“Never mind, poppet.”
“I’ve missed something, haven’t I? Not sure I want to know.” Motts sighed. She hated not understanding jokes. They continued up the lane until they reached the warehouse. She noticed a familiar vehicle parked in front. “Why is Teo here?”
Teo seemed to have the same question for her. He seemed utterly unimpressed with their presence outside the warehouse. Motts wasn’t certain, though. “What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be recovering at home and staying safe?”
“Granddad needs cold storage.” Motts grabbed his arm and dragged him forward. “See? Granddad.”
Teo folded his arms across his chest, glaring down at both of them. “For what?”
“Candyfloss.” Motts paused, then rubbed her forehead while both men laughed. “You’ve met my granddad, right? At my auntie and uncle’s house.”
The two men shook hands while continuing to chuckle. With a Teo-sized impediment to poking their noses into the O’Connell business, Motts figured they might as well leave the police to their investigation. Her granddad, ever the social butterfly, invited the detective inspector to join them for lunch.
“Why don’t I meet you there?” Teo agreed. “It won’t take me long to wrap up here.”
Her granddad wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the warehouse. “Nice lad.”
“Lad?” Motts shook her head. “We wasted a walk.”
Wasted walk weighs… what’s another w word?
“On the contrary, poppet, we’ll have a lovely lunch. Your copper will join us. And we can pop by to see Amy at her cottage afterwards without his knowledge.” Her granddad patted her arm and winked at her. “He’ll never be the wiser.”
“I’ve been to the creepy house with the dolls. Not sure I want to inflict them on my dreams again.” Motts shuddered. “Besides, I don’t believe she’d welcome me to her cottage.”
“I’ve a history with her parents. You let me do the talking.” He gave her another wink then guided her toward Griffin Brews. “Why don’t we have a coffee while we wait for your copper?”
“He’s not mine, Granddad.”
“Is he not?”
“We’re only dating.” Motts had never seen the need to rush into labelling a relationship in the early stages. She’d keep repeating it until people stopped asking. “We’re still figuring each other out.”
“I think he’s yours whenever you’re ready for him to be.” He went in when she held the door for him. “You take your time, though, poppet. Make him wait.”
“Granddad.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Are you okay, poppet? You’ve gone all flushed.” Her granddad paused on the steps above her. “You know your gran started having hot flashes quite young.”
Motts yanked off her jumper, hoping the T-shirt underneath would be cooler. “I never knew that. Mum certainly doesn’t talk about menopause.”
“Think it runs in my Martha’s side of the family. Her mum suffered the same way. Not the greatest thing to inherit.” He waited patiently for her to be ready to continue up the stairs. “I remember your gran sleeping with a fan at night for a number of years. I had to use an extra blanket to keep from getting frostbitten toes.”
“Granddad.”
“Suffering for my love.” He winked at her. “Are you ready to tackle Amy?”
“It would’ve been so much more useful to have hot flashes yesterday before I almost turned into a pineapple Sparkle.” Motts tied her jumper around her waist. “I don’t even like that kind of popsicle.”
Continuing up toward the O’Connell home, Motts wondered if Amy would be more receptive. She hadn’t seemed thrilled to see them the last time. And the incident at the warehouse likely hadn’t improved matters.
Over lunch, Teo hadn’t told them much about the investigation. He said they were looking into it in connection with the cold case. His only other admission was that the security cameras around the warehouse had magically stopped working right before she’d been shoved into the freezer.
Motts didn’t believe in coincidences. “Do you think Amy will talk to us?”
“Talk? Or get shirty and shout at us?”
“Either.”
“She might chat with me, owing to my relationship with her dad. She did better with him than her mum.” Her granddad reached the top of the steps and came to a stop. Motts had been keeping her eyes on the stairs to keep from tripping and wound up going straight into the back of him. “Granddad.”
“Young Michael. You’re the spitting image of your granddad.” He grabbed Mikey’s hand, shaking vigorously while shifting enough to allow Motts to continue up the steps. “How’s your mother doing? I was sorry to hear about your grandmother.”
