Two Birds with One Stone (A Marsden-Lacey Cozy Mystery Book 1) Read Free Page B

behind
him.
    Due to an injury caused by chasing one of the village teens
through Mr. and Mrs. Down ’ s garden (local nudists) last
summer, Johns walked with stiffness in his right leg. This along with his
extremely stout, bulldog, five-foot-ten body gave the impression of a slow,
determined, military tank forcefully moving through the garden.
    Today as he thought about Lilly, he ran his bear paw of a
hand through his buzz-cut hair. Not more than an inch long on any point of his
scalp, each black hair stood perfectly at attention. Johns walked around the
building ’ s corner and entered the portico of the main
entrance to The Grange.

    MARTHA AND HELEN SAT QUIETLY on the bench after calling the
police. They focused intently on the modern digital clock hanging over the
reception area because they didn ’ t want to think about the
body behind the desk. It was strange to be sitting in the same room with a dead
man.
    Soon distant sirens could be heard. They both shifted
uneasily in their places, unsure of what to expect when the police arrived.
    Martha, light-headed, laid her head against the oak-paneled
wall. She looked over at Helen who was also resting her head against the cool
paneling, her jaw slightly slack. Martha had an uncontrollable urge to laugh.
She fought to control it but a snort and chuckle slipped out. It brought Helen
out of her stupor with a start and she turned to look at Martha with wide,
incredulous eyes.
    “Did you just laugh?”she asked in a shocked tone.
    Martha slapped her hand over her offending mouth and mumbled
through it. “Oh, God. I ’ m sorry. I looked at your face and
I don ’ t know. It hit me as funny. I ’ m
sorry. It ’ s not funny. I know that. Okay, I don ’ t know why I ’ m laughing. This is horrible.”
    “You ’ re hysterical,”Helen blurted out
and again rested her head against the paneling.
    They sucked in deep breaths and exhaled in unison.
Immediately upon doing so, they burst out laughing. The laughter, albeit bad
timing, decompressed their tension for a short time until blaring sirens, tires
crunching on the gravel outside, and voices calling to each other announced the
arrival of the emergency team and the police.
    Martha ’ s nose twitched. An overbearing
smell of aftershave wafted into the room.
    “Whoa. Someone practically bathed in the stuff, ’ she thought. As if on cue, the breeze delivered the concentrated form of
DCI Johns through the door.
    “Where is it?”Johns asked in a commanding tone.
    Both Helen and Martha got up from their seats and began to
walk towards him.
    “Behind the desk,”Helen said and pointed.
    The room became busy with the police and emergency task
force.
    Johns knelt down to check the man ’ s pulse. “Either of you check to see if he was dead during the
last ten minutes?”
    Martha and Helen exchanged nervous looks, both immediately
realizing they had never checked for a pulse.
    “Get a stretcher in here,”Johns said to the sergeant standing near the door. “This ‘murdered man ’ isn ’ t quite dead yet.”
     
     

 
     
    Chapter 6
    London, England
    1898
     
    PETER DUTTON, SOLICITOR FOR LAUGHTON, Audley & Dutton,
opened the letter from Thomas Gunn, an estate agent located in West Yorkshire.
He read as follows:
     
     
    23 January 1898
    Moor Lane House, England
     
    Laughton, Audley & Dutton
    Solicitors, Middle Temple Lane, London.
     
    Honored Sirs:
     
    I take this opportunity to inform you of our completion in
cataloguing the estate of Miss Ellen Nussey. We have employed the respectable
estate agents of Howard & Sons to prepare the premises for auction. Weather
permitting, the first of March should give sufficient time to advertise the
event properly.
     
    Along with many nice household items, Miss Nussey had a
substantial collection of correspondence and written materials from her
friendship with Charlotte Bronte and the Bronte family. It may be wise to
handle these items separately by employing a London agent to find