Beachside Murder (A Team Gossip Cozy Mystery Book 1) Page 6

  Derek was always full of forgiveness towards everyone. He wasn’t the brightest man in the world, but he had a heart of gold.

  “April will find you something to do today,” I said. “Let’s leave the chef and his culinary experiments for tomorrow.”

  “Yes. He needs concentration, and distracting him won’t help.” He walked beside me and kept glancing at me with a wide smile.

  What was going on? Had I said anything nice? He always had a pleasant expression, but he looked happier than usual.

  “Your friend is very pretty, Miss Croft,” he said. “She’s tall and has beautiful shiny hair.”

  “April?” I wasn’t following him. He sometimes skipped steps when talking.

  April had red hair, but I wouldn’t have called it shiny. It wasn’t even bright red. However, knowing her, she might’ve changed her style and dyed it bright pink.

  “No, not April,” he said. “She’s pretty, but your other friend is prettier. Your blonde friend.”

  Blonde?

  Brittany? She was certainly stunning, but she wasn’t my friend. I’d barely talked to her. And besides, I still remember how Vincent had held her in his arms while she cried onto his shoulder. She had an effect in men. It didn’t mean anything, but talking about her still made my blood boil. I wanted her to leave and keep away from Vincent and Nathan. I didn’t want her to steal Vincent from me, and I didn’t want her to break Nathan’s heart.

  “Why do you say she’s my friend?” I asked him.

  Derek chuckled. “She’s gone to your house to visit you, but you’re always here. She won’t find you, so she might come back here. She’s so pretty! I hope she tries to find you in the kitchen.”

  What could Brittany want from me? And how did she know where I lived? I’d never told her about my house, and she would’ve been an awkward guest. Vincent didn’t need any more temptations.

  Vincent.

  Lucky that he was in New York, because I would’ve been very scared by this.

  It was giving me a bad feeling.

  “Are you sure that she’s gone to my house?” I insisted.

  “Yes. She’s gone there a moment ago.”

  Derek lacked the duplicity to invent a story like this. If he said that Brittany was in my house, she was there. She might’ve left a note or something, or maybe she’d wait around until I got back home. It didn’t make much sense because I spent most of my time at the Sand & Sea, but she might need to speak about the murder with someone. If that was the case, she could’ve called instead of invading my personal life.

  Although perhaps Derek was confused and I was imagining things.

  Chapter 12

  At home, Vincent only wore his jeans and looked between our sheets to find his shirt. Brittany had put on a dress before I entered and hurried out of the room and out of the house. She glanced at me apologetically, as if saying, ‘I didn’t think you’d mind.’

  “Out!” I pointed at the door, channeling all my rage. “Get out of my house immediately.”

  Know what, Brittany? I do mind.

  “This isn’t what it seems.” Vincent put on his shirt over his abs and left it open. As if that could be tempting right now. “She’s come to talk about Parrish’s death. You weren’t here, and I’ve asked her to wait while I put on my clothes.”

  Really? Did Vincent consider me stupid enough to believe that he wasn’t doing anything with Brittany?

  I only wanted to throw up, curl up into a ball and stay in bed for a week.

  “Leave.” I folded my arms and stood by the door. The conversation was over.

  “Hey, don’t take it like that,” he insisted. “You’re annoyed and I get it, but you’re important to me. Brittany means nothing. You and I make a good team.”

  “Please don’t make this any harder,” I said. He wasn’t going to convince me, and I wasn’t going to change my mind. I’d caught him in bed with Brittany. In our bed.

  His face hardened. He nodded at me. “Very well, but you’ll never catch a man like me, not in a thousand years. It’s not as if you could catch anyone else, you know? You’re constantly stressed out, and it makes you even uglier.”

  Vincent kept going, with alternating insults and apologies in case either worked. It didn’t.

  I helped him take his stuff and piled it outside the door, slammed the door shut, and leaned my back on it.