Mikey glanced over at Motts, who didn’t shake his hand. “Heard you got stuck in one of the freezers. Dangerous things. You should be careful around them.”
Motts stared at Mikey. Was he threatening her or genuinely showing concern? She didn’t want to assume the worst. “I didn’t stroll into the icebox of death on purpose. Someone shoved me into it. Is there a ghost at the warehouse? A rogue fish spirit who wants revenge for being eaten?”
“A rogue fish spirit?” Her granddad chuckled. “So, young Michael, did you punch my granddaughter to try to kill her?”
Mikey gaped at both of them. “What? Are you joking? I’d never. I wasn’t even near the freezers.”
“Hmm.” Her granddad huffed. “She didn’t punch herself in the back, did she? If not you, then who? Your mum and brother were at the warehouse as well.”
“Well, it wasn’t sodding me, you old—”
“Hey now,” Motts interrupted him. “Don’t be rude to my granddad.”
They glared at each other at the top of the steps for almost a full minute. Mikey cursed at them and stomped off. He shoved his way past to jog down the steps toward the village.
“Something we said?” Her granddad watched the fleeing O’Connell. “Shall we brave the mother, since we’ve conquered the son?”
“Not sure she’ll be any more welcoming.” Motts found Mikey’s strong reaction strange. “Was he angry at the accusation out of guilt or because he’s innocent?”
“I don’t think he shoved you. Could be wrong.” Her granddad scratched his jaw. “His shock seemed genuine enough.”
“Did it?” Motts hadn’t been able to tell. He’d appeared angry to her. “If he’s innocent, it leaves Jasper or their mum, Amy.”
“Jasper certainly has a temper.” He nodded down to where they could still see Mikey in the distance. “All the O’Connells have one. Runs in the family. Came from their great-grandfather. He was a brute of a man.”
Motts wondered how much trouble the O’Connell brothers had gotten themselves into over the years. Tempers didn’t tend to mean calm waters and trouble-free lives. She’d have to remember to ask Hughie if he’d arrested them in the past. “Did their dad have a temper as well?”
“Both their dad and granddad. Hard workers. Harder drinkers. Nadine handled the business on land while they stayed out at sea if they weren’t in the pub.” Her granddad shifted his attention from the village to down the street toward the cottage. “Seems such a long time ago, poppet. Your gran and I never saw much of them once Nadine fell ill. It’s hard being around a bitter person all the time. Such a brittle and prickly personality.”
“Amy or Nadine?”
“Both, to be honest.”
“What the hell do you want? I told you never to come back here.”
Motts spun away from her granddad and noticed Amy O’Connell screaming at a scruffy familiar figure. “What in the world is Ashby doing here?”
“Friend of yours?” he asked while they tried to sneakily watch the drama unfold in front of them. “This is better than Gogglebox.”
“What’s Gogglebox?” Motts watched Ashby with a growing sense of suspicion. Why would he go near Amy after his supposed traumatic run-in with them? Weird. “Is it a
telly thing?”
“Our lovely odd little poppet.”
“I’m almost forty.”
“And?” He shrugged. “I’ll always see the tiny brunette who hid from her mum in my study. You sat behind my old chair, folding paper into frogs and birds. I had a menagerie lining my bookshelves.”
“You snuck me Jammie Dodgers and bags of Monster Munch.” Motts had always loved his study. It smelled strongly of old books and coffee. “I used to pretend I’d stowed away on a pirate ship and underneath your desk was one of the cabins.”
“Not you again.” Amy’s screech broke into their moment of nostalgia. She’d spotted them and come speeding down the path. “Haven’t you learnt to mind your sodding business by now?”
“Are you speaking to me, Amy O’Connell?” Her granddad frowned down his nose at Amy, who came to a sudden stop.
The shouting drew Ashby slightly closer to them. He blanched when Motts stepped to the side and into view. She frowned when he raced off in the opposite direction.
