‘A man called Theo. He works in CID at Glass Bay, or so Olivia said. He lives near Mermaid Point and only moved there two years ago. It’s good, as not too many people around here will know about him, so there will be less talk. I doubt he’ll tell me anything of interest though.’

  ‘You never know,’ Tanvi said. ‘He might if you turn on the charm. So, who do you think did the deed?’ she asked, picking up a whelk.

  ‘On the limited information I have, any one of them could be the murderer. Gosh, that word sounds so foreign.’ Shilpa speared a pink prawn on her fork and dipped it in the seafood sauce.

  ‘His fiancée Harriet has form from what you’ve said. She’s pretty obvious though. Same goes for her dad. Do you think it’s possible they could be in on it together? And the mother is hiding something, you say?’

  ‘A murderous family?’ Shilpa gave her friend a look.

  ‘Could be.’

  ‘Why would Harriet want to kill her fiancé? I get that her dad may have wanted rid of him, but the black widow stuff, I’m not sure I buy it.’ Shilpa took a sip of her wine. It was starting to make her feel light-headed. She tore off a piece of baguette and popped it in her mouth.

  ‘Have you spoken to her at all?’

  ‘No,’ said Shilpa.

  ‘You can’t rule her out yet then. Maybe you could arrange to bump into her with her new beau. We both could.’

  ‘So, you do fancy playing detective for a couple of weeks then?’

  ‘You could twist my arm,’ Tanvi said.

  ‘You can help with the baking as well. If I recall, you were pretty good at icing, and I think we have the perfect opportunity to meet Harriet and possibly Evan too.’ Shilpa heard her phone ring and bent down to retrieve it from her bag. She looked at the number, smiled and then answered. Minutes later after a few gushing thank yous she disconnected.

  ‘What was that all about?’ Tanvi asked.

  ‘That was Graham. The couple who live on the catamaran I was telling you about. They sorted out my car. Graham said that John looked at it and it’s pretty much sorted,’ Shilpa said, beaming. ‘He’s put the keys through my letterbox.’

  ‘What was wrong with it?’ Tanvi asked.

  Shilpa shrugged. ‘Graham didn’t really say. He muttered something about knowing about boats better than cars and who am I to judge.’

  ‘People are kind around here. Remember our old neighbours in London? I don’t think any of them would retrieve a broken-down car for us, never mind get it going again.’

  Shilpa smiled. ‘It is rather friendly in Devon.’

  ‘So, tell me,’ Tanvi said, soaking up the last of the sauce on her plate with a piece of bread. ‘What’s this perfect opportunity to snoop that you mentioned?’

  ‘Ah, that. Harriet’s dad’s digital chat service launch is tomorrow. I’m doing the cakes. I need to make fifty cupcakes at some point today. I was thinking a sweet lime flavour. I have several sweet limes in the fridge, and I need to use them. It was such an effort to source them, but I wanted to add something a little different to the Drews’ engagement cake. In the end I didn’t use them because Mrs Drew was so specific about what she wanted.’

  ‘Digital chat?’ Tanvi asked, with an eyebrow raised.

  ‘Where’s your mind? Pull it out of the gutter. He runs an accountancy firm.’

  ‘Things really are all straight-laced around here. I’ll help as long as you don’t order me around like my mum.’

  Shilpa put on her best Indian accent. ‘Beta, ice those cakes now. What are you looking at on your phone? Always on your phone. Phone, shmone. You’ll never find a husband on that device. What is it you’re looking at; Tinder? You need a Jatinder.’

  Tanvi laughed. She coughed and spluttered. ‘You’ve spent too much time in the kitchen with my mum.’

  ‘She taught me how to make gulab jamun and gajar ka halwa.’

  ‘And how are those Indian sweets going down with the Devon crowd?’ Tanvi asked.

  ‘I haven’t tried them, yet. But I’m getting there.’

  ‘You’re right about one thing though. I’ll never be wife material,’ Tanvi said, looking at her phone again. She put her knife and fork together on her plate and leaned back. ‘I’m stuffed. Couldn’t eat another morsel.’

  ‘I was mimicking your mum. Your mum, my mum, they all say the same thing. Is that Jason messaging you?’

