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

things with each of them she did on her fancy phone. She’ll be devastated about Joel.” He nodded towards the house. “How’s Ennis taken the news?”
    “I think he’s still in shock at the moment. He’s asked for some specialist undercover operations guy to be brought in to investigate what happened. Ennis, naturally, wants to keep things out of the papers as much as possible.”
    Bert nods. “Of course. The secret is totally safe with me. I’ll just tell Tina that Joel’s left instead. Is there anything I can do to help?”
    Good question. “I don’t know.”
    Joel is dead, in suspicious circumstances.
    Some special agent spy-type guy called Charlie is on his way to solve the case.
    I’ve got the task of keeping an eye on him throughout the investigation, possibly without him getting suspicious about what I’m up to.
    And the locals, the world’s media and Ennis’ army of adoring fans cannot, absolutely cannot, get a whiff about any of this.
    My phone rings and I check caller ID. It’s my mum. I take a deep breath and click the answer button.
    And so the lying begins…

Chapter Two
    I have a numb bum from spending two hours sitting in my car on the lane overlooking the village. From up here I can see Charlie chatting to various locals, starting his undercover investigation.
    He’s been into the butcher, the baker, we don’t have a candlestick maker but he has been in the newsagents to see Mr Patel. It’s now approaching noon and he still hasn’t been to the quarry to talk to the guys up there yet.
    The official story is that there has been an attempted break in at Ennis’ place. Because of who he is and the likelihood of crazed stalkers (or equally-crazed paparazzi guys) trying to get at him, he’s requested a specialist investigator to do some discreet snooping. The news of Joel’s demise is still very much under wraps.
    For now. Though the clock is ticking loudly on the time the police have given Ennis before they release news of Joel’s death.
    Ennis told me he’d asked Charlie about working with me. Apparently he’d replied that he only worked with fellow CCIA agents or the police. He’d assured Ennis he would conduct the investigation with the utmost discretion and that anything he found out would be completely safe with him.
    So we’re on Plan B.
    I’m following Charlie without his knowing.
    Charlie Huxton definitely isn’t how I’d pictured him.
    I had two possible scenarios in my head. The first was a man in his fifties, the typical TV detective type, living off coffee and doughnuts and looking harassed. The second was an army guy with a shaved head and a don’t-mess-with-me look about him.
    Charlie Huxton fits neither of those categories. If he’s reached his thirtieth birthday then it can only have been this year. He’s tall, lean but muscular. He’s got short dark hair and a smile which I’d lay bets on being his weapon of choice. He could get all sorts of things with that smile. Even from this distance I felt sure I saw Mrs Hastings knees go a bit weak when he smiled at her on the High Street whilst he had ‘a casual chat’ with her. You’d never peg him for some kind of secret agent. I guess that’s what makes him so good at his job. He looks normal.
    I only work part-time at the newspaper (and part-time at the local pub The Quarryman) so thankfully I had a few hours free this morning to follow Charlie. I’m about to get out of my car and walk up and down on the roadside to get some feeling back into my nether regions when I spot Charlie finally climbing into his non-police car. It’s one of those chunky 4x4s. I wonder if, hidden away inside, he has one of those red flashing lights they used to pull out and stick on the roof of the red car on the Starsky & Hutch TV show.
    They did say CCIA is supposed to be the discreet side of the investigations though, so maybe he hasn’t got a flashing anything (so to speak) or even a siren.
    His car makes its way out of the