  I didn’t know why Vincent wanted to stay. We weren’t doing well, and if he was attracted to other women, he should’ve first ended his relationship with me. Considering our recent disagreements, we would’ve broken up sooner or later even without his cheating, but this had been too sudden for my taste.

  Chapter 13

  Someone knocked on my door again.

  Ugh.

  I’d tried to keep quiet and act as though I wasn’t at home, but whoever had knocked wasn’t going to give up so easily. My house felt cold, but the temperature was the same as usual. I rubbed my arms with my hands, but it wasn’t enough. My relationship with Vincent had been doomed for long, but it still hurt.

  I opened the door and found Nathan. He had a serious expression, as if he knew what had happened with Vincent and Brittany.

  “Meghan…” he began.

  “I don’t want to talk,” I said. “I really don’t want to see anyone right now.”

  I tried to close the door, but he held it.

  “Don’t make me call your mother,” he said with the hint of a smile on his face.

  And what was he going to tell her? That I’d broken up with Vincent and that I needed some family time? I shook my head. “This isn’t the best time for this, Nathan.”

  He shrugged, pushed the door open and entered the house carrying a large bag from the nearest supermarket. He headed for the kitchen.

  I chased after him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “April’s job,” he said. “She’s at work, and she thinks that I can act like your gay friend.” He shrugged, reached the kitchen, and emptied his bag. He had pints of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream, instant hot chocolate, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, and a couple extra ingredients to make cookies. “Regardless of what this looks like, I’m not your gay friend. If you’re ever drunk and interested in me, I won’t kiss your forehead and put you to sleep.”

  “That’s insensitive.” I wanted to cry, I didn’t want to forget what Vincent had done to me, and I wanted to spend a week in bed, but Nathan stole a smile from me. He’d always said this back when we were teenagers and we’d spent most of our time together. Hearing it again reminded me that I had good friends to turn to.

  “Good,” he said. “I’m a guy, not April.”

  He glanced at me mischievously, and we both started laughing uncontrollably. He put some chocolate in the microwave and prepared two bowls of chocolate ice cream. I sat on the couch and he brought the chocolates and the bowls of ice cream. He sat down beside me.

  Nathan gave me a sad smile. I was expecting him to pity me and to tell me to cheer up, but he didn’t. Instead, he stole some of my ice cream.

  “I won’t let it melt,” he said. “It costs a fortune, you know?”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t hungry.

  “And why are you pitying yourself?” he said. “Vincent was nothing but clothes, hair, and looks. April and I couldn’t understand why you hadn’t kicked him out of your life before. At least he was stupid enough to sleep with Brittany and let you catch them, because I didn’t want to chat with him anymore.”

  Vincent could be polite, almost magical when he tried. When he wanted to get your attention, he mesmerized you and the world disappeared around you. He had good looks, yes, but I’d liked how he’d always smiled and said something cultivated or interesting. He’d just stopped trying and focused his interests elsewhere.

  I didn’t resent that he’d preferred someone else, but I didn’t like his treason. He should’ve spoken to me and ended our relationship instead of cheating like a coward
.

  But why was Nathan telling me about this? He wasn’t supposed to know.

  “And how do you know that I’ve caught him with Brittany?”

  He pointed at the front door. “My aunt’s your neighbor, remember? Team Gossip gathered behind your fence to see what was going on. They spied on Vincent as he took his stuff and dragged it away, and then they called me because they wanted to share the news with someone. I was at work, so they told me that one of them was having a heart attack so that I hurried over.”

  Team Gossip? I liked the name. It suited them completely.

  I’d been so focused on Vincent and Brittany that I hadn’t noticed that four old and bored ladies were spying on us. I didn’t mind that they sometimes overheard my conversations, but I’d have preferred to go through this alone, without letting everyone know everything about my personal life.

  “They want to start an e-mail list.” He finished eating his ice cream, glanced at mine and at me, and finally took his hot chocolate. He was going to give me some extra time to eat. “She’ll send out an e-mail whenever they uncover the latest gossip. They can’t agree on the price, though. Ivy wants to make it too expensive, and the others want to do it as a social service.”

