And The Earth Moved: Romantic Comedy Cozy Mystery (Amber Reed CCIA Mystery Book 1)

by Zanna Mackenzie

  I sigh. I’m not sure I want to hear Liam being cross-examined by a psychologist. What if he breaks down or freaks out or something?

  “I’ll head home,” I say.

  “OK. Take my car. I’ll get a lift back when I’m finished later. I’ll give you a call as soon as we’re done here.”

  I nod and he hands me his keys then squeezes my hand discreetly. “Speak to you later.”

  I open the door and then stop when he says, “Hey!”

  “Yes?” I say, still feeling a bit numb. I’m stunned Liam might be about to be charged with murder or manslaughter.

  “Drive carefully eh? I want my car back in one piece. I know what your driving is like!” He gives me a smile. Yes, that smile. But this time it doesn’t have quite the usual effect on me.

  I nod. “I’ll be careful.”

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  I’ve finally moved back home for good. It was long overdue. The other night Charlie and I fooled around for a while and he convinced me, with plentiful demonstrations, that there’s a world of difference between playing the horny boyfriend and being the horny boyfriend. I thoroughly enjoyed the demos but they also served as a wake-up call. Carlie and I were supposed to be concentrating on the case not getting involved. My head was spinning with everything that had happened over the past few days and I needed some space.

  Somebody knocks at the door of my flat and I move to answer it. My mum is standing on the doorstep with a box of cakes in her hands.

  “Got time for a cup of tea and a cake?” she asks hopefully.

  I nod, feeling anxious. She’s going to ask me about Charlie and I don’t know if I can carry on telling this fake boyfriend story much longer, especially to her face.

  We chat about this and that, my mum updating me on her job, how the building company is doing, how busy my dad is and complains she doesn’t see my sister and her family often enough.

  Mum opens the cake box and sets a couple of custard slices on a plate. We share the same cake preferences.

  “So,” she says, sliding onto a stool at the breakfast bar in my kitchenette. “I thought you could bring Charlie round for lunch on Sunday.”

  I almost choke on my tea which goes down the wrong way. “Lunch?” I finally manage to gasp.

  Mum nods. “Yes, I thought it would be nice. I think your sister can make it this weekend too with her tribe so it will be great for us all to get together.”

  “Sorry, I don’t think Charlie will still be around by then.”

  “What? You’ve not broken up with him already have you? I know he may have strange….” She pauses, wipes at some crumbs on the worktop and avoids looking at me as she continues. “Erm, he may have the unusual store cupboard thing going on but I’m sure he’s a nice enough boy.”

  I wonder what my family would make of Charlie if they ever did get to meet him. He’d probably be forever getting strange looks from them while they wondered what other unusual tastes he had.

  “Charlie is only in town to help out with an investigation up at Ennis’ place. He’ll be leaving soon.”

  “Oh,” Mum says looking disappointed as she finishes her custard slice. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  Me too, I think. Me too. Charlie will be leaving soon and my little stint as an investigator’s assistant will be over.

  By the time Mum leaves I think I’ve just about managed to convince her I’m not dating some weird guy, I’m not involved in anything dodgy and I wasn’t angry with her about something and keeping our conversations brief because of it. She even started planning a shopping trip for the next weekend. I hope the Joel case is resolved by then. I don’t fancy having to make up an excuse to cancel our girly afternoon out. I’m not sure I’ll get away with another excuse as far as Mum’s concerned anyway.

  I tidy up the dishes in the kitchenette and am just about to take a shower when somebody else knocks at my door.

  Charlie is standing outside, looking exhausted but somehow still as handsome as ever. I make him a cup of coffee and he slumps onto the sofa with a sigh.

  “So what was the verdict?” I ask, curling up on the opposite end of the sofa.

  “Initial diagnosis is that Liam has spilt personality disorder. It’s like he’s two different people. There’s the usual bad-tempered-sometimes guy and then the good-mood- sometimes guy, and then there’s the other side of him. An alter ego if you like. When he’s in that place the regular Liam doesn’t know what he’s doing or saying.”

