Dotty Dreads a Disaster

by Diane Ezzard

  “Bob Marley is the greatest, but I also like Jimmy Cliff and Toots,” Flo felt giddy. She had a captive audience and together they discussed their favourite sounds.

  “Yeah man, we’re kicking up rumpus here.” Delphina shook her plaited hair. “Lordie, Lordie, I do declare, this woman knows her stuff.” She high-fived Flo who giggled away. Flo took her phone out and scrolled down to select some music.

  “Whaat! You got some of Shaggy’s sounds? Atta girl. Put it on.” Delphina encouraged Flo to turn the volume up to listen to the track.

  Betty went into the kitchen to listen if she could hear where the noise was coming from. There was a scratching sound at her back door. She opened it and looked down to see Winnie. The poor little dog looked distressed. She wouldn’t keep still. She grabbed hold of Betty’s skirt and tried to pull her out.

  “Whatever’s got into you, Winnie? What’s the matter?” The dog kept looking over at her own house. “Has Dotty locked you out? That’s not like your owner, is it? She’s normally very good with you. You can come in if you want but you must behave.” But the little poodle had no intention of going into Betty’s house. She stood there looking up at Betty and barking. “Pack it in, Winnie. There’s no need to get yourself in a flap like this. If you’re not coming in, I’ll have to shut the door on you.” Betty went to close the door, but Winnie pushed inside, and the yapping grew louder.

  “Oh, Winnie. How does Dotty put up with all this noise? Do you want something to eat, is that it? Here let me see what I’ve got. Dogs don’t eat chocolate, do they?” Betty rummaged through her kitchen larder. Winnie continued to bark. Betty put her hands over her ears. “Come on, Winnie. Stop barking. You’re not usually like this when Dotty leaves you.” Suddenly, a thought struck her. “Is Dotty okay? Is that what all this barking is about? Have you come to tell me something? Come on, Winnie. Let’s go over and have a look.”

  As soon as Betty walked up the path towards Dotty’s house, she heard the shouting coming from the shed.

  “Dotty, is that you in there?”

  “Yes, Betty, I’ve been locked in.” Betty glanced down at the padlock but there was no key. She shouted out to tell Dotty. “There’s a spare under the large stone next to the garage door.” Betty went to retrieve the key and soon had Dotty out.

  “What’s going on?” She frowned looking at a flustered Dotty.

  “That’s what I’d like to know. Delphina locked me in.” Betty looked across at her own house and frowned. “What? What is it, Betty?”

  “Delphinia and Winston are in my house with Flo eating space cake.”

  “She was supposed to be coming here. Listen, phone the police and don’t go back to your house. I don’t think it’s safe. Somehow, we need to get Flo out of there. I believe it was Delphina who murdered Nigel and Fred. Her son is planning to ambush the White Brethren Society march this afternoon. I was locked in the shed to stop me from saying anything. Delphinia blackmailed their organisation probably because of racist comments or actions.”

  “I’m shocked. That’s incredible. How can we get Flo out?”

  “That woman is dangerous, and Flo could be in real trouble. Stay here, Betty. I’m going in.”

  It was walking up Betty’s path that a thought came to Dotty. Something wasn’t right. A memory that she had forgotten about came back to her. She had been a fool. The truth had been staring her in the face.

  Delphinia, Flo and Winston didn’t hear Dotty walk into Betty’s house. She stood in the doorway and called Flo.

  “Flo, can I have a word, please.” Dotty signalled for Flo to come to the door, but Flo was having none of it. She patted the sofa.

  “No, come and join us, Dotty. We’re having a tea party, aren’t we, guys?”

  “Please, Flo. It’s important I speak to you.”

  Delphinia and Winston picked up on Dotty’s nervousness. They wanted to ask how she had got out of the shed, but they couldn’t say anything without giving the game away.

  “Flo wants to stay here, don’t you, Flo?” Winston grabbed Flo around the neck.

  “Easy, tiger.” Flo wasn’t happy about how Winston manhandled her, but he didn’t let go of his grip. It was only when he pulled out a knife that Dotty and Flo gasped. He held it to Flo’s throat.

  “Winston, don’t do anything stupid. Betty has called the police and they are on the way. The game’s up. I know it was you who killed Nigel and Fred.”

  “What makes you say that?” Delphinia asked.

  “Have you ever heard of an organisation called Stargazer’s?” Dotty asked. Delphinia shook her head.

  “No, I didn’t think so, but Winston knows all about it, don’t you, Winston?” He didn’t reply but kept the knife at Flo’s throat.

  “Your son blackmailed The White Brethren Society. At first, I thought it was all your doing but then something struck me. What was the reason for blackmailing the organisation? Was it the racist remarks they said?”