  “And spread the news about everyone in town? That’s the perfect way to lose the little privacy we have. Don’t they realize that everything ends up going on Facebook?”

  “Our aunts have become too entrepreneurial for my taste. I don’t even know where they’ve heard about e-mails. Do they even have computers?”

  They did. Senior classes at college may seem like a good idea. Believe me: they are not. My aunt and her friends had taken a few history classes, then some philosophy, and then they’d grown tired of studying humanities and they’d taken several computer classes. They’d only learned to surf online, but the Internet was full of information.

  I hoped that they never learned about smartphones, because they’d end up texting each other whenever they found something interesting around town. They’d be able to splitting out and control four areas simultaneously.

  But wait, wasn’t I feeling down because Vincent had cheated on me? I didn’t mind. I was with Nathan, chatting about our resourceful and gossip aunts, and it was more than enough for me.

  Nathan and I had been good friends. We’d swum in the sea during the summer holidays, we’d watched films while eating warm sandwiches, and he’d been my lab rat (and April’s) when we’d tried to make my grandma’s recipes. I’d learned to cook many years later, but he’d always tasted my burnt, salty and dry dishes with a smile.

  Nathan looked out of the window. It was dark outside. “It’s getting late,” he said. “How about you walk with me to your fence in case I’m mugged out here?” He lowered his voice and whispered, “I don’t trust the neighborhood; I’ve heard there’s a police inspector who doesn’t take his job seriously. That’s a catalyst for heinous crimes.”

  Good move. He didn’t want me to lock myself up at home to cry about Vincent. Neither did I. Vincent could date Brittany as much as he wanted, and she could keep him all for herself. I wasn’t going to fight either of them.

  For some reason, Vincent’s sudden unmasking didn’t hurt as much as I’d expected. I guess that he hadn’t hidden his dark side as well as either of us had thought.

  Nathan and I walked outdoors and he told me about Parrish’s family. He’d tried to contact them, but they weren’t easy to find.

  “I hope the murder doesn’t affect your restaurant too much,” Nathan said. “You don’t need any extra worries right now.”

  I was about to answer, but we heard noises amongst the bushes that separated my home from Ivy’s and Flora’s. The two sisters were polishing their eavesdropping skills. Nathan pointed at them and gestured at me to be quiet. We both moved towards them and hid behind my fence.

  “Are you sure that you’ve changed your hearing aids’ batteries?” Ivy murmured. “I can’t hear them.”

  “You’re using them wrong, then,” Flora said. “They’re working perfectly today.”

  “Well I can’t hear,” Ivy said. “They must’ve gone back inside.”

  “Give them back. I can’t hear if you keep them, and you aren’t hearing anything useful right now.”

  “And how am I going to hear if I give them back?” Ivy said.

  “And how are you going to hear anything if they aren’t here anymore? Give them back.”

  “Hush! I’ll tell you everything I hear. Just give me a while.”

  Nathan stood up and cleared his throat. “Excuse me, ladies. Do you need any help? Would you like us to talk louder, perhaps?”

  “Yes, please!” Ivy said. “We can’t hear a thing, not even when I’m using Flora’s hearing aids.”

  “Shut up,” Flora hushed her. “It was a rhetorical question. He doesn’t plan to talk louder; he’s telling us to mind our own business.”

  “And how am I supposed to hear if they whisper everything? We aren’t young anymore, Flora!”

  Flora exhaled loudly. Nathan joined me again and chuckled. Nathan couldn’t resist them; they were gossips and loved to invade everyone’s privacy, but they did so with style.

  “I’d better leave,” Nathan told me. “Your aunt and mine won’t be far away. Let’s disperse before they gang up on us.”

  Chapter 14

  When I walked back, Team Gossip had improvised a meeting in their gardens.

  “They liked each other as teens,” Aunt Etta shouted from her garden. “Didn’t they, Agnes?”

  “They never got anywhere,” Aunt Agnes shouted back.