Weird. Very weird. Why is everyone behaving so strangely today?
And what on earth is Ashby doing arguing with Amy O’Connell when he made it seem as though he had no reason to ever be in Polperro again?
“Why don’t we head home, poppet?” He suggested when Amy spun around, stormed back to her home, and slammed the door firmly shut. “We can sneak by Treleavens for an ice cream. We deserve a treat.”
“My treat.”
“What sort of granddad lets his only granddaughter pay for ice cream?” He shook his head with a wry chuckle.
“Does that mean if River was a girl you’d let me pay?”
“No.” Her granddad gave her a confused look. “I’d still be paying.”
Motts had a distinct feeling she’d put too much thought into his rhetorical question. “Have you tried their lemon meringue flavour?”
When in doubt, talk about ice cream flavours and not my ability to misunderstand regular conversation.
* * *
Despite her grandmother’s best efforts, Motts’s mum refused to be distracted for more than a day. The morning after the curious incident at the O’Connell cottage, her parents descended on her after breakfast. Her dad smiled apologetically, gave her a hug, and disappeared into the garden to inspect her shed.
Why does he have to see the shed? It hasn’t changed at all. He’s observed it loads of times.
His absence left her mum free to unload her thoughts. And she did. Motts focused her attention on a new quilling project and allowed the words to flow around her without hearing them.
“Are you listening?”
Motts glanced up from where she’d been cutting strips of pastel-coloured paper. “Not really, no.”
“What is this?” Her mum grabbed one of the pale pink pieces. “Crafting?”
“You know what quilling is, Mum. A client commissioned a piece of art for her four-year-old daughter. It’s going to have a bicycle with flowers.” Motts continued cutting the strips. She had loads to do before beginning the process of turning them into shapes and scrolls. “Is the lecture over?”
“We’re heading home to London. A detective there wants to speak with us about Jenny again. We hoped you’d come home with us.”
“I am home.” Motts cut sharply, completely messing up the strip of paper. She set the ruined sheet and scissors down on the table. “I love Cornwall. I can breathe here. Unlike London, where every moment outside the house suffocated me.”
“Don’t be dramatic, darling,” her mum argued.
“I’m rarely dramatic. I’m quiet. Silent even when I shouldn’t be.” Motts shot to her feet, reaching back to keep the chair from falling over. “I want coffee. I’m going for coffee. I love you. You’ll want to be on the road to London sooner rather than later to avoid traffic.”
“Darling.”
“This is my home.” Motts rushed out of the cottage, barely remembering to grab her backpack by the door. “I should’ve kept my temper.”
“Morning.”
Motts lifted her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. She finally noticed the unmarked police car parked behind her parents’ vehicle. “Teo?”
“I wanted to see how you were doing in person. I see your parents are still visiting.” He strode up to her and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. “Everything okay?”
“Family stuff.” Motts eyed Teo suspiciously. “Why would Detective Inspector Byrne ask my parents to return to London to ask them questions about Jenny?”
“I have no idea how the minds of fancy London detectives work.”
“Teo.”
Chapter Nineteen
With her parents gone, Motts had taken time to lower her stress. She spent almost the entire day working on the bicycle project. Cutting paper, scrolling it, then glueing it in an arranged pattern had a meditative quality to it.
She went late into the afternoon, only remembering to take breaks when Cactus meowed plaintively at her. Wrapping up her work for the moment, she felt so much better. Her shoulders had relaxed, releasing so much of the tension from the past few days.
Her friends had given her space. Vina had stopped by after the café closed to drop off a few treats for her supper, but she hadn’t hung around. Motts was almost teary-eyed at their understanding and respect for her needs.
Deciding to finish her day with a cosy evening, Motts made her favourite supper—a fresh herb-spiced omelette with a cheddar toastie. She curled up with Cactus in bed to eat and watch through a playlist of one of her favourite YouTube channels, Robert Welsh. She loved watching both him and his twin brother, James; their voices were so soothing.
