“If there was a thief at all. Someone could have made a mess to give the impression of a break-in. Derek, look at that last bid, it’s for a coin collection.”
Derek opened the email, and the emails that came after it. He read them and let out a low whistle. He looked at Pearl and said, “I think we might have found our Italian.”
Chapter 13
Eric chose that moment to appear. He looked startled as he came into view. He looked at Derek and Pearl. His face creased in disgust. “Don’t tell me you haven’t sorted this out yet! How long do I have to hang around in this limbo state? I knew you didn’t have the brains to sort this out, Derek. You always were a useless lump.”
Derek gave him a cold look. “This is my home. If you don’t like it, then disappear. If you do intend to stay keep a civil tongue in your head.”
Eric opened his mouth. He stared at Derek for a moment and then closed it again.
Derek nodded his head towards Eric’s computer. “Can you remember anything about bidding on a collection of old coins?”
Eric came to Derek’s other side and looked down at the computer screen. “Vaguely. What have you found out?”
Derek said, “This was the last bid that you made. Someone called Stephano Bindellino was bidding against you. You won the bid but then Stephano sent you a private message. He wanted to meet you and make you a better offer for the coins.”
Eric’s hands went to the side of his face. “Yes! Of course! I remember! He told me he was a coin collector. He had his own website and everything. He was going to pay me a lot of money for that coin collection.” He began to pace around the room. “I can actually remember something! I invited him round to my house. I bought red wine and lasagne especially for him. Ha! I remember it clear as day!”
Pearl said, “Do you remember him whacking you on the back of your head?”
“No, he wouldn’t do that! He was a professional coin collector. We were going to make a deal. Why would he kill me?”
Pearl opened her hands out. “To get your coin collection of course!”
Eric shook his head vehemently. “No, you’re wrong. He was a genuine business man. He told me how impressed he was with me at recognising such a valuable collection. There was even talk of me working for him.” The certainty faded from Eric’s face. “He wouldn’t kill me. He just wouldn’t. It was Roy who killed me. Or that Cheryl. Or that imbecile who lives next door.”
Pearl tapped the side of her head and looked at Derek. “He’s losing his mind again.”
Eric threw his hands up. “Ginger! What about Ginger? Where is she?”
Pearl gave Derek a knowing look. “He’s lost his mind altogether now.”
Derek said, “Who’s Ginger? Another neighbour?”
Eric snapped, “She’s my cat, of course! Where is she? Did you see her in my house?” He clenched his fists. “I bet that Roy and Lilly have taken her.”
“I didn’t see your cat,” Derek said. “But I wasn’t looking out for her.”
Eric flew over to his side. “You have to find her! Get back to my house now and look for her!” His form began to vibrate as he stared at Derek. It was extremely unnerving and Derek shrank back into his chair.
Pearl stood up and put her hand on Eric’s arm. “Come on, Eric, you’re getting yourself all upset again. Let’s go to the quiet place.” She looked at Derek. “We’ll have to leave you for a while. Will you be okay on your own?”
Derek nodded. He wanted Eric as far away from his home as possible.
Pearl gave Derek a gentle smile and then she disappeared, taking Eric with her.
Derek blinked rapidly and took a moment to calm himself down. He wasn’t sure he was cut out for this ghost business. Maybe twenty or thirty years ago …
He slapped the side of the armchair. “Derek Quill! You’re not over the hill yet!” He turned back to the laptop and started to find out all he could about the mysterious Stephano Bindellino.
Chapter 14
When Derek woke up the next morning he found Pearl sitting on the end of his bed.
“Morning!” she called out cheerfully. “You can take that shocked look off your face, I haven’t been watching you all night like some crazy stalker type. I’ve only been here a few minutes. Did you sleep well? I do like those pyjamas, Derek.”
Derek rubbed his eyes and pulled himself into a sitting position. “I did sleep well, thank you. I think I tired myself out yesterday. How are you? And how’s Eric? Is he hiding in my wardrobe?”
