A Date With Death: Cozy Private Investigator Series (Flora Lively Mysteries Book 2) (23 page)

‘You think it was me? How you think that?’ Eduardo turned to Celeste, outraged. ‘What kind of girlfriend you?’ He changed to Spanish, but then quickly shut up, silenced by a growl from Nick.

Celeste had stiffened, but she said nothing, and Flora didn’t bother to look her way.

‘I’d had my doubts about it from the start,’ Flora said. ‘There were no footprints in the flowerbeds, but the balcony door was open. You didn’t seem bothered about that discrepancy, which I thought was odd for someone who is usually so meticulous. You were so quick to arrest Marshall, when it should have been clear the evidence against him was thin at best. But I trusted you, we all trusted you. Which is exactly what you were banking on, wasn’t it?

‘It all slotted together when Eduardo told me that
honda
was also a Spanish word for sling. You translated it as deep, but I’m pretty sure as soon as I told you what Gabriella had said to me, you figured it out at once. She’d been blackmailing you, hadn’t she? You didn’t know she had planted a recording device in Alberto’s room, had no idea that every word you said to him that night was being captured digitally. That’s what she went in to retrieve the night of the murder, and when she came to you and played it, threatened to expose you if you didn’t give her a share of the money, you decided to kill her too.’

This last part was guesswork, but Flora’s suspicions were confirmed by the flush creeping up Jack’s neck.

‘This is your case?’ Jack said, laughing. ‘Flowerbeds, serviettes, doctored recordings? Just as well you’re not a real detective. You haven’t got a clue.’

It was Flora’s turn to shrug now. ‘We’ll let the courts decide. But at least you won’t be able to manipulate any more evidence. You should have been taken off this investigation, and if you had any real ethics you would have walked away. That was the only reason you didn’t come in here last night and search for the sling. You had to be seen to be doing it properly, getting a warrant, ticking the right boxes. But it must have been driving you insane, having to wait. Knowing that someone else could find the recording and discover the truth.’ She glanced down at it, such an innocent looking object. ‘You tried to put me off the scent, giving me the wrong translation. But when I remembered that you yourself had been the one to teach Gabriella the English word for sling, I realised what you’d done. You were clever, Jack. But you weren’t clever enough.’

Suddenly, Jack lunged for the recording. Flora wasn’t quick enough – his fingers were strong and insistent, and he forced the device out of her hands. She cried out, clawing at his back as he turned away. He kicked out, catching her in the stomach, shoving her off her feet. Flora staggered and fell on top of the trunk. A woman’s voice screamed. Jack ran towards the door.

‘Stop him,’ someone shouted. It was Nick, shouldering forward, running at the detective like a prize bull. Jack was strong, but he was no match for Nick and Vincenzo together, who grappled him to the ground, hands and fists flying. Nick grabbed the recording device and stood up, pulling Jack with him, pinning the detective’s arms behind his back. Eduardo stepped forward to block any further attempts to escape, his lips curled back in a snarl.

‘The police are on their way,’ Marshall said to Flora as he helped her to her feet. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. Just winded.’ She looked at him, her eyes searching. Was he angry with her? Probably. He had every right to be. ‘It just came to me, Marshall,’ she said. ‘I didn’t plan to do it like this, with a room full of witnesses. I didn’t know if I was even right until I found the sling.’

‘Just as well you did have witnesses,’ Sidney said. ‘Goodness knows what would have happened otherwise.’ He handed her a glass of water, ever the thoughtful butler. Flora smiled gratefully and took a long sip.

‘Oh, I knew you wouldn’t let that key out of your sight for long. I was banking on you being around to save the day.’

Sidney nodded, then squared his shoulders and gave a little bow. ‘Well, I was fairly handy in my time. Wait until my wife hears about this.’

Footsteps in the hall announced the arrival of the police – five or six uniformed officers who jogged into the room and calmly looked around. One placed a set of handcuffs on a protesting Jack, not making eye contact or responding to a word he said.

‘I called them,’ Marshall said. ‘Just after I got back. They heard part of the recording through my mobile. I figured he’d try and make a run for it any minute, thought we’d need back-up.’

‘Back-up!’ Flora laughed, then winced in pain, her hand flying to her stomach. ‘You sound like you’re in a Hollywood blockbuster.’

‘Pot and bucket!’ Marshall said.

‘Kettle. How many English phrases are you going to murder before you get one right?’

‘We need to get you checked out by a doctor, Flora. You’re in pain.’

