Read Online Classic Mistake by Amy Myers - Free Book Online

fact that it was well into the afternoon, and they didn’t need any interruptions from me – even if they’d noticed I was around. So I decided to seek out Liz Potter, who runs a garden centre on the outskirts of Piper’s Green. She and I are in the comfortable position of being amiable former lovers. The only snag would arise if her nerd husband Colin was on the scene, but with any luck he’d be chasing microbes in a lab somewhere. He’s some kind of scientist. Where Liz and I are concerned, it is a case of all passion spent, as Milton put it. Passion had reigned for a year and a half when I first returned to England from the oil trade, although that included passion of all sorts, including the occasional flying potted plant during the latter stages. Her garden centre includes a good café for lunch and coffee, so it is equally convenient for practical reasons, as well as for seeing Liz from time to time. Not too often, though, or husband Colin takes the hump. Liz wouldn’t care about that, but I did on her behalf. I am not his favourite person, even though she was not married to him or anyone during our affair and I, too, had been single.
    I walked to the garden centre, deciding that the footpath route would do me good. I purposely left my mobile behind on the basis that any bad news could be avoided for a while longer. Liz is a busy person so I am never sure what my reception will be. Today, however, her wellington boots stopped in their tracks when she saw me. I hoped that there would be a grin of welcome but there wasn’t. Instead she looked anxious.
    ‘I’ve heard the news, Jack,’ she began alarmingly. ‘Come into the office if you want to talk.’
    Even more alarming. Her office is a cubbyhole overlooking her attractive layout of tables, flower-beds and blooms, so it was a bad sign that she took me there and not, as usual, to the café. ‘It’ll be more private here,’ she explained with a look of sympathy that I did not like at all. Liz’s sympathy usually takes the form of ‘I told you so’.
    ‘What news?’ I asked. ‘About Carlos’s murder?’
    ‘Well, yes. Is it Eva?’
    I went cold.
    ‘It was on the radio,’ she continued uncertainly, obviously having read my expression correctly. ‘They said a woman had been arrested, and as she was his wife I assumed it was her and that you knew.’
    ‘No,’ I said numbly. ‘I didn’t.’ All I could think was that it
could
be Eva and I’d been blithely ignorant of what was going on. Len and Zoe aren’t great ones for listening to news broadcasts and nor am I.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Liz said. ‘Want to talk?’
    ‘I don’t think I can, Liz.’ My brain seemed to be a crazy carousel of stray thoughts spinning round and round and up and down. Why hadn’t Cara rung me? Why hadn’t Brandon? How was Eva herself? Did she have anyone with her? Why hadn’t
she
rung me?
    ‘Old feelings rising?’ Liz asked.
    ‘Yes –
no.
Liz—’
    ‘You feel involved? Responsibility?’
    I managed to translate this into a coherent thought. ‘Because of Cara, yes. It has to be unlikely that Eva will be charged. She might have
wanted
to kill Carlos, but she’s too fond of her own skin to actually have shot him.’ I wasn’t sure I believed that, but I hoped it was true.
    ‘Anything I can do?’
    I reached out for Liz’s hand. ‘You’re here, and that’s good. Carlos had some girlfriend over here, so Eva claims. Maybe she did it, or else … Liz, I’ll have to get going. Make some calls.’
    ‘Make them here. I’ll vanish.’
    ‘Thanks, Liz, but no. I walked here, and the way back will give me time to—’
    ‘To what, Jack?’ she asked, as I paused. I’d been going to say ‘time to think’ but I wasn’t sure it would work that way.
    ‘No idea,’ I admitted. ‘Get my emotional armour on?’
    ‘Knights of old galloping to the rescue? Pageboy here when required, Jack. You know that.’
    I gave her a kiss and was halfway out of the door when she