Pearl chuckled. “He’s not here. And I don’t think he’ll be joining us for a while.” She shook her head and sighed. “He’s got a lot of hate in him. I knew he was going to be trouble the moment I saw him. Did you do any more investigating when we left?”
“I tried. I looked for Stephano Bindellino. I found a few older men in Italy but none of them were coin collectors. Eric mentioned a website but I couldn’t find any trace of one.”
“Hmm, interesting. What are your plans for today?”
Derek grimaced. “I’ll have to go back to Eric’s house. I’ll need to look for his cat, and I’ll need to look for his coin collection. If the coins aren’t there then we know that this Bindellino chap is a suspect. Whoever he is.” Derek pulled his bedcover back. “I have to go into Leeds this morning so I thought I’d pay a call on Ivan Broughton, Eric’s neighbour. We haven’t heard his side of the story yet.” He stood up and hesitated. “Pearl, I need to get dressed.”
She grinned. “Go ahead. I’ve seen it all before!”
“You haven’t seen all of me before. Would you mind …?”
Pearl stood up, a twinkle in her eyes. “I shall make myself scarce. But will I really? Perhaps I’ll just be invisible to you!” She caught Derek’s terrified look. “I’m only joking. I’ll meet you in the living room.” She winked and disappeared.
Derek still wasn’t certain she’d gone but he got dressed anyway - with more haste than usual.
Pearl chatted to Derek as he had his breakfast. They talked about his family and how his elder daughter, Julianne, was getting on. Pearl had met his younger daughter, Abbie, when she was a ghost. Pearl had helped Grace to find Abbie’s killer. Derek’s eyes glistened as he listened to Pearl.
Pearl sat next to Derek on the bus as they travelled into Leeds. “I haven’t been into Leeds for years!” Pearl declared. “I hope they haven’t changed it too much.”
Derek took his phone out and used that as he talked to Pearl. They had a chat about when Pearl was last in Leeds. It was over fifty years ago. Derek wondered when Pearl had been born. He couldn’t ask her, it would be rude to do so.
They were soon standing outside a glass building in the centre of Leeds. “Now what?” Derek mumbled. This suddenly seemed like a bad idea. His trembling legs agreed with that thought. Derek realised that he’d left his courage on the bus.
Pearl said, “You lie, of course. Make up a reason to see Ivan. Then you question him about Eric.”
“It’s not going to be that easy,” Derek said.
“You won’t know if you don’t try,” Pearl told him.
Derek stood up a bit straighter and walked into the office, hoping to look like a man who needed marketing advice. He strode over to the reception area and declared, “I’d like to see Ivan Broughton please. Thank you.”
The man behind the desk pointed to the door that Derek had just walked through. “You’ve just missed him. He’s gone out for a coffee.”
“Where? How long will he be?”
The man shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s that coffee shop over the road.”
Derek gave him a nod. “Very good. Thank you.” He was just about to ask what Ivan Broughton looked like when Pearl came to his side. She said, “There are some photos of the staff on the wall near the lift. I saw Ivan on there. Go and have a look.”
The man behind the desk said, “Was there anything else? You can wait for Ivan if you want.”
Derek put his hands behind his back and
smiled. “No. Thank you. My! What a smashing building. Would you mind if I had a look around?”
The man shrugged again. “Do what you want.” He looked down at something on his desk.
Derek strode casually over to the wall where Pearl was now standing. He kept the smile on his face as he made a pretence of admiring the very plain interior. “Splendid. Wonderful. Amazing.” He stopped at the photos and looked for Ivan. Ah. There he was. Derek committed his face to memory and then walked towards the main door. He raised his hand and called out, “Cheerio! Thank you!” The man behind the desk didn’t even look up.
Derek walked across the road and into the coffee shop. He spotted Ivan straight away, he was sitting at a corner table. Derek walked towards him. Now, should he tell him the truth, or make up another lie?
