Till Daph Do Us Part by Clark Phillipa Nefri

Author:Clark, Phillipa Nefri [Clark, Phillipa Nefri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Google: LVQwEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B095N1XQDY
Publisher: Phillipa Nefri Clark
Published: 2021-08-29T22:00:00+00:00

An Odd Find and a New Puzzle

The morning sky was crystal clear and the air was free of humidity as Daphne strolled along the river to work on her two ceremonies. She’d slept much better than expected and was woken by the enticing aroma of fresh coffee. Daphne slipped her feet into a pair of sensible shoes, shoved her phone in a pocket, and with her notebook in hand, gave John a quick kiss. He had his hands full putting the outdoor area back up.

There was a narrow track alongside the water and it made for easy walking, although the ground was still a bit soft underfoot. The river was higher than usual and swept fallen branches and other debris along in a hurry but otherwise there was little to remind her of the ferocity of the storm.

Talking to John last night about the death of Steve Tanning helped her mind focus on the facts rather than feelings.

“Although feelings matter.”

She glanced around. Whew. Nobody overhead her. Not even a squawk from the pair of magpies hunting for worms in the soft ground.

For a while Daphne dawdled along the track as she whispered ideas to herself. It wasn’t only which words to use, but when and how to use them. Two grieving families. Two different approaches. Her intention with the Brookers was to tread lightly. As she already had a good idea of where each of them stood regarding Steve—unless one was the murderer—their ceremony offered some challenges. Best not to fuel Lisa’s need for attention nor Margaret and Bob’s dislike of the young man.

Daphne found a tree stump between the track and river and sat there to write her ideas down while fresh in her mind. For the Tannings, she formulated a celebration of Steve’s life. Thanks to the email from Marlene, she had snippets to include. Writing about the good memories was easy. But how to broach what should have been the happiest day of his life without making it about the worst one?

“Can’t really reminisce about how happy he was to marry his beautiful bride, only to end up face down in her pool.”

She sighed and closed the notebook. His family hadn’t even attended his wedding so mentioning it was bound to stir some distress. If they had been there, he might still be alive. Whoever was responsible for his death would have been forced to change their tactics with more people around. People who probably would not have joined the search for Bertie.

Daphne sat bold upright. Was Steve’s death planned, based on knowing his family wouldn’t attend, or was it opportunistic? The answer to this question would narrow down the list of suspects. Presumably, the medical examiner would know the cause of death at some point, and speaking of points, if it was a knife then Matty must have information about the type of knife after his reaction to seeing John’s filleting knife. Weddings have knives. The cake knife—had anyone checked it? And caterers have knives.

Finding a blank page, Daphne noted her thoughts to come back to later.

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.