by Clare Chase
At last, he sighed. ‘We’ll start by contacting suppliers of dead bees.’
‘Suppliers? Who the—’
‘I understand they’re quite widely available over the internet. People use them for alternative therapies. I’m hoping your sicko hasn’t thought to cover their tracks too carefully.’
But Tara had a nasty feeling they would have. No one had managed to track them down back when they’d first tormented her.
‘What about the note?’ Blake said. ‘Do you know what they mean by call off the dogs? You haven’t been doing any investigating yourself?’
The idea had occasionally crossed Tara’s mind, but things had been quiet for so long. Digging into the past had begun to seem self-destructive.
‘I haven’t. Nor done anything that would lead anyone to think that I might have.’
Blake frowned.
‘It’s a local postmark, just like it was before.’
‘I noticed.’
At that moment Harry came in and put coffees down in front of them.
‘Thanks.’ Blake and Tara spoke over each other in the instant before Harry dashed out again.
‘We can be guided by you on this,’ Blake said. ‘Which way you want to play it – how you want us to dig.’ His tone was formal, almost distant. It contrasted with his physical closeness.
She nodded. Their differences and the stress of the past, opening up again where her future should be, made her feel uncharacteristically emotional. The champagne probably hadn’t helped. She bit the inside of her lip until it hurt. The threat of tears receded but the emotion and frustration behind them didn’t.
‘I think you’re still preoccupied with what I did before I overpowered Matthew Cope, despite that.’ She indicated the packet of bees. Her words had come involuntarily, quick and full of anger.
‘You’re damned right I am, Tara.’ His response was just as sudden and fiery.
‘I felt cut out – and that you were keeping me at arm’s length for personal reasons.’
‘And you think that makes it okay to storm off in a huff? You still don’t get it, do you?’ His voice rose, his tone harsh. ‘Going off to review evidence without telling the rest of us might seem like a small thing, but it had big consequences. It stopped us from backing you up and it put you and potentially Megan in danger. She’s right to be cross. I need you to understand why this matters – whatever your feelings are towards me and any other members of the team.’
She felt everything well up inside her: a massive boiling mix of stress, hurt and anger. But the anger was 90 per cent because she knew his comments were justified. She’d been too proud to admit she’d been at fault up until now. It would have been a hell of a lot easier if she’d been more adult about it from the start. She looked him straight in the eye. ‘I get it. Genuinely. I’m sorry.’
There was a long pause.
‘That’s good,’ Blake said at last. ‘It makes it less likely you’ll end up on Agneta’s post-mortem table – she’s busy enough as it is.’
She rolled her eyes.
He put his coffee down on the table next to the bees. She saw his hand move towards her, and, for a second, she thought he was going to reach out. In spite of what she’d said that day in the mill, she wanted him too. It was a reflex reaction. But in the end, he held back.
‘Megan asked the other day why I hadn’t told the team that Babette and I were expecting a second child.’
Tara couldn’t imagine Megan asking any such thing.
‘The truth is, I didn’t know the situation myself, until Babs was three months gone.’ His dark eyes were on hers. ‘We hadn’t been trying for a baby – far from it. She told me the evening after you survived the fire. Kitty already knew.’
Tara sat absolutely still. What kind of relationship did Blake and his wife have? Why on earth would she tell his daughter before him? To make it harder for him to walk away? There was a hell of a lot about his family set-up she didn’t understand. Stuff he couldn’t share. She didn’t know what he was going through, half the time. And then there was the reason he’d worked this into the conversation, so that she knew the truth…
For a moment, neither of them spoke. The questions in her mind seemed to hang in the air. She got the impression that he half wanted to tell her more.
At last he sighed. ‘We’ll talk again about that,’ he indicated the envelope with the bees, ‘on Monday. But call me any time you’re worried in between, okay?’ His dark eyes were on hers. ‘It won’t be like last time, Tara. I won’t let it. We’ve all got your back.’
She nodded. The team thing went both ways. She should have treated them all with more respect. Tears threatened again as Blake got up to leave.
After she’d let him out, Tara went to join Harry in the kitchen.
‘You can tell Mum that people who live in Cambridge get dead bees delivered to them, so you’ve decided against uni here,’ she said.
Harry laughed but his expression was troubled. ‘I can’t believe you went through all that when you were my sort of age and I never even knew.’
‘Not family-dinner discussion material, I suppose.’
‘I guess not.’ Harry went to the window, from where they could see Blake’s retreating back as he cycled across the common, towards his home in Fen Ditton. ‘Is that your boss?’
Tara nodded. ‘For the time being.’
‘Were you and he arguing?’ There was a curious look in Harry’s eye.
‘He was telling me off.’
‘What a git.’
Tara gave him a flicker of a smile. ‘Thanks, but I deserved it.’
For a second her half-brother grinned. ‘I hate it when that happens. So he’s not a git then?’
