Death At The Spa (Julia Blake Cozy Murder Mystery Book 10)

by Gillian Larkin

  “I don’t think that at all. Let’s just say that Erin had a criminal past and your paths crossed at some point. You didn’t recognise her, but she recognised you. What if Erin was arrested at some point in the past because of her criminal activities? She may have spent some time in prison and seen the error of her ways. But she may have had a partner who was miffed when she decided to go straight. Maybe the partner blamed the police for changing Erin and this partner had been holding a grudge for years.”

  Gemma unfolded her arms. “I think I can see where you’re going with this. Carry on.”

  “That partner could have been keeping an eye on Erin, and even been working here as a member of staff. They could have told Erin they’d turned over a new leaf too.”

  “Aha! And then Erin wouldn’t be suspicious about them working here. She’d be pleased that her ex-partner was on the straight and narrow too. But really, her ex-partner would be holding a deep resentment against Erin and just waiting for an opportunity to get revenge on her.”

  Julia nodded. “And then you came along. If we keep with our theory, this ex-partner could have recognised you straight away. They could have followed you and found out which treatments you were having. I’ll bet there’s a main system where staff can see each guest’s records. This evil, conniving ex-partner could have followed you to the chocolate therapy rooms and thought, ‘I can kill two birds with one stone here. I can bump off Erin Baker. And I can pin the blame on that Gemma Clarke. Hee hee’. And they would have rubbed their hands together gleefully before carrying out their wicked plan.”

  Gemma laughed. “You’ve got a weird imagination.”

  “But it could have happened. That could be why the inspector was asking you about Erin.”

  Gemma looked into the distance. “I’ve just thought of something else. What if some ex-criminal is working here and they recognised me from the force? They wanted to get revenge on me and saw an opportunity with Erin. Or, this ex-criminal could know who my husband is, and could have wanted to get back at him through me.” She looked back at Julia. “This could be nothing to do with Erin Baker at all. It could be revenge against Arnie or me.”

  “Yes, that’s possible. Your husband has probably made many enemies over the years. Hundreds, probably. No offence.”

  “None taken. Julia, it might even be revenge against you. You’ve helped the police many times, you could have put someone’s relative or friend behind bars. And it might not be a member of staff, it could be one of the guests.”

  Gemma and Julia were quiet as they considered the matter.

  They both shrieked with alarm as a loud ring sounded out behind them.

  Gemma clutched Julia’s arm and hissed, “What the hell was that? I nearly died. I’m already on edge.”

  “It was a ring tone. Listen, someone is having a conversation behind this hedge.” Julia smiled. “I recognise that bubbly voice. It’s Lori Sanders.”

  Together, Julia and Gemma quietly put their feet on the bench and pushed themselves into standing positions. They peeped over the hedge.

  Lori Sanders was jogging on the spot with her back to them. She had a phone pressed to her ear. “Yeah, it’s all clear now. I’ve got the room to myself, at last. I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but I’m glad I don’t have to look at Erin’s chubby body any more. She never did any exercise, and it showed.”

  Gemma tutted quietly and frowned.

  Lori stopped jogging and stretched her left leg behind her. “Yeah, I know. Come round at eight and we can take our minds off all this stupid murder business. I had to cancel a class because the police wanted to speak to me. Idiots. As if I’ve got anything to do with Erin’s murder.” She giggled as she listened to a reply. “Shall I keep my exercise kit on? Then I’ll be all nice and sweaty when you arrive. Isn’t that what you like?” She stretched out her right leg.

  Gemma looked at Julia and pulled a disgusted face. Julia tried not to laugh.

  Lori said, “Okay, I’ll see you at eight. Bye bye.” She stretched her arms above her head and then set off at a jog.

  Julia said, “Who do you think she was talking to?”

  “My money’s on Harry Lewis. I don’t trust that man at all. And I don’t trust Lori Sanders. Nobody should exercise that much, the body’s not designed for it.” Gemma gave Julia a direct look. “I know where I’ll be at eight o’clock. What about you?”

