“Now what?” I whisper to Esme. “If we try to get a better look there’s nothing to hide behind and he’ll spot us.”
“True. Let’s give him a few minutes. He might not be able to get into the boat anyway.”
I think of the breaking and entering skills Charlie demonstrated when I ended up helping him track down a murderer in my home town several months ago.
I bet Mitch can manage to find a way into the boat. He is a special agent, after all.
We skulk behind the bushes and trees some more, waiting to see what, if anything, Mitch has found. The boat did look suspicious earlier. This is the mooring area for people staying at, or visiting, a very expensive and luxurious five star hotel. Maybe it’s being presumptuous or classist (if there is such a word) but the kind of people who own boats like that do not usually frequent places like the Roseby. So why is the boat here? It must have some relevance to the case, surely? Is it the place the kidnapper is keeping Poppy? If it is, then Mitch might have already cracked the case, well, a good chunk of it, with no help from Esme or me. I cross my fingers that Mitch hasn’t found the bride-to-be, my hands shoved deep into the pockets of my coat against the chill night air.
It seems like far longer, but in reality it’s only five minutes later when Mitch reappears and jumps from the boat back onto the wooden deck.
It doesn’t look as though he’s found anything. The lights are on in the cabin of the boat he barged onto during our first trip down here, so ignoring that one, he instead heads for the posh boat there was no reply on when Esme checked it out during our previous visit.
We watch, squinting into the half-darkness, the hotel’s floodlights not casting their light too brightly down here. Mitch climbs aboard the boat, checks doors and peers into windows, before dismissing it as a potential kidnapper’s lair and starts to make his way back to the hotel. Right towards where Esme and I are watching from our hiding place in the bushes.
Sugar.
Now what?
CHAPTER FIVE
Esme grabs my arm to gesture we should move further back into the bushes before Mitch reaches us, but as I turn we both wobble off balance. She stumbles backwards over a patch of brambles. Stifling a scream, I teeter on the edge of falling over myself, just managing to stay upright and reaching for Esme to try and stop her crashing on her rear. Unfortunately, I’m not fast enough and Esme isn’t quite nimble enough. She falls forward, screeches and lands in a heap at Mitch’s feet.
“What the…?” He jumps back. Realising he’s not about to be attacked by a kidnapper, he leans down and peers at Esme, who is now scrambling to her feet. “Were you following me?”
I can’t let Esme take the rap for this alone. Stepping out from my own hiding place I say, “We both were. Why didn’t you tell us you were coming back to the marina? We’re supposed to be working as a team to solve this case.”
He smirks. “Yeah, some help you pair are.”
“So, did you find anything?” Esme demands, finally on her feet again and dusting her clothes off.
“No,” he reluctantly replies. “I thought the wreck of a boat might be significant. I mean, the kind of people who stay here, well, they don’t own heaps like that.”
I nod. “My thoughts exactly.”
He shoots me a yeah right look. This guy is making my blood boil but I must remain calm. Another thought occurs to me. Is Mitch all part of the assignment? Have Esme and I been teamed with a thoroughly decent CCIA agent who is pretending to be an arrogant ass on purpose? Has he been sent here to test our patience and resolve? Do the assessors want to see if we stand for his attitude, chauvinism and attempts to stop us getting into the case properly? Or perhaps Mitch is just an arrogant ass anyway and the agency decided to use this to test us further on our last assignment, our final chance to prove ourselves worthy of job offers from the CCIA.
“So, what happens next?” I ask, as Mitch huffs and turns away to continue along the path to the hotel’s staff entrance.
“I don’t know about you two but I’m going to find a member of staff - a proper one, not an agency fake - to see if there’s any chance of getting any food around here. This place is stuck in the middle of nowhere and, as we all arrived by helicopter, I have no means of getting to the nearest town to track down a pub, restaurant or even a take-away. And neither of you are making me dinner, as you should be, so I guess…”
He doesn’t have chance to finish his sentence before Esme launches herself at him and puts him in an arm lock worthy of a champion wrestler. OK, she does have the element of surprise on her side, and our training has including some self-defence combat stuff, but the move is still pretty impressive – if inappropriate…
“What? Hey!” he yelps.
