Kitabı oku: «Written into the Grave»

VIVIAN CONROY

discovered Agatha Christie at thirteen and quickly devoured all the Poirot and Miss Marple stories. Over time Lord Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael joined her favorite sleuths. Even more fun than reading was thinking up her own missing heirs and priceless artifacts. Discover the glamour and secrets of the roaring twenties in Vivian’s Lady Alkmene Callender Mysteries and open up shop, with murder in the mix, in the contemporary Country Gift Shop Mysteries. For news on the latest releases, with a dash of dogs and chocolate, follow Vivian on Twitter via @VivWrites

Contents

Cover

Blurb

Praise

Book List

Title Page

Author Bio

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Excerpt

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all editors, agents and authors who share insights into the writing and publishing process.

A special thanks to my editor Victoria Oundjian for her enthusiasm for all my cozy mystery endeavors and to the design team for wrapping this story in a great cover.

Chapter One

Vicky Simmons looked around the kitchen of her cute little cottage to ascertain everything was in order before her departure. She would not be back until late in the evening. The day ahead of her was full of activities both at her gift shop and with friends. The basket on her arm held new gauze bags for the soaps she sold, just completed last night.

Having established that everything was turned off, Vicky stepped out of the back door and walked around the cottage. The roses climbing up the trellis needed a little pruning and some more twined cord here and there to support the weight of all the blooms. Vicky made a mental note to take some time for it tonight or tomorrow. It was exactly the nice kind of chore that required little thinking so she could unwind after a busy day.

During her years in London, in a flat that was comfortable but didn’t even have a balcony, Vicky had rarely cared for plants other than a potted one in her living room. Here in Glen Cove she could grow her own vegetables and bind the roses and hydrangea into a stunning bouquet to put on her living room table or beside her bed.

Her mother Claire had even suggested Vicky might participate in the garden of the year contest, but knowing how strong the competition was, Vicky had politely declined. She loved a challenge but only when she had a fair chance of succeeding.

It was but a short walk from her own cottage down to her mother’s. The air was full of invigorating scents: the ocean, pine, a mowed lawn and just a hint of freshly baked bread.

Vicky had imagined herself taking time to bake, but so far it had proven hard to actually get round to it. What was supposed to have been a quiet small-town life had turned out to be as demanding on her time as her career as a reporter in London had been.

Getting the Country Gift Shop up and running was an ongoing process: after renovations, the grand opening and receiving a sign from the community as thanks for her involvement in solving an old mystery, Vicky had to keep coming up with ways to pull new customers to her store.

The tourist season was coming to an end, and soon she couldn’t rely on people just finding her store while they were exploring the scenic town. So she had decided on two strategies to expand her reach: do more bigger orders, such as for hen parties or businesses, and engage other business owners to organize some events during the slow season.

Vicky could just see Glen Cove turned into a big Christmas market, with gluhwein, hot chocolate with marshmallows, Christmas trees everywhere with little lights in them, market stalls selling tree decorations, napkins, china, nativity scenes … She could count on her friends Marge Fisher and Ms. Tennings to help set it up, as Marge had amazing organizational skills and Ms. Tennings was well-connected.

But convincing the other business owners to invest time and money in it was another matter. Things were done in a certain way in Glen Cove, and Vicky wasn’t considered established yet.The Joneses of the general store might prove especially hard to win over. And Vicky’s relationship with them was fragile as it was, after the two murder investigations that had rocked the town in the past few weeks. People had been played against each other, by suspicions, lies and outright fabrications, even in the media—and only time could heal the rifts and bring the community back together again, as it had once been.

As Vicky opened her mother’s garden gate, barking filled the quiet morning air, and a white ball of fluff came racing for her, circling her feet.

“Good morning, Coco,” Vicky said, leaning down to pat the doggy’s head. “Where’s Mr. Pug?”

As if on cue, the pug appeared at the porch steps and wagged his tail at her, not bothering to come up to her, but waiting until she came to him.

Vicky grinned. Mr. Pug liked to act as master of the house.

Coco had spotted the Glen Cove Gazette in the grass and ran for it, picking it up, then dropping it again. She didn’t see it as a precious source of local news, but as a cute, disposable toy, available especially for her.

Vicky put down her basket and hurried to extract the paper from Coco’s renewed grasp before the front page became illegible. Michael Dannings’s efforts to make a quality paper deserved better treatment.

She smoothed the wrinkles and smiled as her eyes slipped over his name at the top, with the designation ‘editor in chief’ behind it. Upon her return to Glen Cove she could never have guessed her college friend Michael would be back in town as well. After all, he had traveled the world on undercover assignments and to write up exciting news stories as they unfolded, and there had been no reason to assume he’d come back home to a small town where the local paper struggled to survive as people moved away or looked for news online rather than in printed pages.

