The Hayley Argent Mysteries, Books 1 - 4

by Ruby Loren

  “Is everything okay?” Hayley asked, thinking back to that morning when the Inspector had called.

  Miles waved a hand. “Oh, yes, all fine. They just wanted to double check a couple of things but I’m being let off with a slap on the wrist.”

  “That’s good,” Hayley said, dusting hay from her jodhpurs and walking with Miles towards the house. The square paned windows were lit invitingly and the rough stone exterior always reminded Hayley of a childhood spent looking around National Trust properties. She still couldn't believe that she had an apartment in the huge house.

  “I had an application today form a big, big client. They want to send all of their yearlings to us in order to be broken in and they specified that they want you to oversee it all.” Miles smiled as he walked into the main kitchen area and opened the fridge, lifting out a large chocolate cake.

  “That's what we’re celebrating?” Hayley asked and Miles hesitated.

  “Well, no… I haven’t even said yes to them yet because I wanted to ask you what you thought first. It’ll be taking on a lot and I doubt you'll have time to help out with the next lot of retreats but that’s okay, I was thinking I should get my hands a bit dirtier anyway. I’m sure I can come up with enough useful knowledge of some kind to throw together a seminar. It won’t have your selling points of course…”

  “You should talk about running a horse business! It's what you’re amazing at,” Hayley jumped in and Miles actually blushed.

  “Well, I suppose that is what I know most about.” He shook his head. “Anyway, back to the point, that's all undecided…”

  "I say we do it! It sounds like a good client to have to me," Hayley added and Miles nodded, bringing the cake over to the table. “Sorry, you had something to say?” Hayley suddenly remembered, realising she was jumping all over Miles.

  “Yes.... uh… the cake. The cake is my completely premature and overly hopeful way of celebrating something you might not actually say yes to.” He smiled awkwardly and Hayley started to feel nervous. This wasn’t going to be another declaration of love, was it? “Even if you do say no, can you really go wrong with cake?” He waved a hand. “I’m just procrastinating now. I wanted to ask if you would consent to officially becoming my business partner. What I mean to say is, right now you have shares in the business itself but I’d love for you to have half of it all. I want to set up the accounts so everything is split halfway and we really run this thing together. I don’t want you to think of me as an employer, I want us to make all the decisions together and for you to be an equal." He paced up and down next to the table. “I’m not sure if you realise, but most of our new clients are coming here because of you. I may have all these big dreams and plans for the business but it’s the way you work with horses that is building our stable’s reputation. I’ve even looked into finding a way so you could gradually put money in and own half the stables, land, and house too. That's only if you would like to do that. I completely understand if you don’t want to stay living here and have no interest in owning anything. I just don't need this big house and it would really be fifty-fifty then…”

  “I'd love to. I love it here," Hayley said.

  “Now, there's no need to decide now… Oh!” Miles realised what she'd just said and his face split into a grin.

  Hayley smiled back. “These past couple of months, I’ve realised that this is where I belong after all. It’s amazing hearing that people appreciate the way I work with horses and I would love to be a fifty-fifty sort of partner, but Miles… this is your family's property!”

  He waved a hand. “Well, that’s the benefit of being the last surviving member of your family. You can do what you like with the inheritance. Perhaps one day I’ll have kids of my own to pass things along to, but I know I won’t regret this. We work well together in business and I hope also as friends.”

  "Of course we’re friends! Now stop being so formal and cut me some cake,” Hayley said, still smiling as she reached for the icing and was slapped away.

  “Well, here's to our future business together!” Miles said, handing her a generous wedge, as only a true friend would.

  “So much better than toasting with champagne,” Hayley said with a wry smile, remembering the gift that was still sitting forgotten in the tack room.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Unlocking The Truth

  There was a knock on Hayley's door at six in the morning. She frowned in the darkness and lamented the winter lack of light. Her skin immediately prickled as she noted the time and wondered who on earth could be calling at this hour. Had something bad happened?

  “Hayley, can I come in?” Shaun was stood on her doorstep, looking as though he hadn’t slept a wink.

  Hayley moved aside to let him in. "Are you okay?” She asked, suddenly fearful that this was a breakup visit.

  “No, not really,” he said, slumping down into a faded armchair which had been in the apartment when Hayley arrived. “It’s this bloody case! I just can’t get a handle on it. I’ve looked through background checks, the works! I now know that Becky lost her sister in a road accident at Halloween… which explains why Chris said that it was a bad time for them all when he and Kali got together. It wasn’t just because of the break up. I know that Jude’s aunt was an olympic gymnast, which doesn’t seem to have any relevance at all to the case. I’ve read that couples’ questionnaire with Chris’s answers on so many times I think I know Chris better than Kali ever could, or probably would have wanted to and still… nothing is making sense!” He sat back and Hayley moved over to pat him on the shoulder.

  “There, there,” she said, wondering if there was some protocol for comforting a disheartened detective that she didn’t know about. “Hey, there’s chocolate cake in the fridge! It was, er, someone's birthday,” she improvised, figuring that it probably wasn't the best time to launch into her own huge leap forwards into becoming a full partner at the stables.

