And The Earth Moved: Romantic Comedy Cozy Mystery (Amber Reed CCIA Mystery Book 1) (11 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“But he’s going to be OK?” Ennis asks, putting mugs of coffee down in front of me and then Charlie. “He looked pretty bad when I saw him this morning.”

It’s mid-afternoon and Charlie and I are sitting in Ennis’ kitchen. The morning was crazy to say the least. We called at my flat so I could get changed then we made a quick visit to the hospital to check on Bert who was still a bit groggy but looking better. Then I went to the Palstone Courier to do my four hour shift. Now I’m in a catch-up session before I rush off to work at the pub later.

“Yes, he’ll be right as rain,” Charlie says, leaning against the kitchen breakfast bar. “We have him under surveillance for now. Any idea why someone would want to assault Bert?”

Ennis shakes his head. “No, absolutely not. This is all absurd. I moved here because it was quiet. Off the beaten track. Now my brother is dead and my employees are being beaten up.  Not to mention Amber’s been terrified out of her mind by this business with Bert. She could have been hurt too.”

“Ennis I’m fine,” I say. “Yeah, I was a bit freaked out for a while but I’m OK now, honestly.”

“I’ve made up my mind,” he says ignoring me and turning to Charlie. “I want Amber off the case. It’s getting too dangerous.”

Chapter Fifteen

“What? No? That’s crazy,” I say, panic rising inside me. He can’t take me off the case, not now. I’m in this way too deep to just walk away.

“I agree,” Charlie says from the other side of the kitchen.

What?!!!

I glare at Charlie. Some help he is. I thought we’d come to a mutual understanding. Obviously not.

“No. No way are the two of you taking me off this case. Not now,” I shout, gesturing widely. OK, being calm and arguing my case that way would probably get me better results than throwing a hissy fit in the middle of the room but right now fury is bubbling inside of me and needs to be let out.

“I don’t know what I was thinking that day I asked you to do this,” Ennis says, leaning his elbows on the table and pushing his hands through his hair. “My mind was all over the place after I heard about Joel. I wasn’t capable of thinking straight at all. I was freaked about Joel, panicked and scared I might have a stalker targeting my family or something. Then I got all hung up and worried about a stranger working on the case and discovering God knows what. I made a huge mistake asking you to do this, Amber. I’m so sorry I put you in danger.”

“You signed a contract with the agency and I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement for the cases I handle with the agency,” Charlie says. “As I pointed out when I first arrived and you asked about Amber shadowing me, you have nothing to worry about. Everything  involved with this case remains between us and the agency. I’m sworn to secrecy.”

Ennis nods. “I know. I should have listened to you before but, like I said, I just wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Hello!” I shout, waving my arms in the air. “I am in the room. Will you two stop talking like I’m not capable of making a decision for myself?”

Charlie steps towards me. “It’s not like that, Amber. But in the circumstances I think Ennis has a valid point.”

I pull away from him. “No he doesn’t have a valid point. This is all crazy. You can’t let me get this involved and then pull the rug out from under me.” Turning pleading eyes on Ennis I add, “Please, let me do this. I want to and Charlie will make sure I’m safe. I promise I won’t go off and do something like the moors incident again.”

Ennis sighs and looks at Charlie. “Can Amber help you out in any way on this case? Honestly? Is she useful as a part of the investigation?”

“Obviously she knows the locals,” he edges. “They’re more likely to tell her stuff than they are me. Especially in casual conversation, you know down the pub, people are relaxed and might mention something which could possibly be a key to unlocking part of the case. That’s always useful to have, somebody on the inside so to speak.”

I clasp my hands together and hope and pray they’ll see sense and change their minds. If not, well, I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands won’t I?

“So you want her to stay on the case then?” Ennis asks Charlie.

“Yes and no.” Charlie looks at me for several moments. “Come on, realistically, I think we both know her well enough to know exactly what she’ll do if we say no. Don’t we?”

Ennis nods. “Yeah, we do. She’ll most likely carry on with the case on her own.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Charlie agrees. “So I suppose she may as well stay on the case and work with me so I can keep an eye on her.”

Yes!

“You’ll make sure she stays safe?” Ennis asks, giving Charlie a weary look.