Personally Vicky liked nothing better than a few minutes to leaf through the paper, smell the ink and read the words on the page before she rushed into her busy day. Carrying the paper and her basket inside, with both dogs on her heels, she called out to her mother. “Where are you?”

“Right here.”

Claire sat in her rocking chair. An empty plate on the table suggested she had just finished her breakfast. The smell of toast and scrambled eggs was still on the air.

Vicky wished for a moment she took more time to prepare a decent breakfast for herself. She had promised herself upon leaving London she’d quit breakfasting on coffee with a bun on the go and would invest in eggs fresh from a poultry farm and oranges to press herself. But now that she was actually living here, it turned out her schedule was still pretty full and she ran after all kinds of activities rather than staying in to bake bread or taking the Saturday morning off to get those fresh eggs at Sellers Poultry. Her breakfast usually consisted of overnight oats or a banana, still on the go.

“Ah, you got the Gazette. Good.” Claire extended her hand to receive the newspaper, but Vicky pretended not to notice and dropped herself on the sofa, opening the paper. “I’ll take the dogs for a walk on my way to the store. I’ll go via the seaside so they can have a run on the beach.”

Before Claire could start her well-known protestations that the beach got the dogs’ fur dirty, Vicky continued, “Ah, here it is. The third installment in the serial Seaside Secrets. This one’s written by Trevor Jenkins. Hmmm, I had no idea he was in Marge’s writing group.”

Marge Fisher, Vicky’s best friend in town and part-time employee at the Country Gift Shop, had started a writing group at the library where she volunteered. Upon hearing of this brand-new initiative Michael had offered the participants the opportunity to write a serial for the Gazette: one installment per participant. They had agreed on an overall scenario, but the exact contents of their individual contribution was completely at their discretion. Parts 1 and 2 had made for interesting reading, and Vicky was eager to dive into part 3 now.

“Trevor Jenkins, that gardener type?” Claire asked with a frown. “I had no idea he was literary-minded.”

Vicky folded the paper so she could hold it without having to stretch her arms and leaned back. “Let’s see. I’ll read his piece aloud to you. Oh, it’s in first person. Quite a deviation from the first two pieces.”

Claire shook her head. “I don’t like first person usually. Too much inside the person’s head, I say.”

“Well, this starts out with action. Listen: My sneakers make no sound on the path as I walk in the quiet morning air. The sea sings its song ahead of me, not loud and bragging as it can do on stormy nights, but soft and luring, a siren song. I reach inside my right pocket and clench the steel. It was cold to my touch when I took it from the drawer, but now it’s warm as if my lifeblood runs through it.”

Claire huffed. “A bit poetical if you ask me.”

“Shhhh. Just listen.” Vicky read on. “I had always imagined people to feel wild when they did something like this, but I feel quite calm. I listen for a sound that betrays he is coming. There is nothing yet. But I know he’ll be here. He is a creature of habit. He runs every morning. Not because he likes it, but because it’s fashionable. Or because he can brag about it. Well, at least he is not one of those men who buy sweat pants and a pair of expensive running shoes only to leave them in the closet, gathering dust.”

“Are you sure this is written by Trevor Jenkins?” Claire asked with a frown. “It has more of a feminine vibe to me.”

Vicky eyed her across the paper. “Maybe the I in the story is a woman, and Trevor tried to capture her female voice? I do think he makes us curious as to what will happen next. Who is the person the point-of-view character is waiting for? And what’s that object of steel in the pocket?”

Claire sighed but didn’t protest as Vicky read on once more. “Fog is rolling in from the sea dampening the sounds around me, locking me into a little world. I know it will make things much easier. People don’t like to go for morning walks when it’s foggy. There is not a lot to see. And the cliffs can be dangerous. Unless you know the paths well, you might venture too closely to the edge and take a tumble. It isn’t a long drop, but the rocks at the foot of it are unforgiving.”

Vicky glanced at Claire. “It does get positively sinister here. I mean, I’m asking myself what exactly the character is waiting for.”

“You read too many cozy mysteries,” Claire said, crossing her arms over her chest. “The I in the story is probably some woman waiting for the man she’s in love with and we’ll be forced to witness their tryst in the sand. Please stop reading when it gets R-rated.”

Vicky couldn’t quite picture Trevor Jenkins writing that kind of material but then she didn’t know him well. She pushed on. “I look at my watch. He should be here any moment now. My hand seems to have become one with the metal under my touch. It doesn’t feel alien anymore but like it belongs there, a natural extension of my arm.”

“Yada yada,” Claire said.

