by Anita Waller
‘Hey, you,’ Kat laughed, and grabbed the wriggling little girl. ‘I love you, too.’
Mouse’s office door opened and she wandered through, holding her mobile phone to her ear. She spoke, her voice soft. ‘I’ll be there, I promise. And of course I’ll invite my two partners. This is one brilliant amalgamation, and we’ll all be happy to share in the celebrations. Bye, Joel.’ She listened for a moment longer, then giggled, before disconnecting.
‘Something we should know?’ Doris asked.
‘Oh, that was Joel. He wants the three of us to go to Manchester next week. They’re having a big launch to celebrate the amalgamation of Connection with them. He said it looks good if all the partners are there, so that we can spread ourselves around to talk to people. We could potentially pick up more business from this, because it’s the top companies who will be attending.’
Doris smiled. ‘Can I just point out to you two numbskulls yet again, that I am not a partner, not even an employee.’
Kat and Mouse turned to each other and smiled.
‘Okay, Nan, there’s something we want to talk to you about,’ Mouse said.
‘About you not being a partner…’ Kat followed on.
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Acknowledgements
There are many people to thank for being involved in some way with the production of this book. Firstly I have to thank Bloodhound Books, particularly Fred and Betsy Freeman for their continued faith in me, and also for the staff members who never fail to come up with answers to queries: Sumaira Wilson, Alexina Golding, Heather Fitt and Tara Lyons. Thank you one and all.
During the writing lifetime of Murder Unearthed, I ran several competitions where the winners got to be mentioned in the book – my grateful thanks go to Marnie Harrison, Nadine Bond, Mandy Williamson, Alyson Read and – accidentally – Sue Rowe. Sue Rowe didn’t win anything, she simply happened to have the same name as a character who has been in all three of the Kat and Mouse books, so I couldn’t change the name! I contacted her, explained the situation, and she was more than happy to be in the book. Problem solved!
In addition to competition winners, I also need to thank others who allowed me to use their names: Siân Dawson and Lucie Davison.
The name for Little Mouse Cottage was another competition won by Kim Howell. Thank you, Kim, it was so right.
ARC group members, who read my manuscript before it goes live on Amazon, are such an essential part of my book launch. Thank you so much ladies and gentlemen, your reviews during the first two days are so essential and so amazing.
Sarah Hodgson is my one beta reader. She sees the book before anyone, but with this one it caused some stress, which created laughter in me but not in Sarah. I sent her the book up to the end of chapter thirty-seven, and asked her if she knew who the murderer was. She didn’t (which was the point of the exercise) but she also didn’t have the rest of the book. Thank you, Sarah, you’re a star.
My editor, Morgen Bailey, is more than worthy of my thanks. She takes my manuscript, demolishes it and sticks it back together with consummate ease, sends me reams of notes explaining why she has done it, and then puts little ticks where I get something right, to make me feel better. I love her. Thank you, Morgen with an e.
And finally a massive thank you to everybody who has read Murder Undeniable, Murder Unexpected and now Murder Unearthed. This is the end of my trilogy, but… there will be a fourth and final book for Kat, Mouse and Doris. This is planned for an October 2019 release. Your response to my change in genre has been overwhelming, but I haven’t forgotten the psychological thriller aficionados out there – there will be a new book at the beginning of 2020!
Anita Waller
March 2019
For Jim and Marjorie Waller,
remembered with so much love.
The best in-laws I could possibly have had.
The truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression.
It is possible to lie, and even to murder, for the truth.
Problems of Neurosis (1929, ch.2)
Alfred Adler, 1870-1937
Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist
1
For Doris Lester, it had been a difficult night of dreams, not all good, and to make matters worse, around twelve inches of snow had fallen during the dark hours; expected according to the weather forecast, but not really believed.
Doris had known before she’d even put a foot out of bed. There had been that curious stillness that comes with snowfall, that odd white glow permeating into the room.
And then had come the phone call from granddaughter Mouse, sounding far too awake to be true. ‘Nan, don’t even think about driving in. That little thing you call a car will turn into a sledge if you try to drive down that steep hill from the cottage. Will you be able to walk down to the main road? I’ll collect you from there.’
‘Of course, but maybe we should think about having another day off…?’
‘Not a chance,’ Mouse laughed. ‘I can’t wait to get back in that office. Do you realise the twenty-third of December to the second of January is nine whole days of inactivity? We have stuff to do. I’ve already been down and put on the heating, so, as planned, we’re back today.’
‘We’re not going sledging then?’
‘You’re too old. Now, get your breakfast and give me a ring when you’re ten minutes away from setting off. And take care.’
‘What about Kat?’
‘Already spoken to her. She took Martha to Nanny Enid’s last night, so she says she’ll walk down.’
‘Okay,’ Doris said, abandoning all hopes of a day beside her roaring fire with a book. ‘And take care, there’s some proper numpties driving around Derbyshire these days. They get a four-by-four and think they’re invincible.’
‘We are,’ Mouse said with a laugh.
