And The Earth Moved: Romantic Comedy Cozy Mystery (Amber Reed CCIA Mystery Book 1) (14 page)

“Might need to take you up on that,” he says then smiles. “Anyway, I’ll be going home later so I’ll have to face the music!”

“So what now?” I ask Charlie later that day. It’s early evening, one of my nights off from the pub. I feel like going home and sleeping for a week but instead I’m sitting in the guest house eating pizza and talking about the case and specifically about Bert.

I know. I know. I said guest house, yes. I haven’t moved back to my place just yet.

“I reckon you should say Gemini’s need to beware doing anything rash.”

We’re also making up horoscopes for tomorrow’s paper as well. I was getting a tad behind with my workload and mentioned to Charlie I still had half of the horoscopes to write for the paper. He surprised me by offering to lend a hand.

I give Charlie a funny look. “I can’t say something like that.”

He reaches for another slice of pizza. “Why not?”

“It’s not very exciting is it? Madam Zamber likes to include something upbeat for each sign.”

“Upbeat eh? OK.” He looks thoughtful for a moment. “How about Geminis will meet the man of their dreams, have exciting adventures and get a promotion at work?”

“That’s too upbeat,” I say with a laugh. For a moment I forget about horoscopes, my mind turning to more serious matters. “Do you believe that was what Bert really contacted me for? To tell me about this business with Joel and his ex and all the arguing, like he said?”

“Nope.” Charlie wipes his fingers on a serviette. “I’m not convinced by that at all. There’s something else. Something more crucial than that he was going to tell you. I guess the beating up has done exactly what it was intended to and shut him up. For now.”

“There’s something we’re missing.” I finish a slice of pizza, wipe my hands and reach into my bag. Pulling out a sparkly pink and purple notebook I flick through the pages. Charlie eyes me, curiosity obvious in his eyes.

“What’s that?” He gestures at the book.

“There’s so much going on right now and I don’t want to forget things.” We both know I’m talking about the wall planner incident. “I thought it would help if I write stuff down. Snippets of conversation. Things to check. You know, like you’ve got a notebook, even if it is all black and boring, well, this is my version.”

He reaches out and flickers his fingers at me enticingly. “Let’s have a look then.”

I clutch the book to my chest. “No.”

He sighs. “Amber, you just said it was stuff which might help with the case. Sometimes people pick up different things from a conversation. You might have noted something I didn’t.”

I highly doubt that. Charlie Huxton is not a man who leaves any stone unturned, as I have discovered these past few days.

“Let me see the book,” he says, then adds, “Please.”

I do like men with good manners don’t you?

“No.”

“Why not?” he asks, leaning in close.

Good question.

If this notebook was full of things relating to the case and
only
things relating to the case, then fair enough, he should be able to see it.

But the notebook contains other stuff too. Personal thoughts. As I’ve scribbled things down it’s become a bit of a diary as well. Yes, it contains details of our daily endeavours to solve the mystery of what happened to Joel that night up on the moor. It also contains details on my increasingly confusing feelings for Charlie. There’s a whole page where I debate exactly how
much
he was pretending when he was being the horny boyfriend that night we were hiding from Candi. There’s other stuff too.

I flick through the pages.

“We don’t appear to have any real suspects. Ennis and Siobhan have their at-home alibis. Now you say the research guys have Candi confirmed as being in a nightclub in Manchester on the night Joel died. There weren’t even any leads from that business in the garage with her and the two men. We haven’t found the connection between what happened to Bert and Joel’s death. If there even is one.”

“There’s got to be,” he says. “You need a chance to chat alone to Siobhan to see if you can get her talking again.”

He doesn’t say anything more about my notebook and I suspect he knows what kind of things he might find scrawled across the pages should he ever get to read it.

My phone rings and I fish it from my bag, slipping my diary back inside. Charlie gets up to give me some privacy. Clearing away our food and taking plates into the kitchen area.

When I’ve finished the call I say, “I think we need to go and talk to Bert again.”

Charlie frowns as he rinses a plate and stands it on the draining board. “Oh? Why?”

“That was Adele who works behind the bar at the Wheatsheaf pub over in Wetherton. She’s heard about Bert being attacked and the rumours and concerns amongst the locals about Ennis’ place. She was worried about what’s going on and who would do something like that to Bert.”