  ‘Bet he’s taken Molly on our vacation.’

  Her friend was always so dramatic. She was about to say so when someone caught her eye.

  ‘Right…’ Tanvi said, but then trailed off. She followed her friend’s eyes, which were fixated in the distance behind her. ‘What?’ Tanvi said, turning around.

  ‘The woman who walked in,’ she whispered. ‘She was Mason’s ex.’

  ‘The one his mother met?’

  Shilpa shook her head as Izzy and her friend were seated behind Shilpa and Tanvi’s table. The waitress came over to clear their plates.

  ‘We’ll take a look at the dessert menu, thanks,’ Shilpa said.

  Tanvi frowned. ‘You’re paying for my liposuction.’

  ‘Okay, but on my new wages, I’ll probably only be able to afford one buttock.’

  Tanvi laughed.

  ‘This is too good an opportunity to pass up.’

  ‘In that case, maybe another glass of wine,’ Tanvi said as the waitress returned with their menus. They each ordered a panna cotta. ‘I–’ Tanvi started but Shilpa cut her off.

  ‘Shh,’ she said, placing a finger on her lips.

  ‘What?’ Tanvi whispered.

  ‘I can’t believe he’s dead,’ Izzy’s friend with blonde hair and perfectly manicured nails said. ‘And I can’t believe she was hanging around and shouting at him at his own party; that’s crazy. Was she even invited?’

  Tanvi leaned in towards Shilpa. ‘How do you know they’re talking about…’

  Shilpa put her head down and listened closely. They must have been talking about Mason. How many dead people could there be around here? It wasn’t long before Izzy mentioned who the screaming woman was. ‘Alison wasn’t invited. She was lurking around outside when I approached the house,’ she told her friend.

  Bingo, thought Shilpa. They were talking about the engagement party, and Alison had been there. Shilpa had heard an altercation between two lovers when she had been fretting about the cake. She had assumed they were guests, not the groom and his ex-girlfriend. How could she have missed Alison with her electric red mop? Unless she hadn’t wanted to be seen. That made sense, as June hadn’t seen her either.

  ‘Oh, what did you wear, by the way?’ the blonde asked Izzy.

  ‘The green Matthew Williamson,’ Izzy answered with a smile.

  ‘Good choice,’ Tanvi whispered. Shilpa made a face as their panna cottas arrived, and they tried to look like they were having their own conversation. As soon as the waitress left, silence descended on their table again, and Shilpa strained her ears to hear.

  ‘Who else could have or would have wanted him dead?’ Izzy said. ‘At school she was always picking legs off spiders. That’s not normal behaviour. It’s a sign. I’ve been reading up on killers now we have one in our midst. Alison wasn’t popular at all. You could say she was a loner, and we all know how those turn out.’

  Shilpa felt a slight irritation towards Izzy. Not everyone was instantly popular at school, she thought, recalling her own painfully shy childhood. She wouldn’t have put it past Izzy to have been Alison’s school bully. Alison probably wasn’t a loner by choice. The spider legs though, that was another matter. The blonde woman asked Izzy what exactly Alison was shouting at Mason about just as Tanvi started talking to her about handbags. Shilpa gave her friend a stern look.

  ‘I couldn’t quite catch it,’ Izzy was saying. ‘She was hardly articulate. Something about him being her first true love. There were a lot of tears, mascara running down her face. She was wearing a hideous blue-and-yellow dress though, so it didn’t really ruin anything for her.’

  ‘And how did you get an invite?’ her friend asked.

  ‘I made a friend of Harriet. She throws some great parties,’ Izzy said.

  Cunning, thought Shilpa. Leoni was right. Izzy was one of those women who didn’t let anything get in her way.

  ‘Alison has got to be your main suspect,’ Tanvi whispered.

  Shilpa leaned in across the table towards her friend. ‘Or she,’ she said, pointing towards Izzy, her finger low, ‘is making it up.’

  ‘Why would she do that?’

  ‘I don’t know yet.’

  ‘Have the police questioned you?’ Izzy’s friend asked.

  Izzy was silent, and Shilpa craned her neck to take a better look at her. As she did, the blonde-haired woman looked up from her crab and avocado starter.

  Shilpa immediately started laughing. ‘Tanvi, you’re so funny. I can’t believe you said that.’

