The Corpse with the Opal Fingers by Cathy Ace

Author:Cathy Ace [Ace, Cathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths, FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General, FICTION / Crime, Australian crime fiction
Publisher: Four Tails Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2023-11-03T07:00:00+00:00

Big Noise

Once we reached our rental vehicle, Siân opened the door and got in, while Thelma hung back. I saw her tug at Bud’s sleeve. She whispered, “Stay with me?”

Determined to not be left out, I said, “I think I should try to walk off at least a couple of ounces of that massive steak. Fancy walking me home, Bud?”

Bud’s lips creased to a thin line, and I could tell he’d worked out that I’d overheard Thelma. “Tell you what,” he said, “if Siân and Todd are okay with it, why don’t they drive back, and we three will follow on foot? Winnie reckoned it was only about a twenty-minute walk – so you guys wouldn’t be alone for long. You okay with that?”

My sister and brother-in-law agreed they’d feel safe enough being alone for that amount of time, so off they went, leaving the three of us in the darkness behind the pub, with a good walk ahead of us. The evening was chilly, and I was glad I’d brought a jacket; Thelma shivered as we set out at a brisk pace. I feared she was fit enough to keep it up for some time and suspected I’d fall behind at some point, so decided to get the conversation going in the direction I wanted.

We turned off the main street almost immediately, and headed down a slope toward a residential area that I knew would take us in the right direction: we’d been driven around it by our taxi driver.

“It’s notable that Lennie Orkins wasn’t staying at the house that went up in flames,” I opened. “It might mean he wasn’t the arsonist’s intended target.”

“We don’t know who the target was, or even if the arson was intended to kill anyone,” replied Thelma. “Could be part of this pattern of unexplained fires they’ve been having here, and…you know…something went badly wrong.”

Bud deferred to his sometime colleague. “Thelma’s right, we don’t know enough about it to be sure,” he replied.

I snapped, “A flaming bucket in the sitting room? Really?” It was out before I could stop it. I ignored Bud’s glance, took a breath, and considered my next comment carefully. “Look, I think Neal made a good point: none of the members of The Mob ever whisper. We’ve seen and heard them, Bud – they all tend to be a bit rowdy, and shout to each other even when they’re just chatting in a bar. I think that anyone setting a fire would have been in no doubt there were people in that house. And then there’s Winnie’s information about the location of the seat of the fire. If the three men who died could have seen there was a bucket with a candle in it in the room with them, why on earth would they not have extinguished it before the fire got going? It makes no sense. Unless they were already incapacitated in some way.”

“Hold your horses,” said Thelma, pausing at a corner. “I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself there, Cait.

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.