I lean against the worktop in the kitchen as Charlie, his cleaning up temporarily on hold, looks at me expectantly.

“She knew someone had been appointed to look into things but didn’t know anything about how to contact you, other than the fact you’d be seen out and about with me so that’s why she rang. She says a few days ago Bert was in the pub and,” I pause for effect before adding, “so was Ryan Turston, Mitch Horton and Joel.”

Chapter Nineteen

“Bert never mentioned anything about that to us,” Charlie says looking irritated. “This could be our connection with Bert and the quarry and possibly what happened to Joel.” He wipes his hand on a cloth. “Let’s take a walk down to the gatehouse shall we?”

Bert is back home now. Charlie has arranged for the gatehouse to be kept under discreet surveillance in case anybody tries to shut Bert up in a more permanent way this time.

A noise, something between an extremely loud crack and a bang, reverberates through the air as I open the door of the guest house.

“What was that?” I ask, instantly on alert. “Maybe poachers up on the hills in the woods after pheasants or rabbits? It’s happened a couple of times these past few weeks.”

Charlie shakes his head. “That’s not gun fire. Sounded more like some kind of explosion to me.” He pushes past me in the doorway. “Stay here.”

“What?” I move to follow him.

“Remember our little agreement? You signed the papers. I’m in charge on this investigation. I say you stay here. Lock the door after I leave.”

“Charlie!”

He heads out of the door only pausing to look back at me and say, “Lock it.”

I nod and move to do as he says, unhappy about him going out into the night alone.

Sitting on the sofa, the iron poker from the fire’s companion set in my hand just in case, I wait for Charlie to return. It seems like forever but in reality it’s barely ten minutes before there’s a knock at the door and at the same time he shouts, “Amber, it’s Charlie. You can unlock now.”

I open the door and look questioningly at him. He shakes his head.

“Nothing. I made sure the main house was OK and Ennis and Siobhan are both all right. I even spoke to the guard down at the gatehouse on the phone. Nothing untoward there. Whatever it was sounded pretty close though. We’ve checked with the local guys for any calls about anything exploding, any fires or stuff but nothing has been called in yet.”

“Strange.”

“These noises, they’ve been happening fairly randomly over how long?” he asks.

I shrug. “A few weeks.”

“Right, well, I think we need to have another little visit to the quarry but first, let’s go and see Bert shall we?”

“Everything still OK?” Charlie asks the local police guy who is on watch tonight outside the gatehouse. The man nods.

Charlie knocks on the door, shouting at the same time to tell them who he is. It’s Tina who answers it. Clearly her mum hasn’t whisked her back to the big city yet then.

“Hi,” she says, looking small, pale and fragile. Not like the kind of girl who’s been getting herself up to goodness knows what according to her mum. At the moment she looks more like she wouldn’t say boo to a goose. “Dad’s in the living room.”

Charlie raises a questioning eyebrow seeking approval to go through and she nods.

“Want a drink or anything?” she asks.

“Thanks that would be good.” I follow her through to the tiny kitchen. She really does look pale. “Are you OK?” I ask.

She shrugs and then reaches to fill the kettle. “Not been eating much, you know, since all this happened. Worried.”

I place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I know. It’s all been a shock but your dad is on the mend now and we have police watching this place in case…” I let the sentence trail off. Reminding the poor kid that someone might be out there who still wants to shut Bert up isn’t a good idea.

Once the drinks are sorted I help her carry them through to the lounge. Charlie is sitting on the sofa opposite Bert who is looking distinctly uncomfortable in a wing-back chair with his feet up on a wooden stool. I don’t think his unease is solely down to discomfort from his injuries. I think it might also have something to do with the thunderous look on Charlie’s face.

“Why didn’t you mention any of this, Bert?” Charlie is saying, reaching for the mug I’m holding out and nodding his thanks to me.

“Nothing much to tell,” Bert glances across at Tina and looks uneasy.

“Any chance of some biscuits to go with this?” Charlie asks, raising his mug questioningly. He wants Tina out of the room.

“Sure,” she replies and disappears off to find the requested refreshments.