  “I’d always expected them to get married.” Flora never lost the chance to join an inter-garden conversation. “But he went to college and enjoyed himself too much.”

  “With too many silly girls,” Ivy added. “The dumbest girls he could find. If I’d been Meghan, I’d have kicked him right below his center of gravity.” She let out a mischievous giggle, and her sister Flora complained because she was always making rude comments.

  Lord James, Ivy’s and Flora’s dog, barked loudly. He was a small white dog, but very smart for his size. He acted human most of the time, except when food was involved. In those circumstances, he didn’t mind acting like a dog.

  “Lord James agrees with me,” Ivy said. “Don’t you, Lord James? Eh? Don’t you?”

  Lord James fell silent again, and so did she.

  “You’re spoiling him with so many cookies,” Flora reprimanded her.

  “And why shouldn’t I give him cookies?” Ivy said. “They’re dog cookies, and they taste well.” She said this last sentence with her mouth full.

  “How can you eat your dog’s food?” Aunt Agnes said from her fence. “That’s disgusting.”

  “I like them,” Ivy said, “and someone doesn’t let me eat human cookies.”

  “Because you’re not supposed to eat sugar!” Flora complained. “And you can do whatever you like, but don’t complain to me if you end up with diabetes.”

  All four ladies had assumed that I was at home, and they’d gathered in their gardens to analyze everything related to Nathan and me. I took a seat by the garden fence to hear their conversations better.

  Many years ago, when I was much younger and I was so slim that I barely had any breasts, I’d secretly hoped to see Nathan again in the summer holidays. Instead, he’d come accompanied by Ashley, a tall and gorgeous blonde with perfect curves. I couldn’t compete with her.

  After Ashley, Nathan had brought a legion of dumb and silly girlfriends. All of them were pretty, gorgeous, and lacked any brains. They’d just laughed and adored every word he’d said. They were clones, and Nathan loved being with them and parading them around town.

  I’d dated a couple of boys during that time. They’d been nice, but we hadn’t moved past the first few dates.

  “Meghan.” Aunt Agnes’s words brought me back to reality. They’d caught me listening. “You still had hope in catching Nathaniel, and that’s wh
y you’d never had a serious boyfriend until quite recently. Correct?”

  “I hope it works out!” Aunt Etta said.

  There was no point in denying that I was there. “Nathan is just my friend,” I said. “We’re good friends, and I’m tired of boyfriends and treacherous men who act nice and cheat on me as soon as they have the chance to.”

  Not to mention that Nathan belonged to the past. He’d only dated beautiful and dumb women, and I wasn’t going to act dumb to get anyone’s attention. I was tired of trying, and Nathan wasn’t an exception.

  And why was I saying anything to my aunt and her friends?

  “And this is nobody’s business but my own,” I quickly added.

  “That’s right,” Aunt Etta said. “Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. But go and catch Nathaniel before he finds another of those silly girls that he brings over here. You’d make the perfect couple, and you might even bring some sense to my nephew.” Aunt Etta had always treated me like family. Sometimes, I wasn’t even sure if she was Nathan’s aunt or my own.

  “I wouldn’t hesitate if I were 30 years younger,” Aunt Agnes said. “He’s a good catch: handsome and smart. Well, as smart as men can get.” She let out a quiet chuckle.

  “He is a good catch,” Ivy added. “Do you think I have any chances right now? I’m independently wealthy.” She started laughing uncontrollably in her classic high-pitched laugh that sounded, Hey, hey, hey.

  Aunt Etta complained, and so did Aunt Agnes. They both knew that Ivy was joking, but it was more fun to accuse her of being a dirty old lady. Again, their constant arguments and energetic conversation had almost made me forget Vincent. I was finally free from someone who had never suited me, but I’d been too blind to realize sooner.

  I hoped that Vincent found someone who suited him. I wanted him to find the perfect girlfriend: pretty, intelligent, and kind-hearted. I wanted him to like her and to consider a long-term relationship. And then I wanted her to cheat on him. Hey, he deserved it! After my recent streak of bad luck, Karma owed me one.