Competing feelings struggled inside her – sadness mixed with warmth. Blake had wanted her to understand his predicament – at least enough to know he hadn’t led her up the garden path.
‘No,’ she said at last. ‘Definitely not a git.’
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Books by Clare Chase
Murder on the Marshes
Death on the River
Death Comes to Call
A Letter from Clare
Thank you so much for reading Death Comes to Call. I do hope you enjoyed it as much as I liked writing it! If you’d like to keep up to date with all of my latest releases, you can sign up at the following link. Your email address will never be shared, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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This particular book evolved entirely from the idea I had for the motive. I don’t want to give too much away, just in case anyone happens across this letter before they’ve finished the book, but it was inspired by a news story. Oddly, as I was editing the novel, another very relevant item hit the headlines. Perhaps you can guess which one I mean? The Cambridge backdrop was a bonus in this instance because the city is so compact. I feel almost everyone here is interconnected and that was useful for this story.
If you have time, I’d love it if you were able to write a review of Death Comes to Call. Feedback is really valuable, and it also makes a huge difference in helping new readers discover my books for the first time.
Alternatively, if you’d like to contact me personally, you can reach me via my website, Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram. It’s always great to hear from readers.
Again, thank you so much for deciding to spend some time reading Death Comes to Call. I’m looking forward to sharing my next book with you very soon.
With all best wishes,
Clare x
Acknowledgements
Very much love and thanks to Charlie, George and Ros – partly because I’d never miss the opportunity to say this when it presents itself, but also for the unstinting support, feedback and good humour in the face of mad panic. Much love and thanks also to my parents, and to Phil and Jenny, David and Pat, Warty, Andrea, the Westfield gang, Margaret, Shelly, Mark, Helen, Lorna and a whole band of family and friends.
Thanks also to the fabulous Bookouture authors and other writer mates both online and IRL for their support and insights. It makes so much difference. I’d also like to express massive appreciation to the book bloggers and reviewers who’ve taken the time to pass on their thoughts about my work.
And then, crucially, my heartfelt thanks to my wonderful editor Kathryn Taussig for all her inspiring feedback, as well as to Maisie Lawrence, Peta Nightingale, Alexandra Holmes, Fraser, Liz and everyone involved in the editing, book production and marketing process at Bookouture. And massive thanks as ever to Noelle Holten, who puts so much energy and enthusiasm into promoting my work, alongside the amazing Kim Nash. I feel hugely lucky to be published and promoted by such a wonderful team.
And finally, thanks to you, the reader, for buying or borrowing this book!
Death on the River
A Tara Thorpe Mystery Book 2
Order now!
Do you love absolutely gripping murder mysteries? Meet Tara Thorpe – she’s Cambridge Police’s newest recruit… but her dark past is never far behind her. Perfect for fans of Faith Martin, LJ Ross and Joy Ellis.
When a body is pulled from the dank and dangerous fens on the outskirts of town, everybody assumes it was a tragic accident. But Detective Tara Thorpe, newly joined and determined to prove herself, suspects there’s more to the story.
Tara is desperate to investigate further, but her supervisor Patrick Wilkins has other ideas. He would rather die than let this ambitious upstart show him up – even if it means some digging in Tara’s secret past to keep her under his thumb. After all, it’s not like he can report her – everyone knows that his boss Detective Garstin Blake and Tara have a history…
When another body is found, it becomes clear that there’s a killer on the loose. Could the murders be linked to the secrets that Tara has been keeping from her team… and can she solve the case before another innocent dies?
An unputdownable page-turner that will keep you hooked until the very last page!
Murder on the Marshes
A Tara Thorpe Mystery Book 1
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‘Wow what a book!… One of the best mysteries I have read! Loved it from start to finish and couldn't put it down! A masterpiece!’ Renita D’Silva, 5 stars
As the sun rises, a wealthy young woman – Samantha Seabrook – is found drowned in the ornamental fountain of a deserted Cambridge courtyard, the only clue – an antique silver chain wound tightly around her throat.
It’s Tara Thorpe’s job to discover what happened to Miss Seabrook – but the case becomes personal when she learns that Samantha had been receiving death threats… rather like the one that landed on Tara’s doorstep the night the woman died.
Together with Detective Inspector Garstin Blake, Tara tracks the killer to the dank and dangerous fens on the outskirts of the city. But there’s something Tara can’t quite admit to Blake about her past – and it could make all the difference to whether they live… or die.
An absolutely gripping page-turner that will keep you hooked until the very last page. Perfect for fans of Faith Martin, LJ Ross and Joy Ellis.
The first in a series of unputdownable Cambridge mysteries featuring Thorpe and Blake.
Available now!
Published by Bookouture in 2019
An imprint of StoryFire Ltd.
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
www.bookouture.com
Copyright © Clare Chase, 2019
Clare Chase has asserted her right to be identified
as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-78681-811-9
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.