English Tea Murder Read Free Page A

seemed only a short time before, bouncing around to her iPod with Autumn and sharing the trail mix snack. Now, Temple’s sudden death had changed everything, and a carefree jaunt had turned tragic.
    This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, thought Lucy, her first trip abroad, and now it was spoiled. She remembered how excited she’d been when Pam had told them all about the tour and how she’d almost rationalized her way out of going. “It’s too expensive; I’ll be away too long; I can’t leave you all,” she’d told Bill. But he had brushed away her objections. “You were an English major in college. You’ve always wanted to go to England. You should go.”
    Lucy’s friends had backed him up. “You’re the mom and grandma. You’ve been taking care of everybody else for twenty-five years. It’s time for you to do something for yourself,” Rachel had told her when they had lunch together one day at Miss Tilley’s antique Cape-style cottage.
    “You don’t think it’s selfish?”
    “They’ll be glad to be rid of you,” said Miss Tilley with a wave of her blue-veined hand. “That’s what I told Rachel. We all need a break from each other once in a while. I’m looking forward to putting real cream in my coffee and eating potato chips.” She scowled at Rachel. “My keeper here never lets me have potato chips.”
    “It’s for your own good,” said Rachel, placid as ever.
    Lucy suddenly felt homesick, thinking of Miss Tilley and her cozy house and her own comfortable old farmhouse on Red Top Road and Bill and the girls and Libby the Labrador and little baby Patrick. She missed them all, she thought, as the flight attendant removed the remains of her meal. She latched the little folding table back in place and leaned back in her seat, letting out a big sigh. It seemed she’d been right: This trip was a big mistake.
    She checked the progress of the flight on the little screen, discovering that the tiny plane icon was about a half inch into the blue Atlantic and they had more than three hours of airtime left. The lights were dimmed, and she decided to try and get some sleep, imagining she was back in bed at home, spooning with Bill.
    Next thing she knew, the lights were flicked on, the scent of coffee was in the air, and the flight attendants were distributing breakfast packs containing crisp fruit salad and soggy apple pastry.
    “Good morning, sunshine,” said Sue, looking at her with dark-rimmed eyes.
    Lucy yawned. “Didn’t you sleep?”
    “Not a wink.”
    “I’m surprised I did.” Lucy glanced at the body and the sight depressed her. Dr. Cope was still sound asleep, his head thrown back and his mouth slightly open, and Jennifer was sitting in the same position as before, staring straight ahead and rigid with tension.
    Lucy still felt uncomfortably full from dinner, which seemed to have settled like concrete in her tummy, so she only ate a few bits of fruit and sipped her coffee, then made a trip back to the toilet. There she splashed a little lukewarm water on her face and attempted to brush her teeth with the toothbrush and tiny tube of toothpaste provided by British Airways. When she returned to her seat, it seemed that the pace was picking up—the breakfast packs were collected, and the pilot soon announced it was time to prepare for landing. Lucy checked her watch and discovered it was 3:40 a.m. She fastened her seat belt, sniffing the refreshing green tea scent of the moisturizer Sue was applying to her cheeks and hands. The plane gave a shake and a rattle, landing with a big thump, and they were in England.
    Once again, the captain’s voice came over the PA system. “Welcome to London. It’s 7:50 a.m. and the temperature is ten degrees Celsius with clouds and passing showers.” He paused. “And now I’m going to turn this over to our head steward, Ron Bitman, who has a special announcement.”
    “I want to remind you to remain seated with seat belts fastened until the