by Fiona Grace
Tom gave the nurse a smile, but it did not reach his eyes.
“I will,” he said, his tone a little sad. “If she wants me to.”
*
Lacey and Tom were silent the whole taxi ride back to Crag Cottage. Lacey didn’t know how to restart the conversation they’d been having earlier, and with her painkillers starting to wear off, the reality of what they’d been talking about began to hit home. She should’ve just lied about what she’d said to David. Now she’d made everything awkward.
Gina was standing in the doorway when the cab pulled up to the cottage. Chester and Boudica came bounding across the lawn to greet Lacey, jumping up with their paws while she was still only halfway out the back seat.
“Quick, get inside, you!” Gina yelled. “I’ve made a fire, and the pizza delivery is on its way!”
Lacey laughed and looked over at Tom. “So much for homemade pizza, huh? I guess you’ll have to make do with takeout.”
“You want me to stay?”
She reached for him, taking his hand. “Of course I do, Tom.”
A small smile played across his lips. “Okay. I’ll stay. But you have got to stop calling it takeout! It’s takeaway.”
“Ew, no. I’ll keep my Americanism, thank you very much.”
They laughed, and Tom slung an arm around her shoulder, helping her to wobble up the garden path and in through the front door.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
The couch had just gotten to that comfy, molded to your body-shape, and the meat lover’s pizza had filled Lacey’s belly. With Chester dozing with his head in her lap, and Gina was snoring, and Tom laughing at the TV, Lacey felt like everything was all right in the world.
There was a knock at the door.
In her armchair, Gina snorted and woke with a start.
Lacey looked at Tom. “I bet that’s Karl, coming to question me.”
Tom stood. “I’ll tell him you’re concussed and you won’t be ready for an interview until tomorrow.”
Lacey smiled. “Thanks.”
He left the room, and returned a moment later. Not with Superintendent Turner, but with Xavier.
Lacey was immediately embarrassed by her disheveled state, not to mention how much of a slob she looked with half eaten pizza boxes lying around the place. She attempted to sit up, but winced as her scrapes and bruises made themselves known.
“Please, stay seated,” Xavier said, in his gentle Spanish accent.
“What are you doing here?” Lacey asked.
“I came to thank you,” Xavier said. “And your dog. Because of you both, the police have dropped my charges. I am allowed to fly home now. I wanted to say goodbye before I left.”
Lacey couldn’t help but feel a little sad about the fact that Xavier was leaving. He seemed like a nice man. And he was a link to her father, even if only tenuously.
“It’s been quite eventful,” Lacey said.
“You could say that again,” Xavier replied, chuckling.
Just then, another knock came at the door.
“Okay that will be Superintendent Turner,” Lacey said.
Tom went to answer it.
“Blimey!” Gina said. “It’s about to turn into a proper soiree in here!”
“Don’t worry,” Lacey said with a chuckle. “Tom’s going to tell them I have a concussion!”
But when Tom returned, moments later, DCI Lewis and Superintendent Turner were right behind him. Lacey let out a groan.
“Can I please just have one evening to myself before I answer your questions?” she said with exasperation, looking from one officer to the next.
“Actually, that’s not why we’re here,” DCI Lewis said. “We came to return this.”
She placed a padlock and key on the coffee table, next to the open pizza box.
Gina leaned forward, peering at the padlock. “Is that—?”
“—it’s the lock to my store!” Lacey exclaimed with sudden excitement. “Does that mean I can open up again tomorrow?”
DCI Lewis nodded, handing Lacey some paperwork that explained her property had been returned to her.
“Hey, wait a second,” Lacey said, blinking at the paper. “It says here you’re returning the items of mine that were taken into evidence. Did you take stuff out of my store? Do you have any idea how rare some of that stuff is?”
But her words were cut out by Superintendent Turner placing something on the other side of the pizza box. The sextant!
“I think you’ll find that this is what the paperwork was referring to,” he said.
Lacey couldn’t believe it. She never thought she’d see it again.
“There were only partial fingerprint profiles on it,” Superintendent Turner explained. “And far too many for it to be of any use. But we have more than enough other evidence to charge Brooke without it now anyway, thanks to you. So it’s yours.”
Lacey stared at the sextant, bewildered and delighted.
“But wait,” she said, with sudden dawning. “Isn’t it rightfully Daisy’s? Brooke stole it from her hotel room, after all.”
“She said she didn’t want it,” DCI Lewis said.
Lacey remembered the tearful widow’s explanation in the tearooms, about how she’d been trying to get Buck to snap out of his delusional spending by demanding the most expensive, useless item she could.
“And anyway,” DCI Lewis added, “the money never exchanged hands.”
“And, if I recall, Buck refused to sign the certificate of ownership,” Tom added.
Lacey leaned forward and picked up the sextant, shocked that it was back in her possession. She gazed at the object that had seen so many things, and lived so many lives.
Then she looked over at Xavier.
“It’s yours.”
“What?” the man said.
Lacey held it out, nudging it toward him. “It has sentimental value to you. It should be yours. Free of charge, of course.”
Xavier shook his head. “I will not hear of it. Wasn’t the money going to charity? Let me make a donation, at least.”
“If you insist,” Lacey said. “And if you really want to repay me, you could tell me everything you remember about your meeting with my father.”
“Of course,” he said, grinning from ear to ear with delight.
