Read Online LS 13 - Murder in a Different Place by Lesley Cookman - Free Book Online Page A

go and peered into his empty mug. ‘More tea?’
    ‘In a minute. Tell me first why you’ve been so pre-occupied. Is it just the threat? You weren’t yourself even before we came to the Island.’
    ‘I’d read the first letter. It was anonymous, and it seemed sinister. I thought someone was looking for me.’
    ‘So were you a bit scared about coming here?’
    ‘A bit. But I agreed with Alicia that Celia could have been murdered and that letter seemed to confirm it. And then the note. It shook me.’
    ‘We could tell,’ said Libby. She stood up. ‘Come on, let’s make some more tea and you can go and give Pete a cup.’
    ‘And tell him everything,’ said Harry, following her into the kitchen.
    ‘Will he mind you’ve told me first?’
    ‘No. I think he expects it. I must say, you old trout, I feel better.’
    ‘But still a bit scared?’
    Harry nodded. ‘I just hope Pete doesn’t try and drag me off the Island when he hears.’
    ‘He might want to.’ Libby poured boiling water into four mugs. ‘And you can hardly blame him. I do see why you were keeping quiet – I think.’
    ‘Will you tell Ben?’ Harry paused with two mugs in his hands.
    ‘If you want me to. And Fran?’
    ‘Better everyone knows. But I don’t want to do it.’
    Libby sighed. ‘I’ll see if I can’t get them all on to the deck.’
    ‘You were up early.’ Ben was sitting up in bed when she went in with his tea.
    ‘Yes. Do you think you could bring your tea outside? I’m going to make tea for Fran and Guy – oh bother, Guy likes coffee – and see if they’ll come out there, too.’
    ‘Why?’ Ben’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
    ‘To tell you Harry’s story.’
    Twenty minutes later, Libby finished the story and looked at each of her listeners in turn.
    ‘Well? What do you think? Do you understand why he was nervous? Why he lied?’
    ‘Not really.’ Guy frowned. ‘Well, yes, I do, about being threatened, but one thing – the note he found pinned to the deck. How did he know it was for him?’
    ‘Oh!’ said Libby. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
    ‘Whoever it was had pinned it there after seeing Harry go out on his own. They were watching.’ Fran was staring towards Candle Cove.
    Libby involuntarily looked over her shoulder.
    ‘That makes sense,’ said Ben. ‘What do we do now? What does Hal want us to do?’
    ‘I don’t know, apart from finding out who killed Celia. And Matthew by default. He’s telling Pete now.’
    ‘Pete may well want to cart him off home,’ said Ben. ‘And I don’t blame him.’
    ‘But if that someone is after Harry, they know who he is and could come after him anywhere,’ said Fran.
    ‘But why are they after Harry?’ Libby scowled at her mug.
    ‘It isn’t Harry personally, is it?’ said Fran. ‘It was Matthew’s “young friend”. Whoever this person is, they knew that there was someone connected to the old scandal, but they didn’t know who.’
    ‘How did they know it was Matthew’s “young friend”?’ asked Libby.
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘How do we find out?’
    ‘Just what I was asking.’ Peter’s voice issued from behind them. He strolled over and pulled up a chair. ‘It’s someone who knows about the old scandal. So shouldn’t we look into that, first?’
    The other four looked at him in surprise.
    ‘You want to go on with this?’ asked Libby. ‘We thought you’d want to drag him off the Island.’
    ‘I do, but the place to start, surely, is this old scandal, and we can’t look into that from Kent. We need to talk to people.’
    ‘But who?’ said Guy.
    ‘The sisters, first. Together or separately?’ said Fran.
    ‘They always seem to be together,’ said Libby. ‘I don’t know how we would separate them without turning it into an inquisition.’
    Fran turned to Peter. ‘Who was Lucifer?’
    They all looked at her.
    ‘Who?’ said Peter.
    ‘Oh, I know!’ said Libby. ‘The love of Matthew’s life, Hal said. What made you think of