  Tanvi rolled her eyes. ‘Isn’t your play date soon?’

  Shilpa looked at her watch. ‘It is. Hurry up,’ she ordered her friend. She raised her hand to get the waitress’s attention and asked for the bill.

  ‘I didn’t tell the police about Alison,’ Shilpa heard Izzy say. She stopped rooting around in her bag for her wallet and listened.

  ‘Why ever not?’ her friend asked. ‘That doesn’t make sense.’

  No, thought Shilpa, it doesn’t make sense. But she didn’t get a chance to hear her response. The waitress arrived with the bill and started asking Tanvi about her hat. She couldn’t hear anything, and by the time the bill was settled, Izzy and her friend were talking about Brazilian waxes.

  Chapter Twenty

  Evan sat in the drawing room of the Drews’ house looking at the family photos that adorned the walls. The picture of Harriet and Mason still hung at the end of the second row. It wasn’t long ago that an image of Harriet and Finley had hung in that very spot. Maybe, he thought, the fiancés should have a picture wall of their own. The has-been wall. He chuckled at his own joke. He would soon be standing tall next to Harriet, and their photo would be in that very spot, but unlike the rest of them, he would marry Harriet.

  Harriet’s father had called Evan this morning and asked him if he’d pop over. He had expected Margery and Harriet to be at home too, but when he asked their maid Rosa as to their whereabouts, she told them that the two women were out. Shopping, apparently. So, what did Steven want with him? He had already kept him waiting a half hour, and Evan detested having to wait for anything or anyone. Except Harriet. Harriet was always the exception.

  He and Harriet had dated on and off for years but for one reason or another Harriet would never commit. Evan told himself it was because he was the one, that she would come home to him when she was ready to settle down but every time he believed she was ready it turned out that she wasn’t. First it was Finley. A pathetic excuse of a man but Harriet had been taken in by his charms until the poor chap met his maker. Evan should have seen his opportunity but he had stupidly dithered, too confident for his own good. Harriet had been calling and messaging him. He thought he had the upper hand.

  But one evening after a meal out together, Harriet had confided in Evan, telling him about Mason’s advances, which had made his blood thicken. Harriet hadn’t said that she was remotely interested in the man, but Evan should have known better. He had been lulled into a false sense of security as they laughed at Mason and his ambition, or lack of it. Harriet had even confessed that her father thought he was hopeless.

  Two days after their evening out together Harriet found out that two beautiful women, Izzy and Alison, had fallen for Mason and suddenly Mason Connolly seemed much more appealing. Evan had to admit Mason knew how to charm a woman. He said the right thing, held doors open and always picked up the tab. Of course he did; he had stacks of his father’s cash.

  Evan didn’t know much about Izzy, but she, like Alison, appeared to be a woman with a mission. Her mission was to marry for money. She soon set her sights on Mason – an easy catch, she had thought – but it wasn’t to be. Izzy took rejection badly, judging by her behaviour at his friend’s pub not so long after the break-up. Of course, Izzy said it had been an accident. That she was taking the wine glass back to the bar and hadn’t set out to break it and use a shard of it to pierce her ex’s skin. But no one believed her unlikely story of stumbling with the makeshift weapon and falling directly on the one person she had reason to hurt.

  It was probably that knowledge that made Evan keep his distance from the dark-haired vixen. They could have helped each other out, but instead he had been left to his own devices. He had spoken to Izzy once, but she had been so insincere he knew that she wasn’t the woman for him.

  There was no denying that Izzy was beautiful – stunning, in fact – but she only ever paid attention to people with money. She had pretty much ignored Evan when he tried chatting to her one day in the pub. He was wearing his usual uniform of board shorts and vest. By his own admission he looked like a beach bum. Maybe she knew of him; she went to a school a couple of towns away and every so often the schools used to combine efforts for events like hockey for the girls, football for the boys and the occasional school disco. But, then again, maybe she didn’t. He had kept a low profile with his company White Water, avoiding any sort of publicity that involved him personally, and although most people in the town knew what he did, only a few knew just how successful he was.

  Izzy had given him a look that said, ‘don’t even think about speaking to me’, but he liked good sport.