Vicky waved her off. “Mom, give it a chance. I think it’s quite creative. These writers really deserve their shot at showcasing their talent in the local paper. Hear: Then out of nothing he is there. The canary yellow stripes on his sweat shirt glow like light in the fog. That is what they are meant for: to make sure the runner is visible. To prevent him being run down by traffic. There is no traffic here. It’s just him and me. He halts at the edge of the cliffs as he always does, to look down and see the sea. He can’t see it now because it’s foggy, but as he likes his habits, he does it anyway. Or maybe he just needs to catch his breath before he can push on. He’s not in great shape, although he thinks he is. I step up. A small bit of rock makes a sound under my sneaker. I meant it to. I want him to turn. The surprise on his features as he sees me. Confusion. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asks.

“I extract my hand. I extend my arm. Confusion turns to alarm. He steps back. Toward the edge. He staggers. He will probably fall. But I’m not sure. And I need to be sure now. He has seen me; he knows. I fire. Once, twice. The shots ring out in the air. Even the fog can’t dampen them.”

Vicky stopped reading aloud. Her mouth was dry, and her hands gripped the paper’s pages. Her eyes flew over the next few lines.

“Why do you stop at the exact moment when it gets exciting?” Claire asked in a petulant tone. “So the thing in the pocket was a gun, and the narrator is now shooting at this jogger. What else?”

Vicky grimaced. She was happy she had not had a big breakfast anyway. Her stomach was churning after what she had read. She said with difficulty, “The jogger plunges to his death. It’s described quite graphically. I won’t repeat it. In fact, I’m surprised that Michael accepted this to be printed in a newspaper that can be read by kids. I bet he’ll get angry phone calls about this.”

“People are used to a lot these days,” Claire said. “On television …” She made an eloquent hand gesture.

Vicky sighed. “I suppose so. I guess it’s just weird to read it when you know the person who wrote it—someone who seems to be the least likely person to ever have a violent thought in his head. I also don’t quite see how the installment relates to the previous one. I mean, who’s killed here? By whom and why?”

“That’s for us readers to find out.” Claire nodded. “I’m glad they switched it up and made it into a murder mystery. It makes for much more riveting reading. Now if you’re done with my newspaper, you can walk the dogs and I’ll go over the ads first to see if there’s anything interesting there.”

Vicky rose and handed the paper to her mother. “There you go. Shall I refill your coffee mug before I go?”

Without waiting for Claire’s reply she took the mug into the kitchen and refilled it at the sink. She was still a little cold from the words of the closing lines of Trevor Jenkins’ contribution to the serial.

She wondered if Marge had known that the story would take this morbid turn. Had there been some form of coordination of the end result, or had each participant really been free to write up whatever he or she wanted?

It would also be so awkward for the person who had to write the fourth installment. He or she had to insert the dead body into his or her tale while he or she had probably never intended anything like it.

Claire’s voice called out from the den, “Don’t you dare do my dishes. I can wash my own plates, you know … Victoria!”

Vicky rushed to carry the mug back into the den. “I wasn’t about to do your dishes, Mom. I was just thinking about the serial in the paper. I have to ask Marge what exactly they agreed on.”

“I think you’re making a big fuss about nothing,” Claire said, eyeing her. “It’s but a story.”

“Yes, well, you’re probably right.” Vicky forced a smile. She still thought the material was a little too graphic for the Glen Cove Gazette, but maybe she was old-fashioned in her views. Maybe the readers would gobble it up and clamor for more? Trevor Jenkins could become an overnight sensation.

Vicky snapped her fingers at the dogs. “Come on, Coco, Mr. Pug.”

The dogs got up from their beds at once and came over to her. She clipped on their leashes and picked up her basket with the sewn gauze bags for the soaps.

Claire was completely immersed in the newspaper and only replied with a vague ‘bye’ to her departing words.

Vicky left the cottage and turned left to where a steep path led down to the beach. The wind came to play with her hair at once. She took a deep breath and tried to shake the eerie feeling the installment in Seaside Secrets had left her with.

Still she was glad it wasn’t foggy today. Then she’d be listening for a footfall behind her, glancing over her shoulder to see if she was being followed by a dark figure with a hood pulled over his head.

On the beach two other people walked their dogs. Vicky greeted them in passing, her eyes trained on the cliffs in the distance. The story had mentioned cliffs with rocks at the foot of the drop. There was such a place up ahead. Trevor must have seen it once as he was himself jogging or perhaps bird watching. She had seen him walking around with binoculars.

Maybe the wild landscape had inspired him to write the story?

Maybe he hadn’t meant it to be morbid at all, just a nice bit of free imagination.

Vicky picked up a shell or two as she went and tried to focus on her soap display, the new gauze bags and some other orders that were coming in today. She wanted to change the window if Marge was free to help her. Marge had called the other night to say she might have to take the morning off as a friend of hers was moving house and she had promised to help out. But the exact date for the move kept being changed as the new house was still undergoing some quick repairs so a family could move in safely and then work on the rest.

