Read Online SAY GOODBYE TO ARCHIE: A Rex Graves Mini-Mystery by C.S. Challinor - Free Book Online Page B

front of a non-family member. But Connie and I don’t get much of a chance to talk except on the phone. And Archie’s death, murder, what have you, made me wonder about my mother’s will. I knew she’d made some outrageous provisions in it in the event she went first. She was always talking to Archie about it. ‘Don’t you worry, Archie, you’ll be well taken care of. You’ll never have to go back to that horrible shelter!’ ” he mimicked in his mother’s lowland Scots voice.
    “Still,” Connie hurriedly added for Rex’s benefit, “We were shocked by Archie’s murder. It was murder, Charlie,” she insisted. “Dr. Strange wouldn’t lie about a thing like that.”
    Rex read in Charles’ expression a measure of relief that someone had bumped Archie off and released the property to the children. Charles gulped down the last of his wine and regarded the empty bottle with an air of regret. Florid of complexion, pouchy-eyed and jowly, he exhibited the signs of an habitual drinker.
    “Who do you think killed Archie?” Rex said, setting his knife and fork in his empty plate.
    “No one we know,” Connie replied. “No one was in the house Wednesday evening when Mother was at the book club. Dot, who’s the only other person apart from us who has a key, as far as I know, was at the book club too. And we weren’t here, were we, Charlie? I arrived later.”
    “I was in London,” her brother alibied.
    “Your mother said you were here on Wednesday afternoon, though,” Rex contradicted. Patricia had told him it was Charles who had picked up the anonymous note posted through the front door.
    “In the afternoon, yes. But it was a lightening visit. There was a matter I wanted to discuss with Mother, but she was busy with Felicity.”
    “What matter?” Connie asked.
    “I needed a small loan, if you must know. Anyway,” Charles told Rex, “I didn’t hear about Archie’s death until Thursday morning.”
    “Mother said she tried to reach you on your mobile and on your landline.”
    “I didn’t get her messages until Thursday morning. And even then, all she said was, ‘Charles, call me back. It’s urgent.’ ”
    “I drove over straight away,” Connie told Rex. “Mother was beside herself. Dr. Strange had just left with Archie to perform a post mortem at her insistence.”
    Rex worried about Patricia’s state of mind. Aside from her loss, she was under a lot of strain and pressure, not least of which was her looming deadline. “Does she often go to bed this early?” he asked.
    “She said she was too upset to eat,” Connie said. “I took her up some warm milk. She’s beginning to look a bit gaunt, don’t you think, Charlie? But she often goes to bed early to read,” she told Rex. “And gets up at the crack of dawn.”
    *
    Rex did the same and next morning found Patricia making tea. She appeared more composed and said she’d managed to sleep out of sheer exhaustion. She prepared hot buttered crumpets and placed a glass dish filled with homemade strawberry jam on the table.
    “From Dot’s garden,” she informed him.
    Rex tasted the jam, which burst with summer flavour. “It’s excellent. Seems Dot has a green thumb. The stew was delicious, incidentally. Connie left you some for your lunch.”
    Patricia joined him at the kitchen table with a pot of tea. “Dot is very good at the domestic stuff. Now, tell me: Did you find out anything useful over dinner?”
    “Well, for one thing, Charles received a paper cut in your study. Possibly he used the blotting paper to absorb the blood on his finger.”
    Patricia added sugar to her tea. “I see. No doubt he was snooping about hoping to find my will and see what I’ve left him. He’s in dire financial straits, you know.”
    “Be that as it may, the blot was likely not a sign or an omen. You must push all such notions from your mind, Patricia. Especially since I think I may know who our culprit is.” He had tossed and turned in Charles’ single