Still Waters by Kate Johnson

Author:Kate Johnson [Johnson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, holiday, cozy, women sleuth
ISBN: 9781599989440
Google: OA5OLKBkd4YC
Amazon: B001CN45K0
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Published: 2008-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

She smiled. “Yes, but you’ve booked a luxury villa.”

Had we, indeed?

Norma Jean looked very excited to be allowed out of the car—as if she’d been there for hours instead of about fifty minutes. She yapped impatiently and galloped up to the front door of the villa, which sat there looking smug and new. Leaving Luke with the car and the luggage, I ran after her, ten years old again, unlocked the door and rushed around the luxurious little place, jumping up and down when I saw the spa bath in the en suite upstairs.

“You shouldn’t be jumping without a sports bra,” Luke observed from the doorway, and I jumped again, because I hadn’t heard him come in.

“And you shouldn’t be looking.”

“Maybe if you’d helped me unload some stuff—”

I tuned out and brushed past him, back into the bedroom. Here was a large double bed made up with a soft duvet, patterned with the Eden apple logo. Sofa, I thought firmly. There’s a sofa downstairs. One of us will be sleeping on that.

No doubt Luke would be pulling the six-foot-one card on me and getting the bed for himself. No fair.

The villa, unlike the ones I usually stayed in with my family, was on two levels. Downstairs was an open-plan living and dining room and comprehensively equipped kitchen, then steps swirled up to a galleried bedroom and bathroom. I leaned over the wooden railing and looked down into the double height space below. Then I pulled back. I’m not good with heights.

In the corner of the living room, stretching right up to the high ceiling, was a Christmas tree tastefully decorated with gold ribbons, and there was a vase of exotic flowers and a box of Belgian chocolates on the table.

There was a balcony outside the bedroom, and I went out to look. Like most of the villas, it overlooked a lake and lots of trees. Squirrels rustled around in front of me and a couple of ducks flew down to the water. I remembered the obsessive seagull in Port Trevan and smiled.

Downstairs, Luke finished bringing stuff in and I gave him a cup of coffee as reward. He took it, sipped it, and made a face.

“And what is this?”

I sipped a bit too. Yuck.

“The stuff they gave us on arrival,” I said. “Let’s hope the chocolates are better.”

We took Norma Jean out for a walk and it was hard to tell who was more excited, me or her. I knew this place and loved it. It seemed impossible that I was here to work. That somewhere in this haven there might be the person who had killed Molly Stanton and nearly killed me.

That sobered me a little.

Dogs were not allowed in the glass-domed village centre, so we tied her up outside. “You never know,” I joked, “someone might adopt her.”

“Reckon we could make some money on that dog,” Luke said, looking at Norma’s classic Nobody Loves Me pose—nose on paws, sighing, eyelashes fluttering.

“You’re such a hussy,” I said, but I said it fondly.

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