aside the same way, then waved until he spotted her.

‘The three Dahlias.’ The crowds had parted for Danny in a way they hadn’t quite for them, as if he just expected that the way would be clear and it was. However he’d managed it, he was standing beside them in a moment. ‘Come to see the Skeleton Parade?’

‘Is that what this is? What the blazes is actually going on here tonight?’ Rosalind asked, genuine confusion in her voice. ‘I understood this event was to be the height of the festival, but I admit to being somewhat lost about it all.’

Danny grinned, his teeth bright in the torchlight against his shadowed face. ‘This is the Skeleton Parade, Rosalind. And it’s exactly what it sounds like. Come on. Follow me, and I’ll get you the best view in Market Foxleigh.’

Danny led

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