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)
Carolyn’s cheeks flamed a bright red. “I’m sorry, love.”
Steph waved it away. “Don’t be. Strangely, it makes me feel better to know everyone else thinks he was a horrid shitbag, too.”
Well.
Tell us how you really feel.
“Have you ordered?” she asked me and Ash, and I nodded, so she turned back to Carolyn. “Two fish and chips with spicy curry sauce, please, Carolyn.”
Still embarrassed, the older woman nodded and rung up the order. Steph tapped her card against the machine, and Carolyn put the little note with the order on the board at the back for Walter to cook.
“How are you?” Ash asked her, albeit a bit hesitantly.
Right.
Steph hadn’t been involved in the community much.
“I’m okay,” Steph replied with a smile. “You own the art shop, don’t you?”
Crap.
“Sorry, I’m bad at peopling,” I said, wrinkling my nose up. “Steph, this is Ashley. Ash, Steph.” I did that awkward little wave between them, something that made them both eye me with amusement.
“That’s me.” Ash grinned. “If you ever fancy painting a garden gnome, I’m your girl.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Steph’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Charlotte, I heard you got the B&B back. I’m glad.”
“Call me Lottie. Everyone else does. Charlotte is for when I’m in trouble or don’t like the other person.” Like Noah. “I got the keys this morning.”
“Shane said he’d run into you.” She smiled and dug in her bag, then handed me a card. “Here. My number.”
Ah.
Look at me out here making friends.
“Here you go, girls,” Carolyn said, finishing wrapping our order. “That’s the mushy peas, Ash.”
Steph’s nose crinkled. “Oh, no.”
I laughed, taking the one with curry sauce. “Don’t worry. I have curry sauce.”
“Stop the mushy pea hate,” Ash grumbled, grabbing her dinner. “I’m not the problem, you are.”
Carolyn put a third package on the counter and smiled sympathetically at Steph. “Here you go, love.”
“Thanks, Carolyn.” Steph pulled it down and turned to me and Ash. “Uh, I know this is a bit weird, but the police released Declan’s body. His funeral is on Friday. It’s private, but the wake is at the pub afterwards. At four. I don’t expect many people to show up, and those who do are probably there to gossip more than anything, but just in case…”
“We’ll be there,” Ash said before I could even think about replying.
Steph smiled, then looked at me. “Text me with your number.”
I nodded, and she spun away from us, walking down the prom.
We stepped aside as a large family approached the stand, and we said a quick goodbye to Carolyn and headed down towards the beach.
“Are we really going?” I asked. “Don’t you think it’ll be weird if I show up?”
Ash grabbed my arm, stopping me, and looked at me pointedly. “You heard her, Lottie. Anyone who shows up is probably doing it just to gossip. Not to mention that the one person we haven’t been able to talk to will be there.”
I pressed my lips together. “Alan.”
An evil grin spread across her face. “Ding ding ding.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I had, without a doubt, experienced two too many wakes in the past few weeks.
Given the choice, I wouldn’t be meeting Ash at the shop to head over to The King’s Head for Declan Tierney’s wake. I really didn’t think it was appropriate for me to go, but Ash insisted that I had to.
Apparently, I was gossip fodder.
I was a little offended by that.
She’d also pointed out that Steph clearly wanted a friend, and since we’d exchanged numbers, I was shaping up to be that person.
Honestly, I was all right with that. A lot of the people I’d been friends with as a teen had either moved away or I hadn’t reconnected with them much yet, and Steph was in need of a friend.
There was also the slightly more sinister reason that I did suspect her of murdering her husband, but hey. I never claimed to be a good person.
That wasn’t fair. I was a good person. I just sometimes made questionable choices.
The wake was the last place I wanted to be, but if it meant we got some information about who’d killed Declan, then it was worth the awkwardness of going.
Steph and Alan really were our only suspects. Michael Swann hadn’t been in Fox Point at the time and Guy was so unlikely that we’d deemed it a waste of our time to investigate him, so we were down to two.
And of those two, we’d only gotten any information on Steph.
This was probably our only chance to find out anything about Alan Sumpter, the elusive and disgruntled business partner of the victim.
Bloody hell. I was even sounding like a pesky amateur sleuth now.
I pushed open the door to the shop, making the wind chimes above the door jingle, and paused. Gwen, Viv, Betty, and Barb were standing close to the counter, all dressed head to toe in black. Gwen was perhaps the standout of the group given that her mourning attire came complete with a black hat with a small net veil covering the upper half of her face.