HELL'S HALF ACRE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 2) by JACKIE ELLIOTT (classic literature books .txt) 📗

Jim put down his coffee cup.

“Thanks for talking to us,” he said and held out his hand. Doug took it and they shook.

Andi was still making notes. She finished and went to hand the old photo of Art Whilley and Doug South back to Terri.

“You keep it,” Terri said, “if it helps.”

Andi smiled and put it in her purse, and then turned to Doug. “Just one more question, Doug. What did the bikers call themselves?”

“The Knights,” he said.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Katie Dagg gritted her teeth, and when that didn’t work, she buried her head in a pillow. She was in her room with the door closed, but she could still hear them. It was just as bad as it had been during most of her childhood, when she’d sit in her bedroom while Lee and Nadine screamed at each other.

She thought she might go downstairs. Maybe she could get them to sit down and talk civilly to each other? They didn’t belong together. They didn’t love each other. So why were they still in this house making each other miserable? It couldn’t be for her sake.

Deep down, she knew it was all about money. Lee earned it — most of it — and Nadine spent it. It had always been that way. Nadine wanted things. If someone at work had a new truck, she wanted a new truck. If a couple went on holiday, she wanted two weeks all-inclusive somewhere. And if she didn’t get it, she screamed at Lee. Nadine had been obsessed with renovating the house when she saw Terri South’s elegant home and had racked up Lee’s credit card to the limit.

As far as Katie could make out, this particular argument was about a dress. A belly dancing outfit, to be exact. She didn’t know how much it had cost, but the price tag had sent her normally reserved father completely over the edge.

“For fuck’s sake, Nadine,” she heard him bellow, “thousands of dollars on a dress that makes you look like a common hooker! Where’s your self-respect? Or did you leave it in Dennis Havers’ bed?”

Katie couldn’t make out her mother’s reply, she just heard doors slamming. She’d heard enough, anyway. She knew about her mother’s affair. Everyone knew. Nadine didn’t even try to hide it.

Katie stayed where she was. Her parents’ relationship had deteriorated past the point where a nice civil chat mediated by their daughter would do any good at all. Especially as Nadine really seemed to dislike Katie.

Katie sat up on her bed and looked around her bedroom. It hadn’t changed since she was last living here. She had a single bed with a patchwork quilt, a large chest of drawers and a vanity unit with a large oval mirror. None of the furniture was new when she got it. Even when she was a child, she liked old stuff. She and Lee had found everything in old antique stores and they’d both worked on restoring the furniture together. They’d had so much fun. She didn’t remember her mother being involved at all.

Katie looked at the old photos she’d taped to the edges of her mirror. There were pictures of her and her friends from school, poking out their tongues and pulling faces at the camera, and all the photos her dad took of her at her graduation, her first car, every significant event in her life, but none of her and Nadine. Not one. There was one picture of her mother, a recent one, posing for the camera in her belly dancing outfit.

Katie winced. She was ashamed of her embarrassment. Maybe that was why Nadine was so hostile? She’d picked up on Katie’s disapproval. Maybe she thought Katie and Lee were ganging up on her? Maybe she should show some support for her mother and go to the belly dancing display at the pub?

But she didn’t want to. It had been an awful few days. She’d had trouble sleeping. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw that skull hanging in front of her. She shuddered. She wished she could turn back the clock and not go on that hike at all. There was only one positive thing about it all. A kind young constable said to her, when he came to take her statement, “I know it was awful for you, but now Mr and Mrs Havers will at least be able to grieve for their son. It is an end to it, even if we wished it could have ended another way.”

Katie was trying to hang on to that.

She heard a car door slam and then another. Her father’s car left the driveway and Katie sighed with relief. Her warring parents must have called a truce. It looked as if Lee was taking Nadine to the Fat Chicken.

The house was finally quiet. Katie pulled herself together and grabbed some laundry off her floor. She wandered into her parents’ bedroom and picked up their laundry basket. If she did some housework it would help, and maybe keep the peace for a while.

In the laundry room, Katie sorted out clothes. She dug her hands in her jeans pocket, and her fingers closed around a piece of stiff paper. She pulled it out.

Damn. Another reminder. It was the business card that man had given her. The one who’d suggested she research that silly story. The man who started it all.

* * *

Andi was exhausted. She felt overloaded with information. Jim had dropped her off at the mall to pick her car up. Neither of them had said much since leaving Doug and Terri’s home. Jim leaned over as Andi got out the passenger seat.

“Andi, I’m not sure where all this information leaves us. I need to think it over. I’m not certain Doug South told us everything. Let’s talk about this tomorrow