Читать книгу The Windmill Café - Poppy Blake - Страница 20

When they arrived back at Ultimate Adventures’ reception area, Matt guided her to one of the leather armchairs and promised her a coffee to thaw her frozen fingers. She tried not to think about the jumble of washing up in the sink she had seen earlier, nor the cleanliness of the mug he offered to her with a smile. She took a sip and sighed. Coffee really did solve a great deal of life’s problems.

‘So, now that the fun bit of the day is over, we need to apply all our efforts to finding out who could have put aconitine in Suki’s throat spray. It has to be someone who knows all about the toxicity of wild flowers and their effects, because if it were me and I wanted to poison someone, my first weapon of choice would be rat poison.’

‘Surely you don’t think Freddie…’

‘No, absolutely not! I believe what he told us in the Drunken Duck about what happened at the lodge. But don’t you think it was curious the way Suki lured Freddie there, sobered up, and evicted him almost immediately. If she just wanted to make Felix jealous it was a despicable thing to do.’

‘And anyway, Felix wasn’t even at the party.’

Rosie bit into one of the chocolate biscuits Matt had put on a plate, holding her hand under her chin to catch the crumbs, then licking them from her palm with the tip of her tongue.

‘Little Miss Clean and Tidy strikes again!’ Matt smirked before his features settled into a more serious expression. ‘Felix was bound to find out about Freddie from one of their friends, though – Nadia probably. She’s got envy scrawled across her forehead in capital letters.’

‘But why send Freddie away so quickly? Surely she could have let him down gently. Shared a glass of champagne with him as compensation for humiliating him. No wonder he slunk out the back way and decided to hide out here at Ultimate Adventures. My guess is she snagged that bottle of champagne because she was expecting someone. Who though? Do you think it could just have been that Felix called or texted to let her know he was on his way?’

‘Possibly.’

‘What? You think it could be someone else? Who?’

‘Not sure.’

‘There’s only William, her best friend’s boyfriend, or Lucas, her sister’s. You’re not seriously suggesting she was having an affair with one of them, are you?’

‘I’m not suggesting anything.’

‘Well, who else is there?’ Rosie raked her brain until her eyes widened. ‘Not the Rev!’

Matt spluttered into his coffee, sending a shower of droplets into the air.

‘Oh my God! Did you just say that? I suggest you stop right there with your deductions, Rosie, before you give me a heart attack! Anyway, all this is pure speculation.’

But Rosie couldn’t get the incident out of her mind. The conundrum continued to spin around her brain on an eternal loop until she thought she would go crazy.

‘Who would want to hurt Suki? I don’t know her very well, I admit, but she seems lovely. She really looks after her sister, who’s definitely a cupcake short of a topping, if you ask me. Heavens, Suki even paid for everyone to stay in the lodges. It’s not cheap so she’s generous as well. She paid for all the champagne and prosecco for the party and she made a decent contribution to the Windmill Café’s garden party charities.’

‘Her parents were quite wealthy, though,’ added Matt, stroking his chin in thought.

‘How do you know that?’

‘A quick search of the internet threw up all the information. They died in a helicopter crash ten years ago. Their money was put into trust for their two daughters until they reached the age of twenty-five. Suki’s twenty-six so she’s already got control of her half, and she’s one of the trustees for Jess’s share which she can use for her sister’s maintenance, education and welfare. I bet it was also Suki’s money that was paying for their villa rental in Ibiza, but their uncle and aunt are rich, too. Apparently, the cash is from a family business set up by the two Richards brothers – Bill and Ken. Ken Richards has been running things, with his wife Martha as company secretary, since his brother’s and sister-in-law’s deaths. That information I gleaned from Companies House.’

‘Oh my God! Step aside Sherlock Holmes, there’s a new kid on the block!’

Rosie saw Matt flash her a brief look of vacillation as he struggled with whether to utter his next sentence. From his expression, she wondered if he was going to talk about his ex-fiancée again, but was shocked when he inhaled a deep breath and revealed something even more personal.

‘Actually, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It was my childhood dream to become a police detective, but unfortunately life had other plans. I used to love solving all kinds of brainteasers and was an avid watcher of all the TV detective series. When I was eleven, my dad let me help him design the obstacle course at Ultimate Adventures. We argued because I wanted it to be not only a physical challenge, but also a test of the participant’s mental agility by using complicated puzzles to unlock each hurdle; it’s still one of our most popular activities.’

‘So why didn’t you join the police force?’