‘Not yet.’ Flora crossed the room and stood in front of Nick. ‘You need to give it to them now,’ she said. ‘They might let you have it back when they’ve finished with it, but whatever’s on there doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?’

He looked at her, then looked down at the device in his hand. ‘How did you know?’ he said.

‘That you were the one who asked Gabriella to plant it in Alberto’s room?’ She shrugged. ‘I saw her doing it, you know. On our first day here. I saw her creeping out, and she saw me, and then every time she saw me after that she acted weird. Scared. I guessed she was up to something. When I put it together about the sling I figured she must have hidden something there that would reveal the killer. I didn’t know what it was going to be until I pulled it out, but I had an idea it might be a recording device. As soon as I saw it, I knew she’d put it there for you. What was it, Nick? You wanted to get the dirt on Alberto, give you the ammunition you needed to force him out of Rojo Productions?’

He nodded, his head dipped low. ‘Something like that. And it got her killed. Why didn’t she come to me, tell me about the tape? Why did she have to be so greedy?’

‘Did you know about her background? That she had a criminal record?’

He nodded. ‘I knew her in Spain. She is my sister’s friend’s cousin. They’ll never forgive me for using her like this. I still haven’t broken the news of her death.’

One of the policemen stepped forward and relieved Nick of the device. He dropped it into an evidence bag, then sealed it shut. Flora looked around for Jack, but he was gone.

‘Wait,’ she called, and she ran towards the hall. After the gloomy interior of the props room, the brightly lit corridor made her squint. She shielded her eyes. There was Jack, flanked by three officers, heading into the main hall. She caught up with them at the top of the steps that led down to the driveway.

‘Wait,’ she said again. ‘I need to ask him a question.’

Jack turned and regarded her coolly. ‘If it’s an apology you’re after you can go to hell. I don’t need to justify myself to you.’

Flora met his level gaze. ‘You don’t need to justify yourself, Jack. I know why you did it – for the money, pure and simple. I thought you were different, better than this. But greed?’ She shook her head. ‘You’ve always been predictable. It was one of the reasons I was never attracted to you. But only one of them.’

‘Whatever.’ The coldness in his eyes was unchecked now, and she wondered whether it had been there all the time. Maybe she’d been too impressed by him, by his position and authority, to notice.

She said, ‘I want to know if it was you that day on Stiperstones. Were you just trying to scare me, or did you intend to do me harm?’

‘Do you harm?’ he mimicked. ‘Who do you think you are, Miss Marple? Get real, Flora. Stop living in the past. Those ridiculous clothes and quaint old sayings – this is the twenty-first century, you know.’

His escort began to walk him down the steps. Jack didn’t put up any resistance. He kept his neck craned back, his eyes on Flora. She stayed where she was, frozen to the top step.

‘Well, was it?’ she called when they reached the first of the three police cars that were parked zigzag fashion on the drive. ‘Was it you who followed me?’

Jack shrugged, his handcuffed wrists moving up and down his lower back. ‘No idea what you’re talking about. But if you say I was there, I’ll take that. Whatever you say, Miss Detective.’ He grinned at her then, the same ready smile she’d become accustomed to. But this time, it only made her shiver.

Chapter 15

When Marshall found her she was on the lawn, crouched near the spot where they had seen Alberto with Celeste that first day. Five days ago. Such a short amount of time. Flora stroked the spiky grass, immersed in her thoughts. The sun had beaten the rain away, and the earth smelled like a memory of summer. She knew the smell of heat and soil and summer rain would always remind her of Hanley Manor. She also wished that wasn’t the case.

‘Hey.’ Marshall squatted next to her and laid his hand on her warm back. ‘How you doing?’

‘Not great. It’s all been a bit …’ There really didn’t seem to be a word to describe it.

But Marshall nodded, as though he understood completely. ‘It’s all over now. I’ve nearly finished packing. Good news is, Nick seems to have found his conscience. He’s going to pay us for the whole contract, not just the days we worked. And he’s paying Sidney for the gala dinner, the lot.’

‘That’s good. Sidney didn’t deserve to be screwed over like that. He’s got enough problems.’

‘And I suppose you know what those problems are?’ Marshall said, a smile lighting up his face.

Flora nodded.

‘How do you do it? You always end up getting so involved with people.’ Marshall shook his head. ‘Ah, Flora. What am I going to do with you?’

‘Look, Sidney only confided in me because I was snooping around, trying to find a way to clear your name.’ She got up and glared down at him, her hands on her hips. ‘You could be a bit more grateful. I suppose any minute now you’re going to start ribbing me with the old Flora Lively Investigates routine.’

