Judy's Death (Cara Daniels Cozy Mystery Book 2) Read Free

“Who was that?”
    “That was Lauren Ellis. I’m sorry you
had to see that. I wish I could say she isn’t normally like that, but she is.
She works at the solicitor’s up the road. She joined the literary committee
this year in an effort to get herself known locally. I think she’s aiming for a
place on the town council eventually. She’s already made her opinions known
about the sort of literary festival that she wants our town to have. She says
the more outrageous it is, the better it will be for publicity. That’s why
we’re having Snake-Eye Jones here tomorrow.”
    “I’ve never heard of him. Or her.”
    “It’s a him. Neither had I until Lauren
put his name forward at our initial planning meeting. He’s an author. He writes
these terribly vivid horror novels, they’ve got vampires, werewolves and all
sorts in them. I started to read one but I gave up after the first two pages.”
Judy shivered. “I don’t care for that kind of book, and neither will the people
of this town. I’ve been organising this festival long enough to know what
people like.” She smiled at Cara. “Would you like to help me set up the
children’s library for tomorrow? It’s through here. There are some toddlers in
at the moment, they’re just finishing their story time.”
    Cara followed Judy into the brightly
coloured children’s library. There was a member of staff sitting on the carpet
at the far side of the room, she was reading a picture book out loud. Five
little children sat at her feet, engrossed in the story. Cara couldn’t help
smiling when she saw Robin sitting behind the children looking equally
engrossed. He saw Cara come in and he yelled over, “It’s a story about an
elephant in pyjamas!”
    Cara helped Judy pull some tables
together. They arranged the newly printed activity sheets on the table along
with some colouring pencils.
    There was a cheer from the far side of
the room as the story was finished. Robin’s cheer was the loudest.
    Cara asked Judy which authors were
coming to the festival. Judy said, “Well, you know about Snake-Eye and the
children’s authors, we’ve got a local man who’s written a history book and …”
She waited until the little children toddled past them with their respective
parents.
    Robin flew over Cara’s head and said,
“I’m going upstairs to the café! I wonder what cakes they’ll have?”
    Judy lowered her voice and said, “We’ve
also got A. J. Moss!”
    Cara gasped. “A. J. Moss! The one who
writes the … the…”
    Judy nodded. “Those kind of books.
They’re referred to as erotica. Although they had an entirely different name a
few years ago!”
    “How have you managed to get A. J.
Moss? I heard that she never attends festivals.”
    Judy looked to her left and right. She
turned back to Cara and said, “Do you want to know my secret?”

 

 
    Chapter 4

 
    Cara could feel her eyes widening. She
knew the books that A. J. Moss wrote, everyone did, the books had been all over
the news. Cara had bought the first one to see what all the fuss was about. The
storyline had been good but she thought the erotic parts had been unnecessary.
    Cara looked closer at the woman in
front of her and said in a hushed tone, “Are you A. J. Moss?”
    Judy laughed. “No! But I know who is.
He’s a friend of mine.”
    “He? I thought A. J. Moss was female.”
    “Everyone does. There’s going to be a
great commotion tomorrow when Andrew turns up and reveals that A. J. Moss is
him. The A. J. stands for Andrew James. We went to the same writing group, I
still go. He’s a lovely chap, about your age. He struggled to get himself
published the traditional way so he decided to self-publish. You probably know
the rest, how his books started to sell in their thousands, and how he was
approached by several big publishers.” Judy shook her head. “I’d never be able
publish my own books, it sounds so complicated. And who would want to buy my
books anyway?”
    “What kind