Doris disconnected and wandered around trying to get her brain into gear – working with Kat Rowe and Mouse for the past year following what she thought of as her own annus horribilis when her granddaughter had been shot, had taken ten years off her, given Doris some of her youth back. Except at eight o’clock on a snowy morning.
The three of them had bonded to such an extent that even Kat now called her Nan, and the closeness had tightened with the shooting of Kat’s husband, Leon. The forming of Connection, their investigation agency, had brought something good out of something bad, and today was going to be a good day. It hadn’t been anticipated, but an agreement had been reached.
The toaster popped, and Doris smiled as she walked towards it. A bit of snow wasn’t going to stop their plans – not according to Mouse, anyway.
Mouse collected Doris an hour later, and drove with the considerable skill and care required on that whiteout of a day. The journey to Eyam hadn’t been easy; Kat had already arrived, having taken the easy method of walking.
Mouse was excited. Today was Nan’s first day as a partner in the business, and the meeting was to determine how they could reconfigure the layout of the office premises to give Doris a consulting room of her own, and still leave a reception area.
They would then bring in builders and work from Mouse’s flat above the office until the construction and redecoration was finished. Today was discussion day. A bit of snow – well, okay, Mouse conceded to herself, twelve inches or so – wasn’t going to bring Connection to a snow-bound halt.
Kat opened the door for them and they stamped around outside, trying to remove the unwelcome white stuff from their boots before trailing it into the office.
‘Morning,’ Kat said with a smile. Her own cheeks were still rosy from the walk down through the village. ‘Hot chocolate?’
They nodded, and Kat went into her own office to prepare the drinks while Mouse and Doris took off their many layers of clothes.
‘Let’s live in Derbyshire,’ Mouse grumbled as she walked through. ‘It’s a lovely place, very picturesque, we’ll like it there
. Which plank said all of that without thinking about mountains of snow?’
‘You did, my love,’ Doris said.
‘Did I?’
‘You did indeed. It was about the point where you saw this flat with the shop underneath.’
‘Is it always this bad, Kat?’ Mouse asked.
‘This isn’t bad,’ Kat responded. ‘Things are still getting through, so at least we’re not at the stage where we’re cut off from the rest of the world. I imagine Buxton is wiped out; they always get more snow than us.’
‘Then let’s hope any business we may pick up from the Buxton area is confined to the summer.’ Mouse stood in the doorway of her office, took off her bobble hat and launched it towards her coat stand. It landed on the windowsill and she sighed. One day…
On the top of her filing cabinet stood two large rolls of paper, and she gathered them up before going into Kat’s office. The bigger desk in there would come in handy on this most auspicious day.
Hot chocolates were handed around, and Mouse rolled out the first of the two papers, laying it on the desk and commandeering staplers and pen tubs to hold down the four corners.
‘Okay,’ she said, ‘this is what I’ve spent Christmas doing. This is our space as it is now. The measurements are as exact as I can get them, and I think you’ll see just how much space we’re wasting by having such a big reception area. We can easily fit three offices in here, and still have a small reception. I don’t think we need to move the shop door, because the third office would be at the same side of this space as Kat’s. If we move Kat’s door up towards my office by around a metre, the wall for the third office space can start here.’ She leaned across and drew a small mark.
Kat and Doris stared at the complex drawing.
‘You’ve spent Christmas doing this?’ Doris asked.
‘Not all Christmas, but some of it.’ There was a faint blush of colour suddenly apparent on Mouse’s face.
Neither Kat nor Doris made any comment about what she was probably doing when she wasn’t drawing on the sheets of paper.
Mouse removed the staplers and pens holding down the corners and rolled the paper up. ‘This,’ she said with a flourish, ‘is the plan if we agree to put the third office next to Kat’s.’ Mouse repeated the anchoring procedure for the corners, and they all leaned over.
‘This is the sensible way. It means the only alteration to the existing layout as far as Kat and I are concerned is that the office door will have to be removed and repositioned in the end of her wall. It will give you more space inside your office, Kat, because you’ll have the additional length of wall. I have no idea why we put the door there in the first place, it doesn’t make any sense, but we did. The other alternative, which will be much more costly, is to rip everything out and start from scratch. It will also delay our getting back in here. Thoughts?’ She sat down, sipping at her drink.
‘Firstly, I’m impressed,’ Doris said. ‘I’m assuming this new office will be clad to match the rest? And what about the reception desk?’
‘I think we can cut the existing one down, and spin it around so that the receptionist is facing the door, rather than the main window. It will be more welcoming.’
‘Have you shown these to anyone?’ Kat asked.
‘Only Joel.’
‘That’s answered what would have been my second question,’ Kat laughed, ‘but I meant had you shown them to a builder.’
The faint blush that had died down now appeared as definite rosy cheeks. ‘Walked straight into that, didn’t I. I’ve asked that builder from the top end of the village how quickly he could do it if we were to approach him, and he says building work is dead after Christmas, so he could start next week. Stefan Patmore.’
Kat nodded. ‘He’s good. We had him for loads of stuff when we first moved in. I’m more than happy with him taking this on. You okay with this layout, Nan?’