Chapter 15
Derek decided on a half-truth. That sounded better than a half-lie. He bought himself a latte and then approached Ivan’s table with a smile on his face. Pearl sat at a table to Ivan’s side and folded her hands on her lap.
“Excuse me, would you mind if I took this seat?” Derek asked.
Ivan shrugged and turned back to the paper he was reading.
Derek glanced over at the content of the paper as he sat down. “Job vacancies? I thought everything was advertised online these days.”
Ivan looked up. “They are, these are local jobs. I thought I’d try everywhere.”
Derek gave him a look of sympathy. “Are you looking for a new job then? It’s hard when you’re in a job that you don’t like.” He took a sip of his coffee and hoped that Ivan was in the mood to chat.
Ivan sighed and rested his hands on the table. “I love my job but I don’t think I’m going to progress as quickly as I’d hoped.” He gave Derek a weak smile. “You don’t want to hear about my problems.”
“I don’t mind. I’ve got all the time in the world,” Derek assured him. “It helps to talk about your problems, even to a stranger. You go ahead and get it all off your chest!”
Ivan laughed. “You may regret saying that.” He nodded towards the office over the road. “I work at that marketing company. I have done for years. I was in line for a promotion and I thought I’d impress my manager with a home-cooked meal. She came round one Tuesday night a while ago. I’d planned everything. I was going to impress her with my cooking skills.” His mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “My neighbour ruined everything.”
“How so?” Derek assumed he was now talking about Eric.
“My neighbour wasn’t the easiest man to get along with. He complained about everything. He was always going on about my trees and the overhanging branches. I tried to keep up with my gardening but it’s hard when I’m at work all day. On that Tuesday he’d chopped down some overhanging branches and he’d thrown them over to my side of the fence. My manager and I arrived at my house at the same time. She walked down the path before me, it was dark and she slipped on the branches.”
“Oh dear.”
“That wasn’t the worst of it. She cut herself on the branches and tore part of her suit. And she landed in a pile of cat poo. The cat belonged to the same neighbour.” He shook his head at the memory. “I was fuming. I was trying to make a good impression and everything was going wrong, because of him.”
“What did your manager say?”
“She laughed it off. She said she had difficult neighbours too. We went inside my house but …” Ivan’s mouth pressed together in a tight line and he looked down at his paper. He took a deep breath and looked back at Derek. “Somehow, the cat from next door had got into my house. There were cat hairs everywhere. And wouldn’t you know it? She’s highly allergic to cats. She had to leave straight away. I was absolutely fuming. I waited for her to go then I marched round to my neighbour’s house and let him have it. It wasn’t like me at all.”
“Well, I’m not surprised after what he’d done.”
Ivan gave him a wry smile. “You still haven’t heard the worst bit. As I was yelling at the man next door, my manager came back because she’d forgotten her handbag. She saw me shouting at this seemingly defenceless old man. She didn’t say anything until the day after at work. She took me into her office and told me I wasn’t mature enough for a promotion. She’s been keeping an eye on me ever since.” He sighed. “I think I’ve well and truly burnt my bridges with her.”
“What about your neighbour? Did he apologise for what he’d done?” Derek could guess at the answer but he wanted to keep Ivan talking.
“He never apologised for anything. It was me who felt bad. I was intending to say sorry to him the next day, but I was too late. He was dead. Murdered in fact.”
Derek let out an appropriate gasp. “No! Really? How awful.” He shared a quick look with Pearl. She gave him a thumbs up sign.
Ivan quickly glanced around the shop. He leant over the table and said in a low voice, “I think I know who murdered him.”
Chapter 16
Derek allowed his mouth to drop open in mock surprise.
Ivan moved back in his chair and gave Derek a knowing nod. “The police thought I’d done it at first. They knew about my argument with Eric, that’s my neighbour’s name, the previous evening. I told them everything. I also told them what I’d seen and heard later on that evening. Are you sure you want to hear this?”
Derek picked up his coffee. “Yes, please.”
