Fiona Leitch - A Nosey Parker Cozy Mystery

‘What sort of plans?’ I asked.

‘Everything okay?’

I looked up into Tony’s concerned face. He looked anxiously from me to Mel, a worried smile on his face.

‘Tony! I’m so sorry…’ started Mel, looking like she might cry.

‘Do you want me to leave you to talk?’ I said, standing up. Emotional scenes are not my thing. But they both looked horrified at the idea. Mel grabbed my hand.

‘I just wanted to make sure you were okay,’ said Tony. ‘I know it must be hard for you, seeing me move on and be happy—’

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, Tony, this is not a bloody love triangle with you in the middle!’ she snapped. He looked affronted, then annoyed.

‘Oh, so you just decided to rock up and ruin my wedding for a laugh?’

Mel got to her feet and it was in danger of all going off again. I jumped up and stood between them.

‘Tony, thank you for checking on us; everything is fine. Mel is going to go home now so you get back to your party and I’ll be in for a drink in a bit.’ I really needed a drink after all this. To think I’d been expecting to be bored. I gave him a little shove towards the hotel and took Mel’s arm.

We left him standing there with his mouth open, catching flies.

‘So what were you going to say?’ I asked Mel, when we were out of earshot. But she shook her head.

‘No. Balls to him. If he wants to marry her, let him get on with it.’

We were almost in the car park by now. She disentangled her arm from mine and stopped.

‘Thank you for stopping me make an even bigger idiot of myself,’ she said. ‘I appreciate it, honestly.’ She looked over at an old and slightly battered Vauxhall that was parked on the other side of the gravelled drive. A small, furry, and undeniably cute face peered out of it, nose sniffling at the window. ‘I left my dog in the car. She must be hot.’ Mel must have seen my disapproving expression; the window was open a tiny crack, barely enough to let any air in, and it had been a hot day. ‘I can’t leave the window down any further than that or she gets out,’ she explained, and chuckled. ‘She’s so clever, she throws all her weight at the top of the window until she forces it down, and then wriggles out. I should have called her Houdini. I’ll just let her out for a pee and then I’ll be off.’

She went to leave but I grabbed her arm to stop her.

‘If you ever want to talk…’ I said. ‘I’d give you my business card but I left my bag in the bar.’

She smiled softly. ‘Thank you. If you’ve moved back to Penstowan I’m sure we’ll run into each other.’

I watched as she opened the car door and made a fuss of Germaine, faithful companion and would-be canine escape artist. Then I went back to the bar.

I thought I should probably stick around long enough to have a glass of wine, and then I would make my excuses and leave. It really wasn’t my kind of party. But there was someone else missing from the bar too: Cheryl.

Tony saw me enter, brought me a glass of champagne, and steered me over to the window.

‘So, do you think she’ll come back?’ he asked.

I gulped at my champagne. ‘Who, Cheryl?’

‘No, you muppet. Cheryl’s having an early night. Mel. Will Mel cause any trouble tomorrow?’

‘Oh, right. No, I don’t think so.’ I shook my head. ‘And anyway, if she does turn up, I’ll be right over there in the kitchen, preparing vol-au-vents and making dinner for a hundred people. I will have access to a lot of sharp pointy things.’

‘You could do your awesome ex-policewoman ninja stuff again.’ Tony laughed. ‘That was so hot…’

I gasped in mock horror and slapped him. ‘Anthony Penhaligon! You’re practically a married man!’

He smiled. ‘I know,’ he said. ‘I’m very lucky.’

‘Hmm,’ I said non-committally, sipping at my drink.

‘You don’t like my wife-to-be much, do you?’ he said.

‘I hardly know her.’ I was painfully aware that was the exact thing I’d said to Mel. He laughed.

‘That’s not a no, is it?’ He stared out of the window for a moment then turned back to me. ‘I know Cheryl can be a bit…’ What? A bit of a fricking nightmare? ‘A bit high maintenance. But she’s not had an easy life.’

I thought about the things I’d gone through over the last few years.

‘Lots of us have had a hard life—’ I started.

‘She lost her parents when she was fifteen.’ Oh crap . ‘That’s how she ended up with her uncle. I don’t know what her parents were like – they didn’t live round here – but her uncle and his lot…’ Tony shook his head and lowered his voice. ‘They’re not very nice people. So cut her some slack, yeah?’ He touched me gently on the arm. ‘I’m glad you’re back, Jodie. I’d really like you and Cheryl to be friends. Will you try?’

‘Of course,’ I said. And I meant it, for him.

I finished my drink and left the bar. Should I go up and talk to Cheryl? Part of me wanted nothing more than to just go home and relieve my mum of her babysitting duties – Daisy liked to think she was a grown-up, but she was still only twelve – but the concerned (or nosey) part of me thought that maybe I should pop up and check on her.

I stood outside her room, hesitating. Maybe I shouldn’t disturb her if she wanted an early night. But I could hear movement – a lot of movement – from the other side of the door. So I knocked.

There was silence. To my mind it was a guilty silence – like someone had been caught doing something they shouldn’t. Don’t ask me how a silence can be guilty, but it can. I just have this instinct…

Just as I was becoming convinced she wouldn’t answer the door, she did, opening it a crack. She had a smile on her face which dropped as soon as she saw me.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said.

‘Just checking that you’re all right after that little incident earlier,’ I said sweetly. I can do sweet.

‘I’m fine,’ she said. Through the crack in the door I could see a suitcase on the bed with a mess of clothes half in and half out.

‘Getting everything ready for your big day?’ I said. ‘Packing for the honeymoon?’

‘Yes,’ she said, attempting to close the door a little tighter. I had a horrible feeling that packing wasn’t what she was doing.

‘Look, we may have got off on the wrong foot,’ I said. ‘If you want to talk—’

‘Not really.’

‘Okay.’ I was relieved. ‘Tony’s a really good guy, you know. He deserves to be happy.’

Her face dropped. Uh oh.

‘I know he does.’

‘So if you’ve got any doubts…’

She looked at me for a few seconds, then plastered on a fake smile.

‘No doubts at all,’ she said. ‘Thank you for your concern.’ And with that she shut the door in my face.

I went home and went to bed, first looking in on Daisy, who had given up waiting up for me and gone to bed, and on my mum, who was staying in the spare room. I’d mentioned her moving in with us permanently as she was getting on a bit and I worried about her being on her own (especially since she’d been diagnosed with angina a few months ago, which had helped persuade me now was a good time to move back), but she’d been almost indecently hasty to reject that idea, saying that she valued her privacy and she could hardly bring a man home if her daughter and granddaughter were there.