“I suggest you keep us both in the loop on this investigation from now on,” Esme says to him. “It will be safer for you.” She steps back, releasing the hold, and Mitch immediately straightens himself up and glares at her.
“I let you do that,” he hisses, tidying his clothes and looking confused. “It wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me to fight back, now would it? With you being a woman and a co-worker.”
Esme smiles and pats him on the arm. “Just remember the co-worker bit and we’ll all get along just fine.”
As Mitch disappears into the night I turn to Esme. “I can’t believe you did that!” I say, as she lifts a hand for me to high-five it. “Of course, it could have just got us into whole heap of trouble assignment-wise.”
“If I’m going down, then I’m going down fighting,” she replies, as we head back to re-heat our dinner in the staff kitchen. “Don’t worry, I’ll take the blame, and you’ll be fine. After all, it was me who lost my temper with Mr. Arrogant, not you.”
As we head back towards the hotel’s staff quarters Esme nudges my arm. “He’s got some decent biceps under those clothes though!”
“Esme!” I say in mock horror. Stopping to sniff at the delicious food aromas drifting down the corridor towards us now that we’re back in the staff quarters, I add, “We did remember to switch off the cooker, didn’t we?”
“I’m certain of it,” she replies. “Something smells pretty good though, so somebody must be doing some cooking.”
“The hotel is closed and nobody else is staying in the staff quarters except us,” I say as we quicken our pace towards the kitchen. “So who would be making dinner?”
Tentatively, I push open the door to the staff kitchen, hearing the clatter of pots and pans as I do so.
Standing before us, nonchalantly stirring the pasta sauce we started preparing before our little trip to the marina, is the last person I expected to see.
CHAPTER SIX
“Charlie!” Before I know it I’m across the room and in his arms. It’s been too long. He pulls me closer and I stand on tiptoe for a kiss.
A kiss which goes on, and on, and on…
“So this is the famous Charlie,” Esme says with a laugh.
Crap. I forgot Esme was still in the room. Reluctantly, Charlie and I step apart.
I do the introductions. “Esme meet Charlie. Charlie meet Esme, a fellow support officer trainee for the agency.”
Charlie nods a greeting and smiles. “Good to meet you, Esme. How’s the final assignment case going?”
I playfully bat him on the arm. “You’ve just turned up here out of the blue and you’re straight into asking about our assignment! Typical! What are you even doing here? I thought you were working on a case overseas.”
“I was, but the case is solved, so now I’m here. I asked James where your assignment was taking place and got myself up to Cumbria.”
Frowning, I step back. “Much as I’m pleased to see you, I’m not allowed any help with this assignment from you. That would be cheating. You do know that, don’t you?”
“I know. I know.” Charlie holds up a hand in a gesture of surrender. “It’s OK. I promise I won’t interfere. I have approval from James as your trainer as well as official permission f
rom the agency assessor guys running this op to be here, so you’ve nothing to worry about on that score. You know I’d never do anything to jeopardise your job prospects with the CCIA. Now, are you two hungry? I think this meal is about ready.”
Charlie starts dishing up the food and I join Esme at the table. He places a plate in front of each of us before putting down his own plate and taking a seat. “You can tell me all about what caused you to half cook a meal and then disappear off into the night.”
“Well, we had this idea that…” Esme starts to say.
“Don’t tell him!” I squeal through a mouth half full of pasta. “He won’t be able to resist getting involved in the case.”
“I promise I will not interfere, comment or get involved,” Charlie replies, a solemn expression on his face.
“Well, we’re working with this guy, a recently qualified agent, called Mitch. He expected us to cook him dinner,” Esme says. “Can you believe that?”
Charlie nods, smiles, but doesn’t say a word.