Meow.
“No, I don’t think either of us needs to know how to create a cut crease on my eyelid. He has a lovely voice, though.” Motts settled into her pillow. “Tomorrow we’ll see if we can track Ashby down.”
Meow.
“Maybe I’ll bring River with me again.” She thought about calling Teo, but he’d want to speak with Ashby on his own. “We can share our information after. What does Vina always say? Better to ask for forgiveness than permission? Not sure it’s true.”
Then again, Vina had a fantastic ability to talk her way out of trouble. She’d done so at university loads of times. Motts had no such luck.
Reaching over to grab her phone from the nightstand, Motts messaged her cousin. He suggested going with Nish or Vina instead since he had a business meeting in the morning. The brewery was expanding outside of Cornwall for the first time, and negotiations were resting on his shoulders.
Even via text, River sounded terrified. Motts had no doubts he’d be successful. He promised to text her after the meeting.
Her second message went to Vina. The twins were both taking the day off. Their parents had decided to close the café for a day.
Drifting off to sleep, Motts kept thinking about the O’Connells. If Nadine had been such a dreadful person, maybe her daughter killed her. One cruel word too many had caused people to snap before.
Or had Mikey wanted her out of the way to gain control of the company? It still seemed odd that it hadn’t gone to Amy. Or Jasper, since he was the one to work at the warehouse.
Why let Jasper run the warehouse?
Despite Motts wanting to cycle to Fowey, Nish insisted on driving. He arrived bright and early with Vina. They brought coffee and traybake.
Leena had made her steamed rice, coconut, and banana traditional dish into a traybake. It was delicious. Motts had several slices on the short trip to Fowey.
“Why doesn’t she sell these in the café?” Motts tried to resist the urge for a fourth slice. “You’d never keep them in stock.”
“Mums. Who knows their minds?” Vina offered the container to her. “Want another one?”
“No.” Motts nodded with a grin. “Wish she’d sell this. I’d have one every morning.”
They made good time to Fowey, arriving in time to grab the ferry. Over the twenty-minute ride, Motts practised he
r questions for Callie. Vina wasn’t the most helpful assistant. She laughed. Even when she didn’t, it seemed like she was. Motts gave up and decided to hope for the best.
“Hello, you three.”
“Where’s your friend Ashby?” Motts ignored the sigh from Nish on her left and Vina’s snickering on her right. “Sorry. I meant, hello, and how are you doing? Also, where’s your friend Ashby?”
“Welcome to Motts’s guide to small talk. Lesson one, always greet someone before interrogating them,” Vina teased. She leant against the counter to smile at Callie. “Have you seen Ash around lately?”
“Not since yesterday. Came by in the evening, really upset.” She scratched her head for a moment. “Lilith’s out on another tour this morning. She spoke to him. I’ll text her.”
While Vina and Callie chatted about kayak tours, Motts stepped outside for some air. She knew Vina hadn’t meant anything with her joke. Her brain didn’t always get the message.
“She wasn’t laughing at you.” Nish joined her, watching tourists walking across the street. “Just teasing.”
“I know.”
And she did.
“I imagine the trouble is that knowing intellectually and emotionally are two different things.” Nish once again proved why she often went to him for help understanding the non-autistics in her life. “Want me to chat with her?”
“No,” Motts responded immediately. “It’ll make everything awkward and weird.”
“If you two are done gossiping out here, Lillith suggested we try the Fowey Hall Walk. He planned to hike it today.” Vina closed the shop door behind her. “Seems an easy trek for an experienced climber. How are we going to find him?”
“Walk the trail?” Motts had gone around the circular path around Fowey a number of times. It was a moderate walk that usually took her around three hours. “Did she know when he set out?”
“Why don’t you two walk the path? And I can stay here, since he’ll probably swing by at some point to see Callie.” Vina smiled winningly. “We don’t all need to walk for hours.”
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