Yvette's Death (Cara Daniels Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Gillian Larkin

  Cara glanced at Becky’s big arms. She could well believe that.

  Becky slumped to the ground and put her head in her hands. “I’m a useless lump. Mum always said that about me and she’s right.” She looked up at Cara. “I’ve tried to prove Mum wrong by starting my own online business. This knitting one is the third one I’ve tried. I can’t get my head around all that online stuff, all the marketing you have to do. My heart’s not in it. I’d rather be fighting.”

  Cara sat at her side. “What kind of fighting do you like?”

  Becky gave her a small smile and said, “Wrestling. I love wrestling, it’s my hobby. I wish I could make it my job somehow but I don’t know how to.”

  “I do,” Cara said, her anger at Becky had now changed to sympathy. “I’ve got a client who runs his own wrestling business. His business is growing so fast that he’s always looking for committed staff. I could give you his details, you could at least email him. Mention my name if you like.”

  Becky stared at Cara. “You’d do that? For me? After what I’ve done?”

  Cara nodded and reached into her pocket. “Here’s my card. Email me and I’ll send you Bill’s details.”

  Becky took the card as if it was made of gold. “Thanks so much.” She carefully placed the card in her pocket and stood up. She pulled Cara to her feet and said, “Why did you think I was going to kill Yvette? People don’t just go around killing other people.”

  Cara’s thoughts flew to Yvette. Damn! She’d taken her attention off her. Cara said a quick goodbye to Becky and ran away.

  Yvette’s car was still in the driveway as Cara huffed to a stop outside her house. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. She wanted to talk to Yvette to make sure she was still okay. An excuse came into her head. She would tell her that she didn’t need to worry about Becky Webb any more. She’d miss out the details about the knife, Yvette didn’t need to know that.

  Cara nodded to herself, that excuse would do. She walked up to the door and knocked on it. Jake answered the door. He smiled at Cara and said, “Hiya! Here to perform some more online magic?”

  Cara smiled in what she hoped was a casual manner. “Hi, I was hoping to speak to Yvette.”

  Jake said, “You’ve just missed her. She’s nipped out to the wool shop. She’s taken my car.”

  Cara’s smile died. “Why?”

  “An urgent wool matter,” Jake said with a laugh. “She got an email asking for a certain colour of wool. The client, a Mrs Banks I think Yvette said, wanted to know if Yvette had that colour in before she made the long journey to her shop in the morning. I told Yvette it could wait until the morning but she wouldn’t listen! Can I take a message? Cara?”

  Cara wasn’t listening, she was already racing down the drive and towards her car.

  Chapter 11

  Cold sweat was trickling down Cara’s back as she drove towards the shop. She swerved into the car park. She couldn’t park outside the wool shop because there were already two cars parked there. One must be Jake’s car, and the other one belonged to Mr Banks. The shop lights were on.

  Cara ran across the road just as Mr Banks got out of his car. Cara ran up to him and yelled, “Leave her alone! I know what you’re up to! Leave her alone!”

  Mr Banks stared down at Cara. “What on earth are you babbling about?” His eyes narrowed. “Ah, Cara Daniels, you’re the one who designed that lovely website for Mrs Carter. That was a waste of time. Move.”

  Cara stood her ground. She hadn’t realised Mr Banks was so tall. She said, “You’re going to kill her! I know you are. You want her shop! You’re going to kill Yvette for it!”

  A coldness came into Mr Banks’ eyes. “Be careful with your accusations, young lady. And keep your voice down.” He put his hand under her elbow and marched her down the street. Cara noticed that the man with the squashy nose got out of the car and followed them. What were they going to do to her?

  Mr Banks stopped and said, “I’m not in the habit of killing anyone, it’s not good for my business. I do want that shop and I’m going to offer Mrs Carter a good deal. If she agrees I’ll let her have two units that I’ve already rented from Sol Lewis. They’re further down the road but the units are bigger. I’ve seen the customers that she’s bringing in and I know I’ll be able to entice them into my café.”

  Cara folded her arms. “So you’re not going to kill her?”

  “Most certainly not! Have we finished here? I’m going to have a word with Mrs Carter. I’ll admit that I did trick her to come here at this time but it was only to talk.”

  Cara looked at him. Was he telling the truth?

  There was a heavy feeling in Cara’s stomach. She was missing something. She knew Yvette was in danger, she’d seen the death line around her.

  Cara sniffed. What was that smell? She said to Mr Banks, “Can you smell something? It smells like something is on fire.”

  A movement at the end of the road caught her attention. Her breath caught as she saw Sol Lewis running away from the row of shops. He was carrying a petrol can. With mounting horror she remembered Sol’s joke about setting fire to his shops so that he could collect the insurance money.

  The man with the squashy nose yelled out, “Fire!”

  Mr Banks shoved Cara out of the way. “My car! Move my car!”

  The two men dashed towards the car, jumped in and sped away.

  Cara ran back to the wool shop. The smell of smoke was stronger here. Not giving a thought to her safety, Cara burst through the shop door. A cloud of smoke immediately enveloped her. Cara pulled her jacket over her mouth and dropped to the floor. She saw something up ahead. Yvette’s feet! Cara scuttled over and grabbed them.

  Don’t be dead! Don’t be dead!