  “I’ll be right at your side. Can you help me down? My legs have locked into position.”

  Chapter 15

  It was 5:30 by the time Julia and Gemma went back into the main building. They agreed to meet for dinner at 6:30 and went their separate ways. Julia dragged her aching body up the steps to her room. How could she ache so much after one hour of exercise? She had an active job and thought she was fitter than this. Maybe Lori had done this to them on purpose. Maybe she knew Julia and Gemma had their suspicions about her. She shook her head at her own thoughts. She was being silly.

  Julia let herself into her room. She heard voices coming from Mum’s room. The adjoining door was open so she went through and saw Mum in a sitting position on her bed, her phone held up. Julia recognised the voice on the phone and went over to join Mum on the bed.

  Mum was on a video call with Dad so Julia put herself next to Mum so Dad could see her too.

  Dad’s face lit up and he said, “Hello there, Julia, how are you? And what have you been up to now? I’ve heard about this murder of yours.”

  Julia said, “It’s nothing to do with me. It only happened a few hours ago. How have you heard about it?”

  Dad gave her a knowing smile. “I set up a Google alert on my phone about any deaths that might take place at the spa or within a three mile radius. I thought it would be for the best, seeing as you’re a magnet for murder. Where did you find the body this time?”

  “I didn’t find the body, Gemma did.”

  “Gemma? Who’s Gemma?”

  Mum said, “Gemma is Julia’s new best friend. She found the body in a tank of chocolate. Julia was there at the same time.”

  Julia said, “Dad, you’ll never guess who Gemma’s married to. Not in a million years.”

  Dad looked from one to the other, gave them a slow smile and said, “She’s DI Clarke’s wife, isn’t she? I’ve heard him talking on the phone to someone called Gemma. I assumed it was his wife because of the soothing tones he was using. Ha! Now who is the detective? Are you impressed?”

  “A bit,” Julia replied. “How are you and Cain getting on? How has he been managing with all the cleaning work on his own?” She paused and then said, “He’s not standing behind you, is he? He’ll get upset again if he thinks I don’t trust him to work on his own. He’s so sensitive. He’s not behind you, is he?”

  Dad chuckled. “No, I’ve sent him to get some fish and chips for tea. We deserve it after a hard day at work. Well, he did the cleaning work, I watched him. He’s super at cleaning windows, isn’t he? I’ve never seen you clean windows so efficiently. There wasn’t a streak on any of them once he’d worked his magic.”

  Julia sighed. “That’s what all my clients say about his window cleaning skills. They always want Cain to do their windows.”

  Dad said, “Tell me more about your new friend.”

  “I really like her, she’s down to earth and not at all what I expected. I’m helping her with …” Julia stopped and looked away.

  Dad chuckled again. “You’re helping her with the murder investigation? Is that right? Why would you be doing that, Julia dear?”

  Julia looked back. “Gemma is under the impression that she’s a suspect in this case. She was the last one to see the victim, Erin, alive. Of course, it was the murderer who was the last one to see Erin alive. We’ve got a few theories on who we think did it, and why.”

  Dad said, “You can tell me all about that later. You mentioned a tank of chocolate. Was this part of the chocolate therapy thing you were going for?”

  Julia nodded. “I never
got to go in the tank.”

  Dad sucked in his breath. “I’ll have to get Cain to cancel our trip there. We were only going because of the chocolate therapy. This has put me right off.”

  “On the plus side, this spa break is going to be free,” Julia told him. “The manager is going to refund your money.”

  “Well, that’s something.” He looked at Mum and said, “How are you, my love? You look much better. You’ve got colour in your cheeks. What have you been up to?”

  Mum said, “I’ve been having some lovely therapy sessions. And I’ve been to an exercise class run by a young chap called Harry. In fact, I met him again when I was returning to my room a short while ago. He was waiting outside my door. He …”

  Dad interrupted her, “A young man? Waiting for you outside your room? What sort of a place have I sent you to?”