  “Nigel hired him to do some work on his house and when he found out Winston was black; he wouldn’t let him in. He said some scathing things about our race,” Delphinia replied. “He and his friends treated us like scum. If Winston blackmailed them, they only got what they deserved. We know our rights under the Race Discrimination laws. Good for him for not letting them get away with it.”

  “Yes, but they stopped paying you didn’t they Winston, so you took revenge. I know how they behaved towards you wasn’t right, but it’s no reason to kill someone.”

  “You know nothing, you’re all the same, you’re white middle-class trash.”

  “Enough,” came a voice behind Dotty. “I’ll take over here.” Dotty turned around to see DS Collins walk in with Wayne. “Hand over the knife, Winston. We don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”

  Chapter 36

  “How did you figure out it was Winston, Dotty? Kylie asked at weekend, as they sat in the café eating cream doughnuts.

  “It was simple. He was the one who came along and said there was a fly in his soup.”

  “I don’t get it. How does that make him a murderer?”

  “Because he wanted Nigel dead, but he didn’t want to kill the whole of Billingshurst or whoever else had the soup.”

  “But how did he know that Nigel would ask for mushroom soup?”

  “Easy, he found out that Nigel was a vegetarian, and the mushroom was the only soup that Millie had on that didn’t have meat in it. It could have all gone wrong of course. He may have had to resort to the tactics he did with Fred, calling him to a secret location to discuss the fact his payments had stopped. He just got lucky with Nigel, or unlucky if you look at it from Nigel’s point of view.”

  “And was Delphinia in on all of this?”

  “She knew about the White Brethren Society, but I don’t think she had any idea her son was blackmailing them. He must have forged her signature to set up the account. I doubt she suspected he was the killer.”

  “Huh, and she calls herself a fortune teller!”

  “I heard that the march went ahead as planned,” Rachel said.

  “Yes, they weren’t ambushed. Without Winston there to lead them, the rival group didn’t have the same clout.” Dotty raised her eyebrows.

  “The good thing is, because of the murders, the national press picked up on the White Brethren Society. There has been an outcry amongst the locals. The organisation has had to disband.” Kylie sipped her coffee.

  “Yes, the villagers have been up in arms.” Dotty poured out a refill.

  “I can’t imagine Julian Cranston, the lawyer getting much work now he has been ousted because of his extreme views. It will affect his business for sure,” Rachel said.

  “I hear Judith Hastings has put her house up for sale.” Kylie took another drink.

  “It’s probably for the best. Nigel left her with debts. It’ll be interesting to see if Christine and Edna can still work together after everything that’s gone on.” Dotty looked across at her friends.

>   “I heard they’re going to bring in two extra judges for future fairs. That should be interesting. To think we thought Christine was the murderer, all because she knew her mushrooms.” Kylie raised her eyebrows.

  “Well, we can’t get everything right. Talking of which, I have some news.”

  “What’s that then?” Rachel asked.

  “I’m going to give up my chocolate business. I’ve enrolled for a college course.”

  “What are you going to do, criminology?” Kylie asked.

  “No, I’ll leave detective work to the police in future. I’ve decided to become a hairdresser and beauty therapist.”

  “Wow, good for you. I think you’ll do well at that.”

  “I agree. Great idea, but somehow I can’t see you keeping your nose out if there are any more killings in the area.” Kylie bit into the new recipe citrus Eccles cake.

  “No, trust me. I won’t get involved.”

  “If you hadn’t acted so promptly, Kylie’s auntie Flo might no longer be with us.”

  “Yes, thanks for that, Dotty.”

  “I know, she appreciated my involvement and sent me some flowers.”

  “It’s just a shame the police didn’t appreciate your input as well.”

  “No, I’ve made a lifelong enemy in Wayne.”

  “He’ll be jealous of the glory you and Winnie have been getting.”

  “Yes, and talking of Winnie, I bought her a big bag of treats as a reward for getting me out of the shed.”

  “Well, we’re proud of you. Winston will go to prison for a long time thanks to you.”

  “Don’t you mean, thanks to us? It helped that he had the same knife on him that he went to threaten Flo with that he previously used on Fred.”

  “I still don’t believe the police would have cracked this without you.”

  “We were a team, you two, Harry, and even Betty helped and of course, how could I forget Winnie.”

  “No, good old Winnie. Your dog is a legend!”

  Dotty Dreads a Disaster is Book 2 in the Dotty Drinkwater Mystery series.

  I hope you enjoyed it.

  All my books can be read as standalones but they do run in sequence so if you want to be there at the start, you can follow the progress of the main protagonist.

  Book 3 – Dotty Dabbles in Danger will be coming out soon. If you want to know when, you can sign up to my VIP club

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  REVIEWS

  If you enjoyed this book, I would greatly appreciate if you would leave a review.

  Just a few short words on Amazon and maybe Goodreads and Bookbub would go a long way towards helping me.

  Your encouragement helps stoke the fires of my creativity.