  Using strength she didn’t know she had, Cara pulled Yvette towards the door. The burning smoke curled into her throat. Cara began to cough, tears streamed down her face. She grabbed Yvette’s feet more firmly and pulled her through the door and out onto the street.

  Someone lifted her up and pulled her across the road. Cara coughed and tried to call out for Yvette. A few moments later Yvette was laid at her side by Sol Lewis.

  He crouched next to Yvette, his eyes wide with horror. “What have I done?” His look darted to Cara. “I didn’t know she was in there! What was she doing in there? I thought the shops were empty!” He let out a wail of anguish and covered his face with his hands. “I’ve killed her, I’ve killed Yvette.”

  Cara looked at Yvette’s lifeless form.

  Chapter 12

  Robin passed Cara a tissue and said, “Tell me again what happened. Try not to cry this time, I can’t understand you when you cry.”

  “I can’t help it,” Cara said from her prone position on the sofa. It felt good to be back home but she couldn’t get the image of Yvette’s lifeless body out of her head.

  Robin sat on the carpet at her side. “You saved her life. Yvette is okay. If you hadn’t got to her in time she would have died.”

  “I know.” A tear trickled down Cara’s cheek. “I saw her in hospital, she’s fine.” Cara tore the tissue up and threw it to the floor. “Why is it always the last minute? Why can’t I get there earlier and prevent the whole thing from taking place?”

  “You didn’t know what Sol was up to. You didn’t know he was going to set fire to his shops. He told you why, didn’t he?”

  Cara nodded. “He said he couldn’t bear to betray Yvette by letting Mr Banks take her shop from her. And he couldn’t bear the thought of working for a thug like Mr Banks. He couldn’t see a way out of the mess other than destroying the shops. He thought Mr Banks wouldn’t be interested in a ruined mess. He was right about that, Mr Banks has cancelled all his leases with Sol and moved on to somewhere else.” Cara looked straight at Robin. “I don’t think Sol will ever forgive himself for putting Yvette in danger.”

  “Yvette will forgive him. Imagine how terrible Sol would have felt if Yvette had actually died? You saved Yvette and you
saved Sol’s soul. That’s the most important thing to remember.”

  Cara sniffed. “I know that. But why does it have to be so difficult! Why can’t you tell me exactly when someone is going to die, and who is going to kill them?”

  Robin’s face softened. “That would make everyone’s lives easier. But we angels don’t know who’s going to commit the murder. If you saw how many murderous thoughts people have daily, well, you’d never leave the house! Not all those thoughts lead to action. That’s why we need your help.” He looked away.

  “Robin, what’s wrong?”

  He looked back. “I should have been there to help you. I should have pulled you out of that burning building. In fact, I should have been there to stop you running in!”

  “I would have run in anyway.”

  “But I could have protected you! That’s my job.”

  There was silence for a moment. Then Cara said, “How are you getting on with your friend, the other soul saver?”

  Robin tutted. “He’s not my friend, he’s an idiot. I know that’s not an angelic thing to say but I can’t help it. He takes forever to take action, weighs up all the pros and cons. He’s not like you at all, you rush into action like a fool and think about it later.”

  “I don’t really rush in …”

  Robin went on, “You get yourself involved in people’s lives whether they want you to or not!”

  Cara merely nodded.

  Robin smiled at her. “You’re going to make an excellent soul saver.” He tutted again. “Not like the other person I have to deal with. I’ve seen a tortoise move quicker!”

  Cara said, “Did this other soul saver do the work that he had to? Did he save a soul?”

  “He did,” Robin said with a sigh. “And I had to give him a white feather. He didn’t even seem pleased, he stuck it in a drawer!” Robin looked over to Cara’s computer desk. “He didn’t place my precious feather in a frame like you did.”

  “Speaking of which,” Cara said and held her hand out.

  Robin grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.” He stood up and held his arms out. His huge wings appeared. With a gentle shake from Robin, a white feather detached itself and floated into Cara’s outstretched hand. The white feather was immediately replaced with a silver one.

  Cara pulled the feather close. “Thank you. I’ll have to buy another picture frame.”

  Robin pulled his wings in and glanced at his watch. He grimaced and looked back at Cara. “Looks like you’ll have to buy more than one. We’ve got another job to do.”

  A note from the author

  I’ve been writing murder mysteries for a few years now. I recently got the idea that I wanted to write stories about someone stopping murders from occurring in the first place. I realised that person would need some sort of paranormal/supernatural help to let her know when the possible murders would occur and I came up with angels. That got me thinking: if you knew someone was going to be murdered soon, what would you do to stop it?

  Read Cara’s other stories, you can find details of them on my website :

  www.gillianlarkin.co.uk

  If you sign up to my newsletter through my website you will receive 3 short stories in pdf form as a thank you gift.

  You can contact me on : gillianlarkin67@gmail.com

  Best wishes

  Gillian

  A CARA DANIELS COZY MYSTERY

  YVETTE’S DEATH

  BY

  GILLIAN LARKIN

  www.gillianlarkin.co.uk

  Front cover images by Vectorstock.com

  Copyright 2015 by Gillian Larkin

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication must be reproduced in any form,

  without permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead, is purely

  coincidental.