  Mum flapped a hand at him. “You didn’t let me finish. He runs exercise classes here and he has his own line of DVDs. I didn’t want to buy one earlier when I was taking his exercise class. He was waiting outside my room to give me a complimentary copy of a DVD. He said he would be interested to hear what I thought about it.”

  “Did he now?” Dad said. “Have you got the DVD nearby? Is there a photograph of this young whippersnapper on it? If so, I’d like to have a look at this chap right now, please.”

  Mum held up a DVD which showed Harry Lewis in all his glory. Julia winced as she saw how tight his shorts were. She looked at Dad to see what his reaction would be.

  “Very well,” Dad said in a tight voice. “I can see what I’m up against. It’s not your fault, Kathleen, you’re beautiful and it’s not his fault that he finds you irresistible. But I’m not happy about this, not happy at all. I don’t want other men vying for your attention when I’m not there to fight them off. You’ll have to let him down gently. I know you’ll break his heart, but you need to put him in his place.” He shook his head and went on, “I knew I shouldn’t have let you go to one of these places on your own.”

  Mum said, “Let me? Do you want to rephrase that, Ray?”

  Dad gave her an embarrassed grin. “You know what I mean, my love. I don’t like other men having designs on you. I can’t help feeling jealous.”

  Mum said, “If he tries anything on with me, I’ll put him in his place and tell him I’m a happily married woman. Which is true. Is everything alright with you there?”

  “Apart from missing you both, aye, we’re all fine here.” Dad glanced behind him. “Cain is back with our fish and chips. I hope he didn’t forget my mushy peas.” He looked back at them. “I’ll try and speak to you later, before we go to the pub. We’re going to the quiz after tea and you know I’ll have to hand my phone in to the landlord. You know why, don’t you?”

  Julia and Mum shared a look. They had heard the story about Sneaky Sid before. They didn’t need to hear it again.

  Dad said, “It’s all that Sneaky Sid’s fault. He was the one who went on Google the last time we had a pub quiz, and now we all have to hand our phones in as soon as we enter the pub. You can’t trust anyone nowadays. And I won’t be able to talk to you tomorrow because me and Cain are going fishing, and we’ll have our phones on silent.” He gave Mum a wary look. “You can phone me at the pub if there’s any problems with that young chap who’s after you. I can be down there within the hour to sort him out. You’ve got the pub number, haven’t you?”

  Mum gave him a fond smile. “I have. You have a great time. Try not to get too competitive. And enjoy your fish and chips.”

  “I will do.”

  Cain came into view behind Dad’s shoulder. “Hiya. You two look well. Julia, thanks for those photos of the gardens. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Dad turned to Cain, “She hasn’t got time to talk about flowers now. Ask her later. We don’t want our tea getting cold. Get some plates warmed up.”

  Cain grinned. “I will do. Bye Julia. Bye Kathleen.” He scuttled away.

  Dad took another minute to say goodbye before ending the call.

  As soon as Mum put the phone down, Julia put her hand on Mum’s arm and said, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of Dad, but have you been drinking? I can smell alcohol on your breath.”

  Mum gave her a heavy sigh and her eyes welled up. “I have. But there’s a reason for it.”

  Chapter 16

  Julia handed Mum a tissue from a box on the bedside table.

  Mum took it and wiped her tears away. She said, “I told you earlier that I had another session booked with Indigo. It was a group session and it was with some of the women I’d met at the exercise class.” She gave a short laugh. “It must be women of a certain age who need help. Anyway, after I’d said goodbye to you, I made my way down to Indigo’s room. I saw the women from the group coming back the other way. They said Indigo had cancelled the session, and that she’d give us a refund on it. The other women walked away but something made me go to Indigo’s room. I’m glad I did. The poor woman was a wreck. She was crouched at the side of the therapy couch and sobbing like her heart was breaking. I ran straight over to her and helped her on to the couch. All I could do was hold her until she stopped crying.” Mum sniffed and a tear rolled down her cheek.

  Julia moved closer to Mum. “Why was she upset?”