“I’ll make sure she stays safe.” Charlie gives me a pointed look. “Provided of course she keeps her promise not to go wandering off on her own and asking for trouble.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Ennis says and I heave a sigh of relief. I’m still not happy about how they came to this decision but my main concern, for now, is that I get to officially stay involved in the investigation.

“So, is this all something to do with me?” Ennis continues. “Did somebody target Joel because he’s my brother? Did they attack Bert because he works for me?”

“You haven’t received anything from anyone though which suggests that might be the case,” Charlie reasons. “If it was, then it would have been more likely they’d have taken Joel and held him for ransom, not killed him.”

“We still don’t know if Joel’s death was murder,” I say softly. “It could still have been a terrible accident or even…”

“He didn’t commit suicide!” Ennis shouts, frustration and hurt in his voice.

“What is it, darling?”

We all turn to see Siobhan standing in the kitchen doorway, presumably alerted by Ennis’ raised voice. She’s wearing black jeans and a jumper and I can’t help noticing there’s a designer holdall at her feet. Has she just arrived from somewhere? Come to think of it I can’t recall seeing her sports car outside when I arrived.

“Has something else happened?” she asks, looking from Ennis to Charlie but ignoring me.

“It’s Bert,” Ennis says, pushing a hand through his sexily messy hair. “For some reason he was up on the moors alone last night and got attacked. He was taken to hospital but thankfully he’s already on the mend and will be OK in a day or so.”

Siobhan clasps a hand over her mouth and sinks onto a nearby stool. “Oh my goodness,” she says, reaching for the nearest coffee mug (which happens to be Charlie’s but I don’t see him complaining) and taking a sip. “Who would do something like that and why?”

“That’s what we’re determined to find out,” I reply and she looks over as if spotting me for the first time.

She takes another sip of Charlie’s coffee.

Ennis sighs and buries his face in his hands. “I can’t believe all this.”

“Did Bert and Joel ever meet?” Charlie asks. “We’re trying to establish if there’s any link between the two of them, something which might explain why Bert was targeted.”

“The only time they met, as far as I’m aware, was here in the kitchen. Joel was in here when Bert brought Tina up to meet me.”

“Did they speak to each other at any point?” Charlie asks.

“No,” Ennis shakes his head. “Bert and Tina left and then the gate intercom buzzed and I answered it. It turned out to be one of Joel’s disgruntled ex-girlfriends. She wanted to be let in along with this guy who was with her. I refused. Joel went on the intercom and was arguing with her.”

“What happened then?” Charlie prompts and I can see his mind taking it all in, calculating options.

“Eventually they left. She was furious. I had a go at Joel for telling them where he was.” Ennis sighs. “I try to keep this place as off the map as I can. Not sure why he told them he was here. Candi, that’s his ex, was major trouble. I thought he was done with her.”

Charlie stops leaning on the worktop and stand up to his full six foot plus. The look on his face is the same as the one he shot at me earlier when I confessed about the wall planner omission. “Why didn’t you tell me about any of this when I first interviewed you?” he says to Ennis.

“I don’t know,” Ennis shrugs, looking confused. Siobhan gets up and moves to stand next to him slipping a protective arm around him. “I’d just been told Joel was dead. My brain wasn’t working I guess. I didn’t think it was relevant.”

Charlie shakes his head but keeps his voice even. “You didn’t think it was relevant that your brother’s ex, who you say is trouble, had turned up at the house gates, wasn’t let in and went away mad as hell?”

Ennis looks from me to Charlie. “You don’t think it was Candi?”

“Do you have any more details on her?” Charlie asks. “Full name? An address? Where she works? We’ll need to interview her.”

“I don’t know,” Ennis says again. “All I know is her name is Candi, short for Candice. From bits Joel said she’s volatile. Fond of drink and drugs. Got a temper on her.”

“I think she works in an office,” Siobhan chips in and earns herself a look of surprise from all of us.

“He said something to me, after that business when she turned up at the gate, that he wished he’d never met her.” She shifts awkwardly on her stool and avoids eye contact with us. “I asked where they did meet and he said it was when he went to see a mate who worked at some insurance brokers in Manchester. I think she did admin there or something. She recognised Joel from his photos in the gossip magazines and latched on to him straight away.”

“Any chance he said the name of the place?” Charlie asks.

“No, sorry, that’s all I know.”