“Okay. There’s a woman on my street, she’s called Cheryl. She’s got a reputation as a …”
“Hussy! Tart! Strumpet!” Pearl exclaimed.
“… friendly sort of woman,” Ivan concluded. “I think that’s the kindest way I can describe her. She was married at the time of Eric’s death but she had a few boyfriends. She was that kind of woman, liked to be admired constantly. She once tried it on with me but I wasn’t interested. She never gives me the time of day now.”
“Lucky you!” Pearl interrupted again.
“After my argument with Eric that night, I went back to my house and tried to clear up the cat hairs. There was a strong cat smell so I opened my windows. At about seven o’clock I heard shouting outside. I looked out of my bathroom window and saw Cheryl shouting at Eric. She was saying that someone had told her husband about her boyfriends visiting her house when he was at work. Her husband was now going to leave her. She blamed Eric and said he was always spying on her. Eric didn’t argue back, he kept the door only slightly open. When she’d finished shouting he said he didn’t have time for her hysterics and he slammed the door in her face.”
“Do you think Cheryl killed Eric?”
Ivan nodded. “She’s got a temper on her. You should have seen her face when I turned her down. Her face twisted up into such an evil look that it made me shiver. And she’s quite a big woman, she’d have the strength to hit Eric.” He shook his head in dismay. “She must have given the police a pack of lies about her whereabouts that night because they never arrested her. I told them about her argument with Eric, but they didn’t seem interested. They seem to think that a burglar killed him.”
Derek drained the last of his coffee. “Goodness me, there’s a lot going on in your street!” He pointed towards the paper. “I don’t think you should get another job, not if you love the one that you’ve got. You can’t give up when things get tough.”
Ivan nodded. “Perhaps you’re right.” He looked at his watch and immediately stood up. “Oh! I’m late back! Thanks for listening to me. I hope I haven’t ruined your day with my story of murder. I’d better go. Bye!” He gave Derek a departing smile and then jogged out of the café.
Derek looked over at Pearl and raised his eyebrows. Pearl said, “I knew that Cheryl was lying. You need to go back and talk to her again. Don’t worry, I’ll be right at your side.”
Derek gave her a slight nod, not really sure how a ghost would protect him against a possible killer.
Chapter 17
Derek parked around the corner from Eric’s house. Pearl was in the car with him. Eric hadn’t reap
peared yet.
“Are you going to climb over the fence again?” Pearl asked.
“I think I might have to.” Derek rubbed his knees. “I feel a bit achy from yesterday. It might take me more than three attempts to get over it today.”
Pearl moved her hands on to Derek’s knees. A wonderful heat spread through his joints. She said, “Does that feel better?”
“It certainly does! Thank you.” Derek looked down at his knees. He waited for a moment. “You can move your hands now, Pearl.” He waited some more. “Pearl?”
She chuckled and took her hands away. “Sorry, you’ve got lovely knees.”
Derek cleared his throat and mumbled a thank you. He picked up Eric’s laptop from the back seat and then left the car. Pearl was at his side as he climbed over the back fence.
She cheered. “Over in one go! Perhaps I should feel you up more often!”
Derek looked away from her. The thought of Pearl touching his aching joints was not altogether unpleasant. He glanced around the garden. “I hope that gardening man won’t be here today.” He looked towards the house and groaned. “Oh heck! I never locked the door yesterday. I was in such a rush to leave that I clean forgot about it. I hope the door is still unlocked, otherwise I might have to break in.”
“We’ll worry about that in a moment. I can’t see the gardener anywhere. Come on, Derek. I’m getting a funny feeling that someone is watching us.”
Derek lowered his head and scuttled down the garden like some sort of elderly ninja. He tried the back door. To his relief, it was open. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He gave Pearl a grin and said, “Phew!”
They went into the living room and Derek put the laptop where he’d found it the previous day. “I suppose we’d better look for Ginger,” he said. He called out the cat’s name.
Pearl And Derek Mysteries - Box Set 1 Page 4