  ‘You from around here?’ he asked, wondering if she did remember him from school or not. Evan had put on a strong Somerset accent. The barman gave him a look, and he winked.

  ‘Perhaps,’ Izzy said.

  ‘Can I get you a drink?’ he asked.

  ‘Sparkling, maybe,’ she said, trying to put him off.

  ‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘You must be from around here if you know they do a mean cider.’ The barman laughed.

  ‘Sorry,’ Izzy said, her eyes wide. ‘I really must be going…’ She trailed off, looking him up and down. Evan was keen to get to know her better, make his own decisions. ‘I’m about to meet a friend…’ she started.

  The barman leaned in. ‘Don’t let his appearance put you off,’ he said. ‘Let me introduce you to Evan White. This man is self-made.’

  Izzy turned to the barman and looked at him as if to accuse him of lying.

  ‘He owns the stand-up paddleboard company White Water,’ the bartender continued, giving Izzy a wink.

  Evan noticed then that Izzy couldn’t help but smile at him now. It was a glamorous smile, and those eyes captivated him. She touched her neck and looked at him, really looked at him, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

  Evan stood up. ‘I’ll see you around,’ he said in his normal voice and walked off. He was on a mission too, and that mission was Harriet. Izzy would have been fine for a one-night stand, but he couldn’t afford something more than that. The way she was looking at him meant she was ready to dig her nails in.

  It wasn’t long after that that Evan found out that Harriet was victorious and thrilled with her conquest when Mason chose her over Alison and Izzy.

  ‘Darling, you know you’ll always have a place in my heart,’ Harriet had said to him not long after she and Mason were engaged. ‘Now is just not the right time for us.’ Her words implied that there would be a right time, which was a little hypocritical given that she had just become someone else’s fiancée.

  Evan had considered dating Izzy to make Harriet jealous. Harriet enjoyed making others hurt. It was why she had invited Izzy to her and Mason’s engagement party. Alison was too much of a liability, everyone knew that; but Izzy’s presence would have satisfied Harriet’s need to feel triumphant. Evan knew that dating Izzy would have given Harriet a taste of her own medicine.

  Evan had tried to move on from Harriet, but he couldn’t. He knew his destiny. She had kept him waiting, and he had allowed it. He couldn’t wait around much longer though. He had no choice but to move things along a little.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ‘This is Theo,’ Danny said flatly.

  Olivia winked at Shilpa from behind her brother-in-law. ‘And this is Shilpa,’ she said. ‘Just moved to Otter’s Reach, and she used to be Danny’s university mate. Now she bakes cakes, don’t you? Although I shouldn’t just say bakes cakes. She makes the most amazing occasion cakes. She left the bright lights of London for this little place.’

  ‘Oli,’ Danny said. ‘You’re waffling.’

  Not bad, thought Shilpa as she stretched out her hand to take Theo’s. She could hear Tanvi’s voice in her head applauding his good looks. He was tall, with dark hair and chocolate-brown eyes. He had an aquiline nose and a charming smile.

  ‘Shilpa,’ she said as he shook her hand.

  Tanvi had picked the shortest khaki shorts for Shilpa to wear on her tennis date and a white racer back. Given the bottle of wine they had shared just a couple of hours ago, Shilpa had agreed to wear them. As she walked down from her house to the courts at the back of the town, she felt uncomfortable. She regretted her decision and felt quite exposed. She looked down at her blue Converses, the closest thing she had to trainers, and swung the old racket by her side as she took her position on the court.

  ‘I hear you made quite the impression with the cakes you delivered to the Drews’,’ Theo said.

  Shilpa blushed. ‘Oh yes, that. Well, I just thought…’ She trailed off, not knowing how to explain what she had done without sounding like an idiot.

  Theo smiled. ‘It was good of you to come forward about the knife,’ he said as they took their positions on the court. His eyes softened, and although Theo had barely said anything, Shilpa felt the heat in her cheeks.

  ‘I wasn’t sure if I’d done the right thing, but I had to do something,’ she said. ‘So, murder. That must be an interesting day job.’ Shilpa tried to steer the conversation away from her involvement. It made her feel uneasy whenever she thought about it, and now Theo had mentioned the knife she was pretty sure that it was the murder weapon.

 

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