  “Really? That can happen?”

  “Yep. Certainly can. Scary stuff eh? The mind is a complex piece of kit.” He leans back against the cushions with a heartfelt sigh. “We searched his house and found explosives, the stuff to light them and on him, in his coat pockets we found traces of explosives too.”

  “Liam was behind these strange random explosions and the earth tremors that have been happening around here these past few weeks?”

  “Seems so. He doesn’t officially set the explosives at the quarry anymore but he used to do it a few years ago. They have a guy who does all that side of things now but he still had access to the explosives. The guy who runs the explosives store raised the fact he thought stuff was missing. Small amounts but missing none-the-less. Liam said he would look into it. Of course that version of Liam didn’t know he was the one taking the stuff. If there’s something to be thankful for it’s that he’s only been using small amounts of explosives otherwise he could have got himself killed or killed others. He can’t remember anything about it at all.”

  I shake my head. “Wow, that’s amazing.”

  “It seems Liam was the one behind the dumper truck incident when they first tried to warn us off too. He can’t remember doing it but Mitch swears he was told to do it by Liam and he has witnesses to that effect.”

  I try to take in all this information. “So that night we were at the quarry and Liam turned up. He went into the storeroom we couldn’t get into and put something in his bag. It was explosives?”

  Charlie nods.

  “So what happened with him and Joel that night at the quarry then? Or did Liam have nothing to do with Joel’s death?”

  “We still don’t know. I’ve asked forensics to check Joel’s clothing for any trace of explosives. Maybe Joel saw Liam setting explosives up on the moor and tried to stop him or something and they ended up in a tussle.”

  Charlie’s phone buzzes and he picks it up from the coffee table checking the display. “Forensics,” he says, hitting the answer button.

  I watch as he listens to the caller then says thanks and ends the call.

  “Well? Was it Liam?”

  “It looks unlikely. No trace of anything linking Liam to Joel’s death.”

  “So what now?”

  Charlie frowns then closes his eyes as though he’s remembering details and concentrating on working something through in his mind. “We’re missing something. Let’s go back to basics for a minute. We checked the CCTV footage of Joel leaving the house. And the gate footage of him driving his car through, right?”

  I nod. “So did the police.”

  “We assumed that once he went through the gates he drove somewhere,” he says, leaning forward.

  Then a thought springs into my head and I sit forward, looking at Charlie. “But what happened to him after he went through the gate you mean? We did all the asking around the pubs. The locals said they didn’t spot him anywhere that evening.”

  Charlie nods and gets to his feet. “Exactly. Maybe that’s because he didn’t go anywhere. Once he’d gone through the gates the camera angle isn’t great. We need to check the recording again.”

  “I’ll call Ennis now and ask him if we can go straight up to the house and watch the CCTV footage again,” I say, standing up. This has the makings of another sleepless night.

  And not in a good way.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  “What are we looking for again?” Ennis asked, peering over Charlie’s shoulder as he finds
the bit on the CCTV footage we need to check.

  “We’re looking to see if Joel’s car is visible turning out onto the lane or not,” Charlie explains.

  “The camera doesn’t show that side of the driveway,” Ennis says. “When we set up the cameras we knew we would be using the gatehouse for the caretaker here so we angled the camera to just show the gate but not the gatehouse. For privacy.”

  Charlie finds the right spot and we all stand and watch the brief bit of CCTV footage.

  You can’t see Joel’s car once it’s gone through the gate more than twenty feet or so. The gates are recessed about fifty feet from the lane.

  “What does this prove?” Siobhan asks. “I don’t get it. We know Joel went out that night. We’ve seen this bit on the camera before.”

  “We know he went through the gates, but we don’t know he went anywhere after that,” I explain.

  “So he did what?” Siobhan frowns. “What else would he do? Sit at the end of the driveway? You’re not making sense.”