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Manchester born Diane Ezzard writes emotionally charged mystery books about ordinary people dealing with everyday situations until something goes badly wrong. (There is usually a dead body in there somewhere).

  Her first series - the Sophie Brown Mystery Series is dark and gritty. The second series - the Dotty Drinkwater Mystery Series is a cozy, full of zany lighthearted escapades.

  In a previous life, she worked as a HR manager, counsellor and managed a charity among many other jobs where she has picked up a lot of her material from.

  She now lives and works in South-East England close to her daughter and young grandchildren where she spends her time fighting pirates and dinosaurs when not writing.

  ACKNOWLEDEMENTS

  I would like to give a big thank you to Samantha Ezzard for another great looking cover.

  I would also like to give a special mention to Gracie Kennedy for her help in plot development. I don’t know where I would have been without her wacky sense of humour and her ability to help me think out of the box. Her enthusiasm really spurred me on.

  Thanks go especially to my team of readers, ARC group and my fan base. Without your praise and encouragement, I would not be as motivated to write.

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  Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Qf2uZV

  Dotty Dices with Death

  Book 1 in the Dotty Drinkwater Mystery Series.

  “Suspicious death of local DJ,” read the headlines. The man of Dotty’s dreams turns into something of a nightmare.

  Meeting the tall, dark, handsome foreigner at her new job in the casino, Dotty thought all her Christmases had come at once. Instead, she discovers a trail of lies and deceit, to say nothing of a suspicious package.

  Was Dotty the last one to see him alive? Do the police suspect she is involved?

  With the help of her friends, Dotty sets out to unravel the mystery around the tragic murder before she gets locked up herself.

  She should never have ignored the warning given by the mystery woman.

  Available through Amazon - mybook.to/dotdice

  Chapter 1

  Dotty took off her fluffy olive-green beanie hat and scratched the top of her head. She made her way to the back of the bus and found an empty seat by the window. As CEO of her own company, it wasn’t ideal travelling this way. It couldn’t be helped, however, as her car had been making that funny noise again. She wouldn’t put up with it any longer. After all, it might be something serious and she could hardly run her gardening business with no vehicle. So, she dropped it off at the garage first thing. It was handy that she had no customers booked in today other than a potential new client to visit. She’d look strange getting on the bus with a lawnmower and other gardening tools. What would her nosey neighbour, Betty Simpson think? There would be no end of moaning from Betty if she took up extra room with her equipment. Nudging Betty who sat on the seat in front, she smiled.

  “Cold out, today,” she said.

  “Yes, dear. Where’s your car?” Betty didn’t miss a trick. She was the go-to person if you wanted to hear any gossip.

  “It’s in the garage for a service.” That wasn’t the whole truth but sometimes a little white lie was the easiest option with Betty. Dotty was in no mood for explaining irregular car noises this morning. Betty didn’t need to know the ins and outs. She embroidered stories enough and came up with her own version, anyway. Knowing Betty, if she decided that Dotty’s car had really been towed away for getting behind with the repayments, then that’s what she would tell everyone. Betty could tarnish your name with her misrepresentations before you could click your fingers.

  Dotty thought about changing her car for a van. It would be more practical, but it didn’t go with her image and street cred. Besides, she was fed up of gardening. It was okay in the summer months when the weather was warmer but now the colder weather had set in, there wasn’t as much to do, and it was freezing working out
side. She’d not given that much thought when she was talked into starting up this little one-woman business by her two friends, Rachel and Kylie.

  It was alright for them. They both had their nice warm jobs working inside. Rachel worked in an office and Kylie worked as a barmaid at Ye Olde Six Bells. Neither girl was happy in their jobs, but they weren’t as miserable as Dotty. They always had a moan when the threesome met up on a Saturday. Although, if they all wanted to go on holiday together next year, they would have to grin and bear it.

  Dotty wasn’t on the bus for long. She checked the address beforehand and knew which stop to get off. If the Braithwaite’s hadn’t lived at the top of a hill, she’d have taken her pushbike, but it was too steep to tackle, and the forecast was for rain later. She shuddered and vowed to put some effort into looking for a new job. There had to be better ways than this to make a living. It could be worse. She could be in India working in the paddy fields or — no she couldn’t think of any jobs worse than gardening right now. Even India would be warmer than Sussex. She looked out the window and watched a gust of wind pick up the leaves as they took flight through the air.

  Dotty arrived at the location and jumped off the bus. She immediately felt the chill of the wind on her cheeks. She tossed her head back and walked up to the house. Her mind wandered as she thought about working in a bar in Ibiza or picking strawberries in Portugal, anything warm away from this biting cold weather. She looked up at the large house and groaned as she rang the doorbell. The door creaked open and the tall, pinched face of Mr Braithwaite stared down at her as she stood waiting on the bottom step.