Matt swallowed down the dregs of his coffee and paused, fiddling with the handle of his empty mug, his eyes glazed as his memories scooted back to the reasons for his change of career direction. Their frank conversation during the archery shoot had introduced a carousel of emotions Rosie hadn’t been expecting. Coupled with what was going on with Suki, she thought her head would explode from sensation overload. Eventually, Matt banged his mug back to the table, clearly regretting his sudden openness, and forced a wide smile onto his lips.

‘Now it looks like there’s a real-life whodunnit for us to crack right here in Willerby! There’s no need to worry about the arrival of the environmental health inspectors tomorrow, because between us we’ll have the mystery of Suki Richards’s poisoning solved before they’ve had time to fill out their documents in triplicate.’

‘Back to the amateur sleuthing, eh?’ grinned Rosie, relieved to see the return of Matt’s inherent upbeat enthusiasm. ‘So, my question is, Detective Inspector Wilson, if someone did poison Suki, why? Was it for her money?’

‘It usually is. Money or love.’

‘Well, I’m going to plump for the love angle.’

‘Okay, so what’s your theory?’ Matt smiled, enjoying her attempt at mystery solving.

‘Well, I really don’t want to think it’s one of Suki’s friends – that’s just too awful to contemplate. So, could it be someone from Suki’s past, someone who’s been stalking her for years, following the ups and downs of her music career, convinced that the lyrics of her songs are directed at him and his unswerving love for her? Maybe he’d recently made his affections public and he’s been waiting for his chance to punish her for rejecting his advances. She’s been living in Ibiza over the summer so he’s been biding his time until she came back to the UK and when he found out she’d be in Norfolk opening a summer garden party, he took matters into his own hands and…’

‘Are you saying you publicized the Windmill Café’s party to the whole country?’

‘I, well, I… maybe he lives in Norfolk!’ Rosie tried not to be offended that her over-inflated theory had been punctured by Matt’s injection of common sense and then smiled. ‘Okay, who’s top of your list of suspects?’

Rosie had been so focused on her conversation with Matt that she hadn’t noticed that Mia and Freddie had appeared on the threshold and were listening to their discussion.

‘If you want my opinion, I’d start with that William guy,’ declared Freddie, his face filled with animation at being able to make his contribution to their speculations. ‘I might not be the most perceptive of people, but something’s obviously going on between him and Suki. Even if he had nothing to do with the poisoning – even if it turns out it was some sort of an accident – as Suki’s manager he should be taste-testing everything, and I mean everything, that she eats or drinks! If he’s not guilty of anything else, he’s guilty of negligence at the very least!’

‘And he did leave the party early to take a shower!’ added Mia, plonking herself down on the sofa next to Rosie.

‘So, what are we waiting for?’ Freddie strode towards the door, eager to seek his revenge, his eyes blazing with indignation. ‘Let’s nail the scumbag! That guy set me up and I’m not letting him get away with it. I could have been arrested, spent the night in the cells, or worse, I could have been charged with attempted murder!’

‘I don’t blame you for being angry, Fred, but it’s probably best if you stay away from the café for the time being.’

‘Why?’

‘Let’s just say, Felix Dawson is not overjoyed about the fact you went back to Suki’s lodge with her.’

‘Ah, yes, her elusive boyfriend. Where was he, anyway?’

‘That’s what I’d like to know too.’

‘Actually, if I had to put my money on someone having something to hide, it would not have been William,’ mused Rosie. ‘He’s the most straightforward person amongst all of them. And why would he work so hard to get Suki a record deal if he intended to slip a dose of poison in her throat spray so she couldn’t perform? It doesn’t make any sense. If he loses his star performer, he loses everything. But Matt’s right, the perpetrator has to be one of Suki’s friends – someone who knew she relied heavily on her throat spray and chose that as their way to deliver the poison. All we have to do is find out who and why.’

‘Yeah, that’s all!’ laughed Freddie.

‘Hang on, my phone’s ringing.’ Matt stood up and extricated his mobile from the pocket of his jeans. ‘Hi Carole.’ He paused, his eyes resting on Rosie, the sides of his lips twitching as he listened to the vicar’s wife.

‘Carole…’ Another pause.

‘Listen, Carole…’ She was clearly in full flow.

‘Yes, it’s true. It seems Suki was poisoned, but it was in her…’

‘No, Carole…’

‘Stop! No one suspects the WI’s Victoria sponge cakes… or your egg-and-cress sandwiches with horseradish sauce.’ Then Matt laughed. ‘It’s okay, Carole, I know why you’re hesitating – neither was it my mother’s home-made sausage rolls!’