“Bert, you need to tell us what happened that night,” I say, taking a seat next to Charlie. “I know you were all in the pub. People saw you.” I purposefully don’t say which people. I’d promised Adele I’d keep her name out of it.

“OK,” he sighs. “I don’t usually go in the Wheatsheaf much but there was a darts match and one of my mates invited me along. I saw Ryan first. He was talking to some man I didn’t recognise. Then I saw Mitch join them. They were in the back room out of the way but I’d gone through to the Gents and that was when I saw them.”

“Go on,” Charlie encourages.

“They all looked over but nobody said anything. I’ve never had much to do with the Turston brothers. Both unpredictable and both trouble if you ask me. Anyway, after I’d been to the Gents I remembered I’d left my glasses in the car so went straight out to the car park. By the time I walked back through the pub the other man was gone but Ryan and Mitch were still there and this time they were talking to Joel McKarthy. They looked annoyed that I’d seen them so I got out of there and went back in the main part of the pub.”

He pauses, taking a sip of his drink. “Ten minutes later I got a text from my mate saying his car had been playing up on the way to the pub and could I take a look at it before the darts match got going. I went back through the rear bar and there was nobody in there, but when I opened the door to the car park I heard shouting. I went round the side of the pub to see if someone needed help and that’s when I saw Mitch punch Joel in the stomach. Ryan was there too. Joel fell to the floor and Ryan kicked him. I heard Ryan say, ‘Let that be a warning’.”

He fidgets in his chair. “And then he turned to walk away and that’s when him and Mitch saw me and knew I’d seen everything cracking off. I ran off, over to my mate who had his head under the bonnet of his car on the far side of the car park, trying to figure what was up with it. Ryan and Mitch got in a car across the other side but they just sat in it watching me and my mate. Guess they were issuing me a silent warning and making sure I didn’t go over to check on Joel. After, oh, say, ten minutes, I saw Joel stagger from round the side of the pub and get in his car and drive off.”

“After that Ryan started up his car but he drove across to the side of the car park where I was, which was far away from the exit. They stopped the car and Mitch leaned out the window. He said, ‘Having trouble, lads?’ and I nodded. Then Mitch added, ‘You’ll be having even more trouble if you tell anyone what you saw tonight. Or, should we say, your daughter will.”

“Did your friend see these guys? Hear what they said?” Charlie asks, scribbling frantically in his notebook to get all the facts down.

Bert nods. “Yeah but I swore him to secrecy.”

“So, if necessary, we can call him in to confirm your story?”

“I suppose so, yes.”

“So,” Charlie says. “Despite the warning, you decided to tell someone anyway. To tell Amber. How come?”

“Because I realised whatever Ryan and Mitch were up to might have something to do with Joel’s death. I know the guy was trouble and not well-liked but something dodgy was going on and I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t tell you guys what I’d seen.”

“And you thought telling me would be more discreet than going to the police or Charlie so Ryan and Mitch wouldn’t find out,” I fill in.

Bert nods.

“Any idea how they knew you’d arranged to meet with me though?”

“Guess they were watching me. Thought my walking up on the moor at night was suspicious behaviour. Or maybe they were just looking for a chance to rough me up anyway. Warn me again to keep my mouth shut.”

Tina comes back in with a plate of chocolate biscuits.

“Thanks,” Charlie says, taking one and smiling at her. “How are you doing these days, Tina?”

She slumps into a chair, tucking her feet underneath her. “OK,” she mumbles.

“Well, we’ll get going, leave you to finish your evening in peace,” I say. “Thanks for the drink, Tina.”

“And for the biscuits,” says Charlie, grabbing another one from the plate on the way out.

“Are you going to question Ryan and Mitch?” I ask once we’re out of the gatehouse.

“No, I’m not. I think it’s best for now if we don’t say anything to them. If we start asking more questions they’ll get suspicious and it might make them go on to best behaviour. I want them thinking they’ve got away with all this crap they’re involved in so they’ll behave normally and carry on with whatever they’re up to. We’re going to be keeping a close eye on both of them.”

As we walk back up to the guest wing at the main house I look at Charlie.

“Quarry again?” I ask, though I know the answer.

He nods.

“Quarry again.”