A Grave Waiting (28 page)

“I must be off.” Moretti got up from the sand, brushing down his jeans, slipping his feet back into his shoes.

“Are you playing tonight?” Peter asked. “We could come across with you, stay overnight in the big metropolis.”

“I'll be at the Grand Saracen tomorrow night, although it'll be strange without Garth. Still, it looks like his horn-playing days are not over, thanks to his lawyer and a certain eagerness among the power brokers to get this whole business over ASAP.”

Janice Melville laughed. “And, thanks to Ludovic Ross, there are more bodies than bad guys to stand in the dock. What a storyteller! Looking at the case notes, I have wondered if Coralie Fellowes was killed by person or persons unknown. Hard to believe Ross did it, when clearly she was the love of his life. He liked to kill, that man — or was he just bragging?”

“Oh, no.” Moretti shook his head. “Ludo did it. Only Ludo would have put her to sleep, playing for her the tape he made her, the music of their time together.”

Chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie
.

“If you don't have plans for tonight, why don't you stay and have dinner with us?” Peter pulled Janice to her feet, held her close against him.

“I have plans. Not my music, but someone else's. It's something I have been meaning to do, but it never seemed the right time.”

Jan looked quizzically at him. “What makes it the right time now?” she asked.

Moretti smiled. “I heard the siren singing,” he replied.

W
arm
thanks once again to the Guernsey Police for their help with the structure of the force and the unique administration of laws on the island. My thanks also go to Ros Hammarskjold — my ex-co-headgirl at the Guernsey Ladies' College — and her husband, Frank, for their friendship. Grateful thanks to my meticulous editor, Cheryl Hawley, and to Michael Carroll, associate publisher and editorial editor at Dundurn, for giving me the pleasure of seeing Moretti and Falla on the printed page. Kudos to designer Jennifer Scott for her moody and atmospheric cover design. Appreciative thanks go to “Nick,” whose anonymity I will maintain, who gave me useful insights into the internal power struggles in local government and the impact of the financial presence on the island. To Bill Hanna, my agent, goes my gratitude for all his efforts on my behalf. Sadly, Frances Hanna, my long-time agent and friend, did not live to see this book in print, and I have dedicated it to her memory. I shall miss her sharp editorial eye and conversations with her about politics, the arts — and cats. Thank you to my stepson, John, for his help with sound systems and firearms. Loving thanks as always to my husband, Ian, for his support, and for revisiting his skills as a geographer and cartographer to make a map of Guernsey for the book.

Copyright © Jill Downie, 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Cheryl Hawley

Design: Jennifer Scott

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Downie, Jill

A grave waiting [electronic resource] : a Moretti and Falla mystery / Jill Downie.

Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.

ISBN 978-1-4597-0638-5

I. Title.

PS8557.O848G73 2012 C813'.54 C2012-901548-2

We acknowledge the support of the
Canada Council for the Arts
and the
Ontario Arts Council
for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the
Government of Canada
through the
Canada Book Fund
and
Livres Canada Books
, and the
Government of Ontario
through the
Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit
and the
Ontario Media Development Corporation
.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

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Daggers and Men's Smiles

978-1554888689

$11.99

On the English Channel Island of Guernsey, Detective Inspector Ed Moretti and his new partner, Liz Falla, investigate vicious attacks on Epicure Films. The international production company is shooting a movie based on British bad-boy author Gilbert Ensor's bestselling novel about an Italian aristocratic family at the end of the Second World War, using fortifications from the German occupation of Guernsey as locations, and the manor house belonging to the expatriate Vannonis.

When vandalism escalates into murder, Moretti must resist the attractions of Ensor's glamorous American wife, Sydney, consolidate his working relationship with Falla, and establish whether the murders on Guernsey go beyond the island.

Why is the Marchesa Vannoni in Guernsey? What is the significance of the design that appears on the daggers used as murder weapons, as well as on the Vannoni family crest? And what role does the marchesa's statuesque niece, Giulia, who runs the family business and is probably bisexual, really play?

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Dundurn.com
Definingcanada.ca
@dundurnpress
Facebook.com/dundurnpress