From Marge’s story Vicky had gathered it was a fixer-upper that would take years to get completely set up right. Having dealt with some renovations in her store she knew how daunting it could be and was glad she wasn’t in those people’s shoes.

Her eyes picked up on activity in the distance by the rocks at the foot of the cliffs that might have inspired Trevor Jenkins. It seemed several people were walking there, looking down. Maybe they were searching for small creatures like crabs hiding? Vicky wasn’t quite sure if the high tide reached those rocks but if it did, there might be wildlife there that visiting biologists found fascinating. Glen Cove had always attracted people who came for nature, be it birds, sea mammals or smaller life on the shore.

But her supposition didn’t ring true to her own mind. That one person on the left was wearing a hat. Looking a lot like a sheriff’s hat.

And was that a flash of light overhead near the top of the cliffs?

As of a police car?

Vicky shook her head. The story in the Gazette had really driven her imagination wild. She had started to see police activity near a perfectly innocent little spot along the coast just because there were cliffs like in the story. She had to tell Marge that Trevor’s piece had been good enough to get her completely spooked. The gardener would be pleased to hear it.

A Labrador came running for her, circling her before he licked her hand. Vicky patted him a moment, then focused on the owner who wasn’t far behind. “Good morning, Ms. Templeton. How are you today?”

Ms. Templeton was a customer who bought lots of gifts for friends at the store. Her friendly face was wrinkled in a worried frown, and her tone was urgent as she said, “You’d better not go in that direction, Vicky. Turn back or use the path just there …” she pointed to Vicky’s right “… to get up to the road. You don’t want to go anywhere near those cliffs today.”

“Why not?” Vicky asked, her heart pounding.

“I think there has been an accident. The police are there. I wouldn’t like to see something gruesome so I decided to walk down the beach and warn everyone I meet.”

“But have you actually seen what the police are doing there? Have you talked to Cash or one of his men?”

Cash Rowland was the local sheriff and an old friend of Vicky’s. They had been to school and college together and although they had not seen each other for years after that, they had picked up on their old friendship again once they were both back in town. Vicky had helped Cash with two murder cases, more or less against his will, but he had admitted later she had done a good job.

Ms. Templeton eyed her as if she had gone crazy. “Of course I’ve gone nowhere near the scene. I have no idea what they’re doing there, but as they came with lights and all, I suppose it’s serious. Some people like to run to accident sites to see all the bloody details, but I’m not one of those people.”

Vicky hastened to assure her she wasn’t either and to thank her for her concern and good advice.

But as Ms. Templeton rushed on to warn the other dog walkers on the beach, Vicky stared ahead at the cliffs in deep thought.

She had no wish to see anything gruesome herself, especially not after the rather vivid description of the victim falling to his death in Trevor’s offering in the Glen Cove Gazette. Still she was worried by the police activity on that particular spot and sort of … intrigued what it could be.

If something had happened there, today of all days, it would be an odd coincidence.

She put Mr. Pug and Coco on their leashes and led them up the path Ms. Templeton had indicated, then walked along the road to where the police car stood. As long as she stayed away from the edge, she ran no risk of seeing anything horrible down there at the foot of the cliffs.

One of the deputies was with the police car, talking to the dispatcher over the radio. He just ended the conversation and looked at her.

Vicky flashed a smile. “Is the sheriff here?”

“Down there.” The deputy gestured behind him. “But you can’t go there. We’re keeping this whole area locked off for the moment.”

“Has something happened?”

The deputy took a breath as if he wanted to tell her it was none of her business, then he hesitated. Did he remember her connection to Cash, or was he just aware that something sensational could never stay under wraps for long in a place like Glen Cove?

He said, “Someone took a fall off the cliffs. He must have ventured too near to the edge. Or maybe he wanted to look at the view and got dizzy? He might even have had a heart attack or stroke. That sometimes happens when you’re jogging.”

“Jogging?” Vicky asked, her heart skipping a beat again.

“Yes, this route is popular with runners. And … he’s dressed in running gear.” The deputy perked up as if he was happy he could show off his deductive talent.

“Oh,” Vicky said, looking around. “I don’t suppose a car can have gotten near him. You do hear stories about people getting hit by a car when they’re out running at twilight.”

“Cars don’t come near that edge,” the deputy said with determination. “Besides, his running shirt had those distinctive stripes on it to improve visibility.”

“Yellow?” Vicky asked, her mouth dry.

“Yes. Well, at least as far as I could see from up here. It’s not a long drop, but those rocks are …”

“Unforgiving.” Vicky tried to smile, but she felt queasy. The deputy was just about quoting Trevor Jenkins’ little story. Not a long drop, but those rocks …

Someone had died here, this morning, in the same way as in Trevor’s contribution to the writing group’s serial!