Virtually Scared To Death (Julia Blake Cozy Mystery Book 1) (2 page)

The
police arrived within ten minutes.

A
tall thin man approached me. “I’m Detective Inspector Clarke. Who are you and
why are you contaminating the crime scene?”

“I
was just making myself a cup of tea, for the shock,” I replied. I put the
kettle down that I was just about to fill.

DI
Clarke said loudly, “Don’t touch anything else! You could be destroying
evidence.”

I
felt guilty as I walked over to the inspector. He had such a stern look in his
eyes that I felt I should be confessing to something.

I
told him who I was and what I was doing there.

“Is
this a crime scene? Is that why you’re here?” I asked.

DI
Clarke gave me a stern look again. “We always investigate sudden deaths in
people’s homes. Do you think it’s a crime? Do you know something that you want
to tell us? How well did you know the deceased?”

I
gulped. “Do I need a solicitor?”

DI
Clarke said, “Do you think you need one?”

“No!
I haven’t done anything. I came here to clean for Mrs Brown. I hadn’t seen
Mark, Mr Castle, since Monday,” I gabbled on.

The
inspector pointed to a nearby constable and said, “Take a full statement from
Ms Blake here.”

The
constable opened his notebook and began to ask me about what had happened from
the moment I walked through Mark’s door. As I did so I remembered something
about the tablets.

“It’s
a new bottle,” I told the constable. “He didn’t need to open a new bottle. He
had a half full one in the bathroom and one next to his bed. Why did he need to
open a new bottle?”

The
constable walked over to DI Clarke and said something quietly to him. DI Clarke
nodded and the constable walked into the bathroom, and then the bedroom.

When
he returned I heard him say to DI Clarke, “There are no other bottles
anywhere.”

“Yes
there are! I saw them on Monday,” I said.

DI
Clarke gave me a searching look. Again I felt the need to confess. He said to
the constable, “Bag the tablets on the floor and have them tested.”

Then
the inspector walked over to me and said, “Tell me everything you know about
Mark Castle. Did he have any enemies?”

“Do
you suspect murder?” I asked.

“I’m
not ruling it out at this stage,” the inspector said.

I
frowned, “Who would want to murder Mark? He was one of the kindest people I knew.”

I
told the inspector that I had a cleaning job to go to and that I was already
late.

He
gave me his card and said, “We’ll probably need to speak to you again. If you
can think of anything that could help, give me a ring on my direct line.”

I
took the card, picked up my cleaning bag and walked up the next flight of
stairs.

Ivy
Brown was waiting for me at her open door.

“What’s
going on down there?” she indicated down the stairs. “I saw the police cars
from my window.”

I
told Ivy what I knew, about Mark and his possible heart attack. I didn’t add
anything about a suspicious death.

Ivy
pursed her lips and folded her arms. “I bet he was murdered and it was probably
that flashy ex wife of his. I’ve heard them arguing, you know. His apartment is
right under mine. Well, I’ve heard her shouting at him. Always asking him for
money. She probably did him in so she can have all his money.”

I
gently pushed my way inside and started getting my cleaning things ready. The
windows looked as if they could do with a polish.

Ivy
followed me and carried on talking, “Did you know Mark was rich? You wouldn’t
think so by the clothes he wore. He made a fortune from his computer games
business. It wouldn’t surprise me if that ex wife of his had wangled herself
onto his life insurance policy.”

I
had found out more about Mark Castle in the last hour than I had in the two
years that I cleaned for him.

Ivy’s
eyes narrowed as she considered something, “One of my friends at work said
there was a new game coming out from Mark, and it was supposed to be his best
ever. Did he talk to you about it?”

I
wasn’t going to tell Ivy about the fairy battle game. “He didn’t talk about his
work. He always asked about my business. He gave me lots of marketing tips. He
was a kind man.”

Ivy
moved to the window and looked out. “I wonder how she did it? Has she got a key
to his place? I’ve seen him go out to the gym over the road every other night.
I bet she snuck in and did something.”

“Like
what?” I asked. I finished the windows. I made a move towards the kitchen.

“I
don’t know, but whenever I’ve seen her she has this sly calculating look in her
eye,” Ivy said.

I
glanced at my watch. I was running late again. I cleaned Ivy’s apartment as
quickly as I could. I made sure I did a good job though, Ivy’s got eyes like a
hawk.

I
said goodbye to Ivy and made my way downstairs. I could have taken the lift but
I was interested to see if the police had finished in Mark’s home.

As
I walked casually past the door someone called my name. It was DI Clarke.

“Ms
Blake! I need another word with you. Come here,” he ordered.

I
entered the apartment and walked towards him. I was pleased to see that Mark’s
body had been removed. The inspector was pointing at the game on the screen.

“Do
you know anything about this game? It seems to be on an endless loop.”

I
told the inspector what I knew about the game. As I was talking a loud bleeping
noise came from the computer.

“What’s
that?” the inspector asked.

“I
think it’s a video call,” I said and I pressed the button that I had seen Mark
press the other day.

Jasper
Parker’s face came into view.

DI
Clarke immediately began to interrogate him. I moved out of the way.

I
listened as DI Clarke explained that Mark had died.

I
heard Jasper’s booming voice in reply, “Well, that’s a tragedy! I knew Mark
well. We were great friends. Do you know when the funeral will be? I’ll come up
from London as soon as I can.”