“We thought he was up to something because he seems reluctant to keep us involved with what is going on with this assignment. He went off on his own and we thought he’d gone back down to the marina, so we abandoned dinner and went to see if he was down at the boat dock again,” I explain.
“And was he?” Charlie asks.
“Yes, he was,” Esme chips in. “He didn’t find anything though.”
“Except for the two of us spying on him,” I add.
Charlie glances at me, concern in his gorgeous blue eyes. “And then what happened?”
“Esme put him in an arm lock and told him to stop leaving us out of the investigation.”
“What?” Charlie says, almost choking on his food.
Esme shrugs. “OK, maybe I shouldn’t have done that, but he deserved it. Special agent or not, he’s a creep and a chauvinist.” She puts down her spoon and leans towards Charlie. “Do you think I’ll end up in trouble?”
“I think, in the circumstances, you’ll probably get marks for not putting up with any bull, and for insisting he keeps you both in the loop on this assignment. The agency wants people who can think for themselves and stand up for themselves. You should be fine. You didn’t actually hurt him, did you?” he asks cautiously. “There’s issuing a, shall we say, friendly warning and there’s going too far.”
“He was fine,” Esme says, with a wave of her hand. “Just damaged pride and male ego, that’s all.”
“We were wondering if he might be a plant,” I say. “You know, the agency sent him to work on this case to test how we get on with somebody like him. He could be an extra challenge. Have you ever come across an agent called Mitch Hargreaves?”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to be helping you out,” Charlie replies with a cheeky wink.
“Well, it’s not helping out as such. I’m just asking if you know the guy,” I wheedle.
Charlie finishes his meal and leans back in his chair. “No, I honestly don’t know the guy.”
“So, we still don’t know if he’s really obnoxious or just pretending to be,” Esme sighs. “Ah well, hopefully he’ll have a better attitude from now on.”
Together we clear up, wash the dishes and tidy the room. Are we being checked for how we look after the space we’re assigned to stay in whilst solving the case? Who knows, but we might already be on dicey ground after Esme’s manoeuvre, so keeping this place spick and span could prove to be even more important now.
“Well, I need to phone my mum,” Esme surprises us by saying as she heads for the door. “So, I’m going to go to my room and give you two lovebirds a bit of privacy.”
As soon as she’s out of the room Charlie whizzes me round in a twirl and plants a kiss on my lips. “I’ve wanted to do that for the past hour.”
I tug him towards one of the sofas tucked in the corner of the communal staff kitchen cum lounge and we cuddle up together. “Where are you staying? Here at the hotel?”
“No, I’m staying at a bed and breakfast in Delamere. Only people involved with the assignment are allowed to stay at the Roseby, so I’m banished to town and a smaller, and much less grand, establishment.”
“How did your last case go? Everything OK?” I ask, snuggling closer whilst reminding myself I need to keep focus and not get distracted by Charlie turning up here.
“Yeah, it turned out to be pretty straight forward, hence me getting a chance to come up here to the Lake District and check in with you for a spot of quality time.”
I chew nervously on my bottom lip. “I’m amazed they haven’t got another case lined up for you already.”
“It probably won’t be long before they call, so I was kind of hoping we might be able to make the most of what time we do get.” Charlie leans back and rests his feet on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “Like I said, I promise not to get in the way of your assignment, but I thought we could perhaps grab just a couple of hours together. If you have to dash off in the middle of the night for your investigation then fine, I totally get that, but in the meantime…” He edges closer and leans down to nuzzle at my neck. It always makes me go a bit gooey when he does that.
I force myself to put some physical distance between us. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to leave the hotel and stay at your bed and breakfast. I doubt it. I think I have to be around the Roseby or at least out at a place connected to the investigation, at all times. Anyway, we were only given twenty-four hours to solve this case, so, right now, I should be scribbling yet more notes and figuring out where we go next with the investigation with Esme and Mitch.” I meet his gaze and regret tugs inside of me. Much as I’d love to head off to Charlie’s bed and breakfast, or lead him back to my single bedroom, I know I can’t. “I’m serious about this job, Charlie. Working for the agency, it’s what I want to do.”
