Page 36 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir

‘He was with me all of last night and most of today. He only went out hunting – I don’t know – an hour ago? I could try ringing him but he doesn’t get much of a signal in the woods. Oh God, I wish his father was here! This is terrible.’

‘Honestly, it’s fine,’ Yanni reassured her. ‘He’s not being arrested; we’re just trying to follow up all the leads we can.’

‘I bet it was Jennifer’s brothers pointing fingers, wasn’t it? Of course it was. They’re the ones that had a real problem with Jennifer dating Toby. The youngest brother particularly – but then, that one’s had it rough. His mother isn’t much of a mother, if you see what I mean, but Warren has tried his hardest with all of them. He’s a great role model, teaching them the real values in life, making them work like he did. Gosh, poor Jennifer. I can’t imagine how she’s coping with this.’ She sighed. ‘You know, I was sure she and Toby would get back together once the anger about that merperson incident had died away.’

It was a lot of things to share in one breath but somehow Selena had done it.

‘The thing is, we still need to talk to Toby,’ Yanni said gently. ‘Just to confirm where he was.’

‘I already told you he was with me last night and this morning. I can prove it to you. I’ve got video tapes, security around the house, you know.’

‘You have security cameras?’ I interjected, surprised. Why on earth would she have cameras in a cosy little seaside village? I bit my lip immediately after the question left me. I’d managed to stay silent, but that little titbit had got me. After all, it was a tiny house and it didn’t look like it had much worth stealing.

‘Nothing elaborate – it’s an old system,’ Selena said. ‘I had it put in after Toby was born when that sorceress tried stealing that teenager. You might have been too young to remember the incident,’ she said to me.

Blood rushed in my ears. I remembered it all too well.

Yanni looked at me sympathetically, but I gave Selena my best bland smile and did my best not to reveal how much the comment bothered me. ‘Yes, I remember it,’ I said as evenly as I could.

‘None of us felt safe after that dreadful incident. So many deaths.’ She clutched a hand to her heart again. ‘A lot of us were scared for our kids so we put in additional safety measures.’

‘We’ll need to check the footage,’ Yanni said. ‘Can you let us know when Toby gets back? If it’s late tonight, ringing the station tomorrow morning will be fine. Beatrix will answer the phone,’ she added pointedly, implying I’d actually have to do the job I’d been employed to do at some point. Outrageous.

‘Toby is going to be so upset for Jennifer.’ Selina took a deep breath. ‘He usually heads out to work with his dad about nine, so it’ll be before then.’

Yanni nodded. ‘That would be great.’

Damn, I thought grumpily. There went any chance of a later start tomorrow, then. I despised early starts.

This job wastemporary, but it was really chafing at me not to be running my own business. I appreciated Maddie sorting me out with an income whilst I sorted out the Eternal Flame situation, but if I stayed here much longer I’d have to think seriously about advertising my PI services in the local paper,The Cove Chronicle.

‘Thank you for your time,’ Yanni said, standing to leave.

Eva nuzzled Selena Brown pointedly, and a small smile crept onto her face, ‘Aren’t you a dear,’ she murmured, giving her a quick hug. It might be wrong to trust a dog’s reaction but Eva had taken so well to Toby’s mum that it made me think her son probably wasn’t involved in the murder. Still, Yanni was right: we had to follow the evidence.

Selena agreed to get her husband, Darren, to bring us the footage from the security cameras first thing tomorrow. As we left the house, I did a quick scout around. Now that I was looking for them, I found the two cameras mounted on the house easily, one at the front, one at the back. The problem was that their coverage wasn’t complete; there were a few blind spots. If Toby had been determined to sneak away unspotted by the cameras, I reckoned he could have done so.

Eva stayed hot on my heels. I opened the car door for her to jump in, then hesitated. Yanni was done for the day butI wasn’t, not quite. I looked at Eva and closed the car door again. She sat down at my feet.

‘Yanni,’ I said casually, ‘we’re not far from Shingle’s End, are we?’ That was where Old Jacobson’s lived, the hermit witch that Mrs D had told me about. The one who might be able to help Maddie and me.

‘Shingle’s End?’ Yanni sounded surprised. ‘Well, no – you’re on the right side of the village. Probably half an hour’s walk. Why?’

‘Oh, I fancied going for a bit of a stroll. You know, reminiscing about my time here,’ I lied.

She frowned at me. ‘Are you sure? It’s a bit of a trek back home.’

‘Eva could use a proper walk. I think I owe her at least an hour or so.’ Eva thumped her tail in agreement.

‘Okay, I’ll leave you here,’ Yanni said. ‘See you at the office bright and early tomorrow.’ Her words had an edge; she knew how well I did with early starts.

I hid a wince. ‘Absolutely. See you at the office bright and early,’ I repeated.

I watched her drive away then figuratively rolled up my sleeves. It was time to look into one of my other investigations – namely, getting back the Eternal Flame.

Chapter Twenty-Four

The sky was grey and from the way the leaves were flurrying from the trees, a breeze was picking up. It was probably quite chilly but I didn’t feel cold; I never tended to feel the cold that much. I sometimes wondered if it was a side effect of growing up in a house with an Eternal Flame; maybe it had left me forever warm.

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