I
was standing near the window whilst the two men were talking. The chimes from Leeds
Town Hall began to sound out the hour. I automatically began to count the bell
notes.

I
could hear a faint echo of the chimes. It was coming from somewhere in the room.
I moved closer to the computer.

I
could hear the chimes coming from the room that Jasper Parker was in. How could
that be possible? He was supposed to be two hundred miles away.

I
didn’t have time to voice my concerns to the inspector. He finished talking to
Jasper and then turned to me.

“Mr
Parker has explained to us about how the game could be on a loop. You can leave
now,” he said.

He
turned his back on me and started to talk to someone in uniform.

Something
was bugging me about Mark’s death. I felt there were things going on that
needed to be explained. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that Jasper Parker was
somehow involved. And what was it about those tablets? Why had Mark opened the
new bottle if he had bottles already opened.

Unless
someone had come into his apartment, removed the older tablets and then
substituted them for tampered tablets!

I
shook my head as I left the apartment and walked towards the lift. I was
beginning to sound as suspicious as Ivy Brown.

I
waved bye to Steve as I reached the ground floor. The constable who had spoken
to me was now talking to Steve.

I
couldn’t stop thinking about the tablets. Then I remembered something my dad
said about having things delivered from the chemist. I wondered if Mark had his
tablets delivered.

I’d
seen the name of the chemist often on the bottles in his bathroom. Their shop
was nearby.

I
knew I was late for my next job but I just had to put my mind at rest.

I
walked into the chemist shop. It was only small and there were two people behind
the counter.

I
didn’t want to give details of Mark’s death so I made up a story about my mum
moving into Canal View Court.

“She
needs a lot of medication but she can’t get out often. Can you deliver?” I
asked the woman behind the counter. I secretly prayed that my mum wouldn’t need
medication anytime soon.

The
woman smiled at me. “We do deliver. In fact, we already have someone there that
we deliver to.”

I
pretended to looked concerned. “The last chemist we used gave the pills to a
neighbour because Mum had popped out. I wouldn’t want her tablets to end up in
the wrong hands.”

The
woman nodded. “I quite understand. We make sure the patient, or a member of the
patient’s family, sign for them.”

The
young man standing next to her butted in, “That’s what happened to me last week,
when I was delivering some tablets to Mr Castle. He lives at those fancy
apartments.”

 
The woman tried to shush the chattering
youth, “Stephen! We’re not supposed to mention names!”

Stephen
gave a little grin and carried on, “I had just pressed the buzzer for Mr ... somebody’s
door, when this lady saw me and said she was his wife. I asked her to confirm
the name and address of the patient, for security reasons.”

Stephen
glanced at the older woman to make sure he’d done the right thing. She gave a
little nod.

“And
this woman told me the name and address, even his date of birth. She said she’d
sign for them and take them up to her husband.”

I
didn’t like to say that Annabel Castle was actually the ex Mrs Castle, the
young man looked as if he was in enough trouble already.

“Thanks
for all your help. I’ll let my mum know about your delivery service.” I smiled
and left the shop.

Now
I was really worried. Annabel Castle had taken a delivery of tablets for Mark.
She could have easily tampered with them.

Did
she kill him?

I
returned to the apartments the following morning to deliver some of my business
cards to Steve.

He
was in his office, the door was open.

“Caught
you!” I said. Steve was staring into space.

He
spun around with a guilty look on his face. “Oh Julia! You scared the life out
of me! I was just daydreaming about becoming a wealthy games designer like Mark.
It must be great doing a job like that.”

“Wouldn’t
you miss unblocking sinks and changing light bulbs?” I asked with a grin.

Steve
smiled. “Of course, there’s nothing like being called out in the middle of the
night because someone’s lost their key somewhere in Leeds. Talking of which, my
master key that went missing has turned up. It’s right there, on that hook
behind you. I don’t know how it went missing, or how it was returned without me
knowing.”

I
quickly thought of Annabel Castle, but I didn’t say anything.

“Did
the police talk to you for long yesterday?” I asked.

Steve
raised his eyebrows. “Did that DI Clarke speak to you?”

“Yes.
I don’t know why but he made me feel guilty.”
“Me too. It was like he had x ray eyes. I mentioned to him about my granddad
having similar tablets to Mark. He started asking when I last saw my granddad
and if I had easy access to his tablets.”

I
tutted.

“And
then he sent someone round to my granddad’s to see if he had any tablets
missing. Like I’d swapped Mark’s tablets for stronger ones! I thought he was
going to lock me up as a suspect.”

“I’m
sure they have to question everyone. Has Annabel Castle been here since Mark
died?”

Steve
thought for a while and said, “No, I haven’t seen her since Monday. I wonder if
the police are going to talk to her too.”

I
put some of my business cards on Steve’s desk and said, “I’ll leave you to your
game.”

The
sun was shining so I decided to walk into the centre of Leeds. The outdoor
cafes were full. People had even taken their coats off. I didn’t have to be at
my next cleaning job for a while and the thought of sitting outside, sipping a
latte, appealed to me. I hadn’t slept well the previous night as I couldn’t
stop thinking about Mark. I could do with something to wake me up a bit.

I
walked along, trying to see which cafe had spaces.

Something
stopped me in my tracks.

Annabel
Castle was sitting outside one of the cafes. She wasn’t alone. Jasper Parker
was sitting opposite her.

They
were holding hands and smiling at each other.