“OK, thanks guys we’ll do some digging and see if we can track her down. She turned up with a guy in a car. I assume your CCTV would have recorded the number plate?”

Ennis nodded. “Yeah, should have.”

“Can we take a look at the footage please?” Charlie asks with barely concealed irritation.

“Of course.” Ennis gestures towards the study off the kitchen. “Follow me.”

“So, things between Joel and Ennis hadn’t improved since he’d been staying here?” I say to Siobhan as she moves to the fridge, opens a bottle of mineral water and pours some into a glass.

“They were worse than ever.” She fetches ice cubes and pops three into the glass. “He made life very difficult for Ennis. Always asking for money from him. Always getting himself into scrapes so he’d get in the papers. You name it, if it’s dodgy he was probably involved in it.” She shudders. “Guy gave me the creeps. You know once he even...”

“Thanks, that’s great I’ll get this number plate tracked down. Shouldn’t be long now before we find this Candice,” I hear Charlie say and see him and Ennis coming back into the room.

Perfect timing. Just when Siobhan might have been about to reveal something interesting.

“Ready?” Charlie asks, looking at me.

Not really but I can hardly say I want to hang around and see what secret Siobhan might have been about to reveal, can I?

I could just see if she’s willing to continue though…

“Sorry, Siobhan, you were saying?” I prompt.

“Oh, nothing important,” she says putting her glass down. “I think I’ll go and take a bath.” Collecting up the leather holdall she disappears out of the door.

Did she spend the night somewhere else I wonder? She flounced off the other day and now she arrives here with an overnight bag, clearly not up to speed on what happened with Bert. Strange indeed, or maybe it’s just my overactive imagination kicking in again.

Charlie is already out of the door when I turn to say goodbye to Ennis. He gives me a cold look and I remember this morning and him finding me eating breakfast with Charlie.

“I just wanted to explain about why I was at the guest house this morning,” I begin.

Ennis holds a hand up to stop me, his voice has an edge to it as he says, “None of my business, he’s obviously a quick worker in more ways than one. I’d rather you didn’t sleep with him here though.”

“No.” I step towards him. “You’ve got it all wrong. There’s nothing going on between Charlie and me. After finding Bert beaten up I was upset and Charlie thought it best if I wasn’t alone.”

“I bet he did,” Ennis mutters.

“It was all perfectly innocent,” I reassure him. “You know there are two bedrooms at the guest house.”

He eyes me, taking in what I’ve said. “So you and him aren’t…”

“Absolutely not.” I shake my head to emphasise the point. “Charlie was just worried about me, that’s all.”

Instantly the frostiness in the room is gone and he smiles at me. “Good. I’m glad to hear nothing is going on with you two.”

“It wouldn’t be very professional of me to sleep with him when we’re in the middle of working on this investigation would it?” I say with a nervous laugh.

Ennis shakes his head. “No, remember, Amber, you’re not working together. He’s working on the case. You are, at my request, keeping an eye on him. That’s all.”

Well, that put me in my place. I can be prone to getting carried away sometimes though so maybe I needed that little reminder. I nod. “Yes, of course.”

“I still don’t trust him,” Ennis says then softens. “But I am really sorry I put you in this situation. I shouldn’t have asked you to do this.”

A flicker of panic runs through me. Is Ennis going to change his mind about my involvement in the case again?

He slips his arms around me tentatively and I accept his hug. Ennis is behaving strangely, one second he’s fine, the next he’s being off with me. It must be the emotional roller-coaster he’s on at the moment with the Joel situation. Not to mention the pressure of the time bomb ticking away about the impending police announcement of Joel’s death.

“You must have been so shaken up last night. Seeing Bert. I’m so sorry.” He pulls me a little closer and I lean against his chest, wondering what he’s going to say next. Am I still a part of the investigation or not?

“Amber? Come on, I’m waiting.”

We turn to see Charlie back in the kitchen, an unamused expression on his face. He must have got fed up with waiting for me in the car. As I move away from Ennis he gently pulls me back and plants a kiss on top of my head. It feels as though the temperature in the room has dropped several degrees as Charlie and Ennis exchange a look.

Sensing trouble brewing and wanting to get out of here before Ennis says I’m off the job again, I skip out of his grasp and make a dash for the door.