  “Birthday cake might help,” Shaun admitted and then froze. “Hang on a minute, that’s it! Oh. Oh no! Well, that’s awful! But I think it’s right.”

  “What is it?” Hayley asked, baffled by his sudden transformation.

  “I know who did it and why… the how too. I've solved the case! There’s just one more thing to check, but it has to be…” He grabbed Hayley’s laptop off the table and typed a few things before slamming the lid shut triumphantly. “Alright, let’s go.”

  He stood up and walked to the door before hesitating. “Er, are the hens still here? I’ve sort of lost track,” he admitted.

  Hayley nodded. “Yes, they leave first thing today.”

  “Great, if you could get Miles up, that would be brilliant. I’ll call for backup and we’ll meet in the woods in 15 minutes!” He dashed out of the door and Hayley was left, still blinking sleep from her eyes.

  Something told her it was going to be an eventful day.

  ***

  “And this all had to happen at ridiculous ‘o’ clock in the morning,” Miles muttered as he and Hayley walked up the frosty track towards the woods. A freezing mist still coated the fields, but the sunshine was already starting to break through and it hinted that it would be a cold, but beautiful day.

  It nice day to catch a killer.

  “Ah, good, we’re all here together,” Shaun said when they walked through the trees. Hayley accidentally made eye contact with Jasmine, who immediately crossed her arms and threw her a dirty look. Hayley looked away again, figuring it was far too early to be fanning the flames of their feud.

  Shaun walked further into the trees towards the barn, where the hens were just finishing their last breakfast together. They all looked up as the police presence approached and the woods grew silent as Shaun took his place at the head of the table and began to speak.

  “The key to this case is to do with timing. Once you’ve worked that out, everything else falls into place.” He smiled around the table but no one smiled back. “You see, the heated bath water made it very difficu
lt to determine the window of time when the victim drowned. We noticed that the candles, with an eight hour lifespan, burned down when the victim was discovered at eight in the morning, which put our time of death at around midnight.”

  “But we were all in bed then!” Jude protested and Shaun nodded.

  “Yes, you were! The CCTV proves it. This is what bothered me for a long time and I finally realised that the only answer could be that we had got the time of death wrong - but how? The candles seemed like a good marker but the table salt residue left on the side of the bath told a different story. I knew that somehow those candles hadn’t been telling us the whole truth and a quick internet search confirmed that adding salt to candles extends their life. I couldn’t say for sure, as there was no evidence, but I’ve also heard freezing candles can do the same thing. Our murderer knew this little trick and used the candles to make us think Kali died after you'd all gone to bed, when really… she was already dead while you were still up drinking.”

  “We were all drinking together! None of us went anywhere,” Freya spoke up but Jasmine tilted her head and crossed her arms.

  “Can you honestly say that none of you went to the toilet during that time?” She said and Freya looked unsure. They had been drinking through the day by their own admission. Loo breaks had probably been quite plentiful.

  “Two minutes was all it took for the killer to drown poor Kali,” Shaun continued. “When we first looked at the crime scene, we found something that didn't seem to fit. It was a rubber reins stop used for a particular type of reins, but there was only one found and they usually come in pairs. We wondered if it had been left there accidentally, perhaps fallen out of someone’s bag on a past visit, but I think it was there for a different reason. Ms Robson… Becky, I think you put in in there when you visited Kali earlier that day to ask her to come to the jacuzzi.”

  Becky's mouth fell open but no words came out.

  “It’s an old burglar’s trick. You wedge something in the lock and the door still shuts but you can come back later and let yourself in. When you leave, you’re meant to take the evidence with you, but Becky didn’t have time! The reins stop must have fallen off and bounced away, only to be found by us later.”

  “You just accused Becky," Jude said, cutting through the tension.

  Shaun blinked. “Yes, I did. Becky is the bridesmaid who drowned Kali."

  “What! Kali was my best friend. Why would I want to kill her?” The blonde woman said, pushing herself to her feet.

  “Because she lied to you and you feel that she is the reason why your sister is dead.”

  Everyone stared at Shaun. “I said before that this murder was all about timing. The murderer used sleight of hand to make it look like the murder was committed at a different time, but it was an error of timing that was what gave you, Becky, the motive. It was an innocent questionnaire that finally revealed the truth to you. One of the questions was ‘when did you first kiss?’. I don’t know what Kali’s answer was to that but Chris wrote his answer down, plain as day. He wrote that they first kissed at Kali’s birthday celebrations, on midsummer’s eve." He looked up at Becky who was frozen, staring at the table. “Only, you were still together with Chris then, weren't you? He didn’t break up with you until Halloween. That was when your sister was killed, driving down to see you. I assume she was coming to comfort you because of the break up?”

  A single tear slid down Becky’s cheek. “They were laughing behind my back… for years! All this time they never told me. If Chris had had the guts to own up to cheating on me, or if Kali had kept her hands off, my sister would still be alive!" She looked up at the Inspector with anger in her eyes. “My best friend just carried on as normal, like nothing happened. How could she live with herself?”