  “Because of Erin. The police had told her about Erin while I was in Harry’s exercise class. Indigo told me she’d been very close to Erin as they’d started working at the spa on the same day. They felt like the new girls and kept each other company. Poor Indigo. Once she’d stopped crying, I offered to make her a cup of tea. She’s got a small kitchen area at the side of her office. She’s made me more than one cup of tea recently so I knew where everything was. But she said she could do with something stronger. There was a bottle of whisky in her office drawer. It was a gift from a satisfied customer. She’s only had a drink from it once before, and that’s when she’d been discussing a problem with Erin.”

  “What kind of a problem?”

  “She wouldn’t say, and I didn’t feel I could pry. Indigo asked me to join her in a drink and I couldn’t refuse. I wanted to keep my eye on her. Once she’d had one drink, she opened up to me more about her relationship with Erin. I didn’t realise they’d been so close. Indigo had needed Erin’s help with all the technology that’s used at the spa, and Erin needed someone to talk to when she had things on her mind.”

  Julia asked, “What kind of things? Oh, I suppose Indigo couldn’t tell you.”

  “She did, after a while. She said Erin had come to her a few months ago and had been extremely distraught. She had uncovered something and it had something to do with her past. She was in a dilemma as she didn’t know whether to go to the police or not. Indigo encouraged her to talk about the specifics of her problem, but Erin said the time wasn’t right, but she would tell Indigo everything soon.

  “Indigo kept an eye on Erin and could see something was bothering her even more in the last few weeks. When she approached Erin, all she would say is that she was dealing with it. She didn’t want to get Indigo involved. And then Erin was murdered. Indigo feels so guilty about not being there for Erin. She told me she should have forced Erin to tell her what was bothering her. They could have found a solution together.” Mum shook her head. “Poor Indigo, she feels terrible. She had another drink before deciding to go to her room. I had to help her to her feet. She was so unsteady that I had to take her to her room too. That’s when she started crying again. Her room was right next door to Erin’s.”

  Julia hated to ask, but she knew she had to. “Which room was that?”

  Mum told her. “Why do you want to know?”

  Julia told her about overhearing Lori’s telephone conversation in the garden. “Gemma wants to see who’s visiting her room at eight o’clock. And so do I.”

  Mum frowned. “Do you think Lori had something to do with Erin’s death?”

  “She isn’t upset about Erin dying. She seems almost happy a
bout it.”

  “It’s funny you should mention Lori. When I took Indigo back to her room, she said she often heard Lori shouting at Erin in their room. Lori would yell at her for being in the way. She said Erin needed to get a social life and to get out of the spa and find some friends. Indigo told me Lori said that because she wanted to bring her male friends back to the room. Erin put in a request to move rooms, but Sienna wouldn’t allow it.”

  “Why not? I thought she cared about the welfare of her staff.”

  Mum shrugged. “Indigo doesn’t like Lori, that much is obvious. Be careful if you’re going to go snooping around her.”

  “I will do. Unless you want me to stay with you?”

  “No, thank you. Indigo has organised a twilight walk for our group this evening, but I don’t know if she’ll be in a fit state to go. Her eyes were already starting to close when I took her into her room. I hope she’ll be okay. I might check on her later.” Mum yawned. “I can’t believe I’m tired again. I think I need another nap before dinner. What time are we going down?”

  “I said we’d meet Gemma at 6:30. Is that alright with you?”

  Mum gave her a sleepy nod and said, “I think I’ll close my eyes for a while. Will you wake me up ten minutes before we’re due to leave? Thanks. And, Julia, will you take this DVD away from me? I don’t like the idea of Harry’s face so close to mine while I’m asleep.”

  Julia took the DVD and closed the curtains on the way out of Mum’s room. She left the adjoining door ajar. She put the DVD on top of the TV and then took a quick shower.

  When she came out, she noticed she had a new text. It was from Cain :

  ‘There’s something funny on those photos you sent me. I recognised someone in the background. They used to visit one of the inmates when I was in prison. Have a lovely evening. We’re off to the pub quiz now. I hope there are some questions on Roman Britain, I’ve been studying that. Bye.’