Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
There? See—job done.
I was accomplished, thank you very much.
I wasn’t, but it made me feel a bit better. Getting something on the list, even if they were already achieved, made it easier for me to open the mental gates and keep going with what needed to be done.
Like seeing if Stan was still willing to come out to check the electrics. Checking the water and getting a water test. The fireplace needed a chimney sweep to clean it out properly—all of them did, actually. I needed a window cleaner for outside. A conveyancer to run a full survey and tell me what needed to be done. Potentially a structural engineer. Trees needed cutting back. The grass was desperately in need of mowing. Bushes needed a trim.
So did my hair, but that wasn’t going to get this place fixed up.
Bulbs needed to be replaced. Floors needing sweeping and vacuuming and mopping. Walls needed wiping.
Oh, who was I kidding? Every single inch of this place needed scrubbing.
I had nothing here with me, so it would require me heading to the nearest shop that sold all the cleaning equipment in the world. I’d also need a gas mask with all the dust in this place.
Some Benadryl at the very least.
I wasn’t very good with dust.
It was a lot, but the list made it somewhat bearable. Having it all laid out meant I could figure out what to do in an orderly manner.
My phone dinged from inside my bag. I frowned as I reached for it and pulled it out—what was the damn thing doing with the sound on? What charlatan had changed it from silent?
Ugh.
This whole situation had me losing my mind.
I immediately changed the sound settings back to silent and opened the text message that was the reason for me picking it up in the first place.
JADE: When were you planning on telling me you were a murder suspect????
I froze.
Um, never?
ME: I can’t say it was something I was going to bring up in casual conversation.
ME: How the hell do you know???
JADE: That company was building a ton of houses near here. It’s all over the news because they paused construction.
ME: Oh, shit.
JADE: Yeah. The boss knows. He’s not happy.
Oh, balls.
I’d forgotten about my job.
Of course, she’d know if that arsehole knew. She was a dental nurse at the practice I was a receptionist at.
ME: Would it help if I said I didn’t do it?
JADE: Probably not. When are you coming back?
ME: …I don’t know. Until I’m ruled out at least, but then I have to get the B&B fixed up.
JADE: You’re not still thinking about that???? A man died there!!! Why don’t you just sell it and come home?
ME: I told you that I can’t sell it.
JADE: And your job???
ME: Dunno. Is the boss pissed enough to fire me?
JADE: I think so.
ME: Problem solved.
JADE: Lottie, you’ve lost your fucking mind. You cannot stay there.
ME: Why not? I have property here, and it’s not like it’s a bad place to live.
JADE: You said you’d never go back. I can’t believe you’re upping and moving on a whim, especially to a tourist town. You’re a MURDER SUSPECT. These people think you’ve KILLED SOMEONE.
ME: Funnily enough, I’m aware of that.
And actually, most people didn’t think that.
Just Noah.
Probably.
Hopefully.
JADE: Think about what you’re doing. And call the boss before he fires you. I have to get back to work.
I stared at my phone for a moment before I blew a raspberry at it.
I didn’t expect my best friend to understand my choice, but I did think she’d respect it—accept it, even. She hadn’t sounded like that on the phone and even less so in those messages, and I couldn’t lie, it was a bit upsetting.
If she’d told me what I was telling her, I’d have supported her, no questions asked. I wouldn’t have dreamed of shitting all over her the way she seemed to be doing to me.
For God’s sake, when Ash had found out I’d been accused of murder, she instantly pulled up her socks and decided we’d become some super sleuths to find out who was really responsible, and we hadn’t spoken for a decade.
Yet my best friend, who I saw every single day, who I worked with, who I’d gone to university with and lived with during that time, couldn’t understand that I wanted to stay here. A place where I’d inherited a whole bloody property. Even temporarily.
I put my phone back in my bag and stared at the zipper.
Life had a funny way of showing you things.
Like maybe who your friends really were.
Hell, Jade hadn’t even asked me how I was.
Call me old-fashioned, but that was a basic check-in for someone who’d just lost a close family member, never mind everything else I’d been through.
It was fine.
Whatever.
I had an annexe to clean, and absolutely no cleaning supplies to my name.