  “Becky…” Freya started to say, horrified, but the other woman jerked away, pushing herself to her feet as a uniformed officer moved in to handcuff her.

  “She shouldn’t get to live and be happy while my sister is gone. I wouldn’t let her,” Becky said before they led her away.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Progress

  “Well, that was an eventful morning. I wonder when the press will be arriving,” Miles said when they’d returned to the house. He sunk down behind his desk with his head in his hands. “I mean, do you think the other two will stay quiet, or is this going to become some gossip mag story?”

  “Miles, you should probably reconsider your priorities,” Hayley kindly warned and he frowned before rubbing a hand through his hair.

  “Yes, quite. Awful business!” His mouth quirked up. “How’s that?”

  Hayley rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen to cut off another couple of slices of their celebration cake. “Well, you probably won’t win ‘Mr Empathy Worldwide’ anytime soon, but at least you’re not a murderer.”

  Miles shot her a sideways look, taking his plate of cake. “Thanks for putting that into perspective for me.”

  “Welcome,” Hayley said with a smile, as she settled down to eat.

  “I just mean, do you think it’s a bad idea to carry on with these retreats? I meant what I said about it all being a little bit grim. I got rid of the tents the last time, partially because I wanted to upgrade but, yes, a body in one of the beds also seemed less than appealing.”

  Hayley shrugged. “People die in beds all the time! There shouldn’t be such a stigma.”

  “Yes, people die natural deaths! None of this was natural! Sleeping in the same place as someone who was violently murdered is never going to be a top selling point of a luxury retreat.”

  Hayley grinned into her chocolate cake. “Sorry, just playing devil’s advocate. You do have a point, but don’t get rid of the bathtub or anything like that! If we’re lucky, the full details won’t come out and even if they do, well… we’ll just see a slightly different clientele,” she said with a small smile.

  Miles pouted. He’d said before that he didn’t want to cater to any creepy horror seekers. “Well, we'll see. I just wanted to have a nice business for nice people who like nice, luxurious things. Is that too much to ask?” He said and Hayley snorted. “What?”

  “Oh, Miles, it will all be fine. Everything is going well at the moment and it's not even the high season. I’m sure your horse business seminars will pull in the more business-minded retreaters and as soon as the warmer weather hits, this place is the perfect location. It’s beautiful here and you’ve done wonders with that woodland! You should be very proud of what you've achieved and I know it’s only going to get better,” she told him. “Don’t let a set back make you want to give up.”

  “Well, I do actually have a few ideas on how we can grow the retreats even more. I was thinking…” He trailed off when he saw Hayley’s Cheshire Cat grin. “What? I just needed a second opinion! I knew it would be okay, really. That's what you’re here for, right, business partner?”

  “Right,” Hayley confirmed with another smile.

  ***

  “I am ready for my update.” Ollie Townsby smiled at Hayley, as she nearly walked past him leaning up against the wood-clad stable.

  Hayley was tempted to ask him why he couldn’t call ahead but mentally shrugged it off. Ollie liked to do things his way. “Well, I have made a bit of progress…” She filled him in on her female theory and he admitted that he couldn’t remember any other women coming into contact with Waxwing.

  “There’s one other thing. I might have a rider for you. She’s young, but her parents are racehorse owners so she’s grown up around horses all her life. Waxwing loves her and I’ve been letting her ride him so I can train them as an instructor would. I hope that’s okay,” she said, wondering if she should have run it by the owner first. It had been an impulsive decision, which Hayley had only been too happy to see through once Lana’s parents had watched her ride and approved it.

  "I did hear something about another rider,” Ollie admitted and Hayley raised an eyebrow at him only to be flashed that white smile. �
��I never reveal my secrets, remember?”

  “Well now you know why I didn’t ask,” Hayley said, rather smugly.

  There was a brief moment of silence, as Ollie looked at her thoughtfully from his place against the stables. “I thought about sending you something else, you know, after that present. I thought maybe it was just because you managed to ride my hell horse, but I think you’ve stuck around in my head for another reason.”

  Hayley blinked as Ollie took a step closer, his handsome jawline level with her nose. “I think we should probably stick to talking about the horse,” she said, as carefully as she could.

  A sideways smile pulled at Olli’s lips and he stopped moving towards her. “I guess you’re right. So, there's a lucky guy already, is there? I should have guessed.”

  Hayley started walking towards Waxwing’s stable with Ollie next to her. Her thoughts flew to the Inspector and she wondered if they were even still together. If she was honest, she had no clue where she stood! That morning she'd been sure he’d come to say something important, only for him to solve the case instead. She shook her head, a smile on her lips as she remembered how animated he’d become when he’d worked it out. That was one of the things she loved most about Shaun.

  Oh.

  “So, what do you recommend next for Waxwing?” Ollie asked, pulling her back into the present.

  “Well, you should come and watch Lana ride him and see what you think. Although, if you did want to ride him yourself, I think we can work on that too. He’s calmer now and I think he's starting to trust more people.”

  Ollie took a cautious step forwards and Hayley held her breath as Waxwing eyeballed him. He flicked his ears back in warning but didn’t lunge forwards or try to kick the door down.