He nods his understanding and eases a little further away from me. “I know you are. And I’m certain you’re going to pass this assignment with flying colours and be working alongside me on my next case. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here. It’s not fair on you. I just missed you.”
Grabbing his arm I push to my feet. “I know. I missed you too. Charlie, sorry, I want you here, I want some time for us, I honestly do, but right now I’m…” I let the sentence drift off, unfinished.
He frowns and stands up. “Right now, you’re what?”
“Scared,” I admit, with a rush of breath. “What if I fail? What if I manage to complete this assignment but I’m not good enough, so they don’t offer me a support officer job? What if…”
Charlie takes both my hands in his. “Amber, you’ve got to stop thinking like this. You’re good at this kind of work. You can do this and you will be offered a job at the end of this assignment. I know you will. Now, I’m going to get out of your hair so you can concentrate on the case, OK?”
I nod, freeing my hands so I can give Charlie a goodbye-for-now hug. “I just hope you don’t get a phone call from the agency and get sent off on another case before I complete this assignment. These past few months it seems as though the timing is always wrong. When I’ve had a brief break from training you’ve often been off working on a case somewhere. We haven’t managed to see much of each other.”
“We’ll get some decent quality alone time soon.” He plants a kiss on my cheek. “Right. I’m off. I’d say sleep tight but I suspect you’ll be up most of the night going over your notes and planning your next move.”
A weak smile finds its way to my lips. He knows me so well.
“Try to get some sleep though, huh? You want to have a clear head for tomorrow for the rest of your investigation.”
With that Charlie walks away, closing the door behind him.
Sugar.
We’ve barely seen each other these past few months and he finishes a case and comes straight up here to see me and what do I do? I give him a kiss and send him on his way. Pretty much, anyway. Ah well, we don’t have long to complete this assignment, so ho
pefully he will still be around once this is all over and we can grab some much-needed holiday together. Fingers crossed.
Right now, I need to get back to the job in hand.
As I open the door to my bedroom, Esme appears across the corridor. “Where’s Charlie? I thought you two would be making the most of your time together.”
“He left. He’s staying at a bed and breakfast in town. We agreed I needed to focus on the case right now. So, he’s gone.”
“Wow. You’re a stronger woman than me,” she replies. “If I was in your shoes I’d have dragged him off to my bedroom by now!”
“The thought did cross my mind,” I say with a smile, as another flicker of regret surges through me. “That is, I mean me dragging him off to my room, not you.”
“Of course,” she says, her face mock serious. “So, your room or mine? I think we need to get our heads and our notes together so we can plan our next move and get the case of the kidnapped bride solved ASAP.”
“My room then,” I say, opening the door. “Got your notebook?”
“So, what do we have so far?” I ask, settling myself on the edge of the single bed in my room.
“Not very much,” Esme says, flicking through her notebook. “What do you make of the bridesmaids? That Connie could be a suspect, you know, if she’s mad about the whole losing out on the work promotion thing.”
“True.” I check my own notebook. “Then there’s Poppy’s ex-boyfriends. Leon Black and David Smith. I suppose we could ask the HQ support guys for a background check on them. Wouldn’t Mitch have already got that in motion though? And if he has, will he actually bother to share the information he gets back from them with us?”
“Especially after I practised my wrestling moves on him,” Esme replies, failing to stifle a giggle. Then she pulls a face. “Sorry, we need to gets serious here, don’t we?”
“Let’s call agency support about the background check. There’s a special telephone number in the information pack we were given at the start.” I find the number we need to phone and the case details we need to quote to ensure everyone at HQ knows this is a fake case, an assignment we’re working on.
Amber Reed Mysteries Volume One: Romantic Comedy Mystery Series Box Set (Amber Reed Celebrity Crimes Investigation Agency Mystery Box Set Book 1) Page 23