‘I’m amazed at it. A bit overwhelmed, really. You must have started on this as soon as I agreed to be a partner, Mouse.’
‘No, before.’
‘But you didn’t know I would say yes…’
‘Nan,’ Kat spoke gently, ‘it wasn’t a request that you would formally join us in the business, it was more an instruction. So when this snow goes you need to be out there choosing a desk. All the paperwork should be back from the solicitors by the tenth of January, and then we’re good to go. There is one other thing we need to give some attention though. We won’t have a receptionist.’
‘School leaver?’ Mouse asked.
‘Mouse, it’s early January. Kids leave school in the summer.’ Nan frowned, giving thought to the issue. ‘We could approach a recruitment agency.’
‘Or we could stick a notice on the Co-op noticeboard with the job details and a contact phone number, stressing that local people will be given primary consideration,’ practical Kat said. ‘Put an age range of sixteen to eighteen, saying that full training will be given, and I bet we get a few applicants.’
‘See,’ Mouse said, ‘I knew we had Kat for a reason. Why didn’t we think of that, Nan?’
‘I didn’t because I’m still trying to get my head around me starting a new job at my age,’ Doris said. ‘But of course Kat is right. We want somebody local, not somebody who lives in Sheffield and wouldn’t be able to get here when it snows. When are we talking to the builder?’
‘I said I’d ring him as soon as we’d had the talk, and he’ll come down to see us straight away.’ She picked up the phone. ‘Okay to do it?’
‘Fine by me.’
‘And me.’
Stefan agreed that it was fine by him too. He pored over the drawings, scratched his head a couple of times, double-checked a measurement for the reception area and said it was good to go.
‘I’ll source the materials this week, but I think you should consider a vertical blind for this big window. Whoever is sitting at that reception desk is going to be in full view of everybody outside. With vertical blinds they can see out without feeling quite so exposed. Previously the desk was set back and that wouldn’t have been an issue.’
Doris quickly nodded her agreement. ‘You’re right. I was always aware of being on show, even though there was a desk between me and the window, so it will be much more uncomfortable with the desk right by it. You can organise that for us as well?’
‘I can, and I would recommend a cream colour. It won’t take away your light, and it will blend well with the office walls. If you’re all in agreement…?’
‘We are,’ Mouse said.
‘Then thank you. I’ll source the materials when I get home, cost it and speak to you tomorrow with the quote. It won’t be cheap because you can’t go cheap, you’re a class outfit, and there is an extra suggestion I want to make. In this new office, the way you’ve drawn it, the new part, Mrs Lester’s area, doesn’t have any natural light. I’m proposing we take that side wall only so far up the main window, create a window sill and put a smaller version of the vertical blind in that. That way there will be natural light, and Mrs Lester will be able to see outside. From the pavement it will simply look like two windows, a large shop one, and a smaller office one.’
Mouse smiled at Stefan. ‘You’re saying, politely, that I’ll never be an architect? You’re right, of course. I hadn’t thought that one through fully, had I?’
He headed for the door. ‘I’ll get back to you sometime tomorrow, ladies. I have to tell you though, that if you expand the workforce any more, you’ll have to move. You can’t squeeze another office in this building.’
He took the two drawings with him, and set off to walk back up the hill, leaving his three new customers to sit down with a thud around Kat’s desk.
‘Do we want other quotes?’ Mouse asked.
‘I don’t think so,’ Doris said slowly, thoughtfully. ‘Kat recommends him, which is good enough for me, and he’s giving me a window. And he’s local, which is something I think is important. I’ve written out a job advert for the rece
ptionist, so I’ll take it across to the Co-op and put it on their noticeboard. Okay by you two?’
They agreed, and Kat stood to wash out the four cups. ‘Then let’s go home. There’s nobody about, we’ve done what needed to be done, and it’s started snowing again.’
‘Nan, are you staying at mine?’ Mouse looked concerned. ‘If this carries on, you’ll be stuck at the top of that hill. I’d rather you be here with me.’
Doris held up her bag. ‘Book and knickers in here, already thought this one through, my lovely. Are you cooking our evening meal?’
2
For most of the three weeks that it took for the alterations to be completed, Kat, Mouse and Doris worked in Mouse’s flat. They had received three responses to their receptionist advertisement, two girls and a boy, and had scheduled them for the Thursday of the third week, hoping that most of the noise would have stopped by then, and finishing touches would be underway.
They had initially decided that only one of them would do the interviewing; it would keep any feelings of intimidation at bay. It was only after considerable thought that they decided all three needed to be there. If any of the applicants felt put off by three ladies sitting at the other side of a desk, they wouldn’t be up to the job anyway.
The first interviewee was a seventeen-year-old girl who had no confidence at all. She was competent on a computer to school level, but hadn’t continued with education after leaving at sixteen, and had no plans to do so. They thanked her and said they would let her know by the end of the day.
The second applicant was completely the opposite; bright, bubbly and a true chatterbox. With jet-black spiky hair, and an overuse of make-up, she looked horrified at the idea that she might have to tone it down, but assured them that she would do so if she was lucky enough to get the position. She left and blew all three of them a kiss as she walked out the door.