‘No,’ Marshall said quietly. ‘I wasn’t.’

‘Anyway. It isn’t over. Not yet.’

‘What do you mean?’ Marshall got to his feet too. Flora thought he looked tired, and she wondered how far he’d driven before he got her message to come back. She hadn’t even had time to ask him.

‘Where did you put the box?’ she said. ‘The one you brought in from the van.’

‘Celeste’s box? It’s under a table in the hall. Sidney’s keeping an eye on it for me.’ He regarded her thoughtfully, then shook his head again. ‘No, I’m not even going to ask. This is something else, isn’t it?’

Flora said nothing. Marshall’s eyes bored into hers, but she kept her expression neutral.

‘Is this to do with –’

‘I thought you weren’t going to ask.’ She stretched up on her tiptoes and planted a light kiss on his cheek. ‘I’ll see you in the Nook in fifteen minutes. There’s something I need to do first.’ She looked away for a moment, tracking a bird that swooped over the tops of the sunlit trees. ‘Something I should have done a long time ago.’

***

‘Oh, Flora, come in quick.’ Celeste practically dragged Flora into her room as soon as she knocked on the door. ‘You can tell him the truth about all this, can’t you? Eduardo is so angry with me. I can’t talk to him when he’s like this.’

Eduardo was pacing the room, raking his fingers through mussed-up hair and muttering in Spanish. Celeste looked at Flora and rolled her eyes. She whispered, ‘Did you bring the envelope?’

Flora patted her holdall. She’d retrieved the brown envelope before the police sealed off the props room, and felt no qualms about it whatsoever. Celeste smiled and turned back to Eduardo, indicating with her finger for Flora to wait.

‘
Mi amor, nos traen una copa – te sentirás mejor
.’

Eduardo glared at her, then swirled around and flounced out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

‘Ah, actors,’ Celeste said with a sigh. ‘So dramatic.’

‘What did you say to him?’ Flora sat in a straight-backed chair next to the door and crossed her legs.

‘Oh, I just told him to get us a drink. Said it would make him feel better. Which it will,’ she added, laughing.

‘What about your minibar?’

‘Empty.’ Celeste gave a shrug. ‘I can offer you a glass of warm Chardonnay, though. It’s all I have.’

‘I’ll pass, thanks.’

Celeste sighed again and dropped onto the bed, lying across it on her front with her chin resting on her hands. ‘You were amazing in there,’ she said. ‘A-mazing. How the hell did you do that? I mean, how did you ever work all that out?’

‘It wasn’t so difficult. Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, I’m not actually stupid.’

‘Far from it. Listen, I’m sorry I did all that stuff in Alberto’s room. It was pretty dumb. And now I’m in trouble with Eduardo … You know, he’s even talking about not coming to Paris. Says he might just go home – without me! Can you believe it?’ Celeste didn’t wait for an answer. She shoved her fingers into her hair and carried on. ‘I can’t go without him, I needed his contacts. My friend won’t put me up for long if I’m not working. Oh, it’s such a bloody mess.’

‘Just as well Marshall came back with your stuff then, isn’t it? Otherwise you’d have to have it all shipped back from Calais.’

Celeste was still for a moment. Then she sat up and folded her legs underneath her on the bed. ‘Yes, why did he come back when he did? I thought he would have been well on his way by now.’

‘He was. I asked him to turn around.’

If Celeste noticed the ice in Flora’s voice she didn’t show it. ‘I suppose you called him back because of what you’d found out about Jack. God, can you believe it? We’ve known him all these years and all the time he’s been capable of that. Killing two people in cold blood. It makes me shudder to think about it.’

‘People can surprise you,’ Flora said. ‘Even people you’ve known for years.’

‘Well, I was terrified, I can tell you. Back there, in that room, I was so stressed. And Eduardo was glaring at me, and I knew you’d found the envelope but you were acting so strangely, and I was –’

‘You know, I’ve never really noticed it before, but you are really self-obsessed, aren’t you?’ Flora sat calmly, her hands folded on her lap. She kept her voice even, as though they were discussing what to have for dinner. ‘It’s all you, you, you, isn’t it? Marshall has been trying to tell me all this time, but I wouldn’t listen. I stuck up for you, over and over again.’ She shook her head slowly. ‘I stuck up for you because I felt like I owed you something. Because I thought the way you treated me, the way you spoke to me, didn’t mean anything. I thought our friendship went deeper than that. But it looks like I am stupid after all, because you don’t give a damn about our friendship. Never have, never will.’