He picked up the sextant, and his dark chocolate eyes sparked with wonder.
Lacey sunk back against the couch, satisfied and grateful. It had all worked out in the end.
EPILOGUE
Lacey’s plan to open up the store the following day didn’t quite come to fruition. It took her two days of recuperation before she was physically able to return.
She arrived with Tom on one arm, and Chester beside her. Her ribs were still very bruised, so Tom opened the shutters for her, but she took control of unlocking the front door.
The dust stirred as she went inside, Tom and Chester following.
There were some signs of the police activity. Smudges on the walls. Scuffs on the floor from boots traipsing through. But beyond that, it was her usual store again. It felt like home.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to say?” Tom asked for the thousandth time that morning.
She shook her head. “You have your own store to run. Louise isn’t trained enough yet to be left there on her own.” She took him in her arms and pressed a deep kiss onto his lips. “I promise you, I’ll be fine.”
“See you for Elevenses?” he asked.
“An al—”
“—mond croissant with apricot jam,” he finished for her. He tapped his head. “I’ve got your order locked down.”
She smiled and watched Tom leave.
Alone in her store, Lacey took a long deep breath. It would probably take a while before any customers came back, since they’d gotten used to it being closed. She decided to busy herself sweeping up the debris from where the police had been traipsing through.
While she was out in the backroom—where she discovered they’d dr
unk their way through her entire stash of tea—Lacey heard the bell tinkle. She was surprised, and headed out to the main store. A whole bunch of people had entered, and were perusing her shelves. Lacey felt her heart leap with glee.
She slipped straight back into friendly store clerk mode, feeling the routine like a comfort blanket around her. It felt so good to be back in the saddle once again.
Just then, Lacey noticed Taryn enter. For the first time ever, Lacey didn't let out a mental groan at the sight of her. Taryn had played her part in the whole plan beautifully and she had to give her credit for that.
“Oh good, it’s picked back up in here,” Taryn said, looking around at the handful of customers milling about the place.
Lacey wasn’t sure what she was insinuating. Knowing Taryn, it wouldn't be something good.
“You can thank me,” the boutique owner continued, looking smug. “I mean, I have been telling everyone about Brooke, so that they know you had nothing to do with Buck’s murder.”
“You have?” Lacey asked. Of course Taryn loved to gossip, but doing so to clear Lacey’s name didn't seem her style.
“I can’t risk some other store moving in here,” the woman explained. “Not after my experience with Buck and Daisy. Turns out you’re not the worst kind of American. It could be far worse. Better the devil you know. Ta-ta.”
She turned on her heel and waltzed out. Lacey rolled her eyes. Same old Taryn.
Then the door opened again, and this time, in came a familiar face. It was the old man who’d bought the ballerina statue the day before her auction. And this time, he wasn't alone. He was with a woman and a child—the same woman and child Lacey had scared away the day she’d found the sextant back in her store.
“Hello,” Lacey exclaimed, surprised to see them all together. “What brings you back here?”
“This is my daughter,” the old man announced. “And granddaughter. I told them about the story about the ballerina figurine. They said they’d come in to look but were hassled out. So I thought they must’ve gotten a different clerk, because the one who served me was ever so nice and generous.”
Lacey blushed. “Actually, it was me who served them that day.” She looked at the woman and child. “I'm really very sorry about what happened that day. I was in a bit of a panic, and under a lot of stress.”
The woman nodded, as if cautiously accepting Lacey’s apology. The little girl tugged her sleeve.
“Can I get a ballerina now, Mummy?”
“Yes, darling. Let’s go and look.”
They went off toward the figurines, leaving Lacey with the elderly man.
“I’m sorry to hear you were going through a tough time,” the man said, kindly. “May I ask, is everything okay now?”
Lacey looked across at Tom in his patisserie. And at Chester, in his usual spot sleeping in front of the counter. Then she looked back at the elderly gentleman and smiled.
“Everything’s perfect.”
NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!
CRIME IN THE CAFÉ
(A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery—Book 3)
CRIME IN THE CAFE (A LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY—BOOK 3) is book three in a charming new cozy mystery series by Fiona Grace.
Lacey Doyle, 39 years old and freshly divorced, has made a drastic change: she has walked away from the fast life of New York City and settled down in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.
Summer is nearly here, and Lacey has fallen more in love with the town and with her chef boyfriend. She has even made a best friend: the new owner of a local B&B. And when her friend needs her services for the decoration of her inn, buying nearly everything in Lacey’s antique shop, her business even gets an extra boost.
Everything’s going perfectly—until someone mysteriously dies in her friend’s new B&B.
Their village turned upside down and her new friend’s livelihood now in jeopardy, it’s up to Lacey and her dog to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Book #4 in the series will be available soon!
CRIME IN THE CAFÉ
(A Lacey Doyle Cozy Mystery—Book 3)
Fiona Grace
Debut author Fiona Grace is author of the LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY series which includes MURDER IN THE MANOR (Book #1), DEATH AND A DOG (Book #2) and CRIME IN THE CAFE (Book #3). Fiona would love to hear from you, so please visit www.fionagraceauthor.com to receive free ebooks, hear the latest news, and stay in touch.
BOOKS BY FIONA GRACE
LACEY DOYLE COZY MYSTERY
MURDER IN THE MANOR (Book#1)
DEATH AND A DOG (Book #2)
CRIME IN THE CAFE (Book #3)