  “No,” Charlie says, swivelling round on the desk chair. “We think he never reached as far as the lane that night.”

  “The gatehouse?” says Ennis, suddenly realising what we’re getting at. “Joel went through the gates but stopped at the gatehouse.” His voice fades away and he pushes a hand through his hair before he adds, “He went to see Tina didn’t he?”

  I nod. “We think so.”

  “How did Tina seem to you, Ennis, the first time her dad introduced her to you and to Joel?”

  Ennis lets out a sigh. “She was a bit star-struck when she met us. Asked me to sign her hand. Bert was a bit embarrassed. She didn’t want to leave the kitchen no matter how much Bert tried to persuade her it was time to go.”

  Looking nervous Ennis asked, “How old is she? Please don’t tell me she’s under age? She looked pretty young but Bert has never said how old his daughter is.”

  Charlie rests a hand on Ennis’s shoulder. “You don’t need to worry about her being underage if anything happened with her and Joel. She’s twenty.”

  “Right,” Ennis let out a sigh of relief. “OK. So what next?”

  “Amber and I are going to go down to the gatehouse and have a chat with Tina.”

  We hop in Charlie’s car and speed down the driveway. “Bert was in the pub the night Joel died,” I say. “I remember seeing him.”

  “So Tina, if she was home, would have been home alone,” Charlie adds.

  “You don’t seriously think it was Tina do you?” I ask. “That maybe her and Joel were fooling around and things got out of hand and she pushed him in self-defence?”

  Charlie shrugs. “Let’s go and see what she has to say shall we?”

  “Hi, Bert,” I say as he answers the door. “Sorry to bother you but is Tina in? We’d like a quick chat with her.”

  Bert steps back to let us into the hallway. “She’s in the lounge,” he says, pointing towards a door on the right.

  “Hi, Tina,” I say as we enter the room. She’s curled up on the sofa, arms wrapped around her knees. There’s a flash of terror in her eyes as she sees Charlie and me.

  She knows.

  Charlie crouches down in front of her. “Tina, what happened that night?”

  She looks panic-stricken. “What night?” she flusters. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  I sit on the sofa next to her. “You were with Joel weren’t you? On the night he died, he called here didn’t he?”

  “But… How?” she says.

  “Tina!” Bert interrupts. “What’s going on?”

  She breaks down in huge racking sobs. Charlie gets to his feet and walks to the opposite side of the room. He looks at Bert. “I’m sorry.”

  “Tina?” Bert repeats. “What are they talking about?”

  “You need to tell us, Tina,” I say. “It’s time. Tell us everything about that night. What happened with you and Joel?”

  Chapter Thirty

  “He called round. Said he wanted to see me,” she sniffles.

  I spot a box of tissues on the bookshelf and offer them to her. She grabs a handful and covers her face with them, sobbing.

  We wait for her to compose herself a little. Silence, other than Tina’s sobs, hangs heavy in the room. Bert looks horrified.

  “Then what happened?” I prompt.

  “It was getting late on and I thought Dad might be back soon. I didn’t want him to see me with Joel. It was me who suggested we went for a drive. He was up for it. I got my coat and we left.”

  “You did what?” Bert thunders.

  “Then what happened?” Charlie asks, his tone gentle, coaxing.

  “We parked down the lane on the edge of the moor. Nobody ever goes down there. We started to…” she fidgets and chews nervously on her bottom lip.

  Clearly she doesn’t want to reveal exactly what she and Joel were doing in his car with her dad standing right next to her.

  “Go on,” Charlie says.

  No matter how awkward or how painful this is she has to tell us everything that happened that night.

  She sniffs, blows her nose and clears her voice. “We were fooling around,” she says, not looking at any of us. “Joel said it would be more fun outdoors so we got out of the car and walked up to the standing stones. We were on the ground behind one of the big stones when...”

  Bert turns and slams out of the room.

  “When,” she continues, “we heard a noise. We thought it might be someone, you know, who had followed us and might be watching. I told Joel to go and check. Next thing I know there was shouting. I peered around the stone and I saw this man.” She fidgets in her chair and sniffs at her handful of tissues again.

  All this time I thought Tina’s obvious anxiety and worry was related to her father getting beaten up. Now it seems it was also because she was keeping secrets and was terrified about not only what happened that night up on the moor, but also because she feared eventually we would discover her involvement in Joel’s death.

  “Who was the man?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t recognise him.”

  “Could you hear anything they were saying? Any names? Any words at all?” Charlie says.

  “I thought I caught something but it didn’t make any sense so I must have got it wrong. I was scared and confused and kept out of sight so I couldn’t hear that well.”

  “What was the word, Tina?” Charlie asks. “You never know what could end up helping us out here. It may sound crazy but you need to tell us every little thing you can remember.”

  “They were talking about sweets,” she says.

  “Sweets?” I frown.

  “See! I told you it was stupid!”

  I glance at Charlie and there’s a flicker of something on his face. He’s mentally putting the pieces together I can see it in his eyes.

  “Tell me what else they said. Their exact words,” Charlie demands.

  “Candy,” Tina says. “They were talking about Candy.”

  Charlie and I exchange a look.

  Not Candy.

  Candi.

  Charlie crouches in front of Tina, a concerned look on his face, his voice now soft again. “I know this is difficult, Tina but I need to ask you to do something. I need…” He pauses and looks at me then continues. “We need you to come up to Ennis’ place with us and watch some CCTV footage from the gate camera. Can you do that for us, Tina?”

  She nods.

  Charlie stands up. “Great, good girl, that’s going to be a real help for us.”

  We find Bert waiting in the kitchen and explain what we’re doing, asking him to accompany us too, saying we may need him to confirm something for us as well.

  Tina edges herself gingerly into the seat in Ennis’ office in front of the computer. The primed CCTV footage with the key section we need her to watch is all ready to go when we hit the play button.

  We see a car pull up at the gate and Candi climbs out, tottering round the car to press the buzze
r on the gate intercom. A few moments later the driver gets out of the car. Young. Smartly-dressed. There’s something about him that looks vaguely familiar. His stance. His hair.

  “Can you zoom in with this camera?” Charlie asks Ennis.

  “I think so. I’ve never done it before though. I might need to get the instruction book.”

  He ferrets around in some cupboards as the rest of us wait impatiently. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, he finds the book and then the right page, handing it to Charlie.

  Seconds later we can just about make out the face of the man.

  Tina jabs at the screen with a finger. “That’s him!” she squeals. “That’s the guy who pushed Joel off the edge of the quarry.”

  “Daniel Parry,” Charlie says. “I recognise him from the police ID shots they sent me after they’d questioned him that night we’d spotted him in the garage with Candi.”

  “You’re sure?” I ask. “It was dark up on the moor.”

  “I’m one hundred per cent positive,” she says. “That’s him for definite!”

  “We’ll need you to make an official statement confirming all of this,” Charlie says. “Sorry, but that’s the law.”

  Tina nods, looking solemn.

  Poor kid.

  “Tina, we’re going to take you down to the police station in a few minutes. Your dad can come with you,” Charlie says. “We’ll need to take your statement and we’ll need to run a few tests as well. Hair sample for DNA and take your fingerprints. Forensics has evidence we think will confirm you were with Joel that night. We’ll need this to prove you were involved. That you were an eye witness to his death. Do you understand?”

  Tina nods and sits up straight in her chair.

  I usher her out of the room and Siobhan offers to make her a cup of strong tea with loads of sugar as I beckon to Bert to follow me back into the room.

  “Take a seat, Bert,” Charlie says, gesturing to the one in front of the computer.

  The footage has now been rewound to when the car pulls up at the gate.

  “Tell me if you recognise anybody on the tape,” Charlie adds.