Tea Shop Cozy Mysteries - Books 1-6 Read online

  “Reg has information about the people who were in the vicinity at the time of Mr. Waterman’s murder. As you know, he was seated on the pier when Jeff walked past him. Therefore, anyone walking from The Old Chestnut in pursuit of the man had to go straight by him.”

  Reg nodded, looking at Willow to further explain his case. She shook her head, it was his turn.

  He gave a giant sigh and clutched his hands together in his lap. “I heard Mr. Waterman go past not long after it got dark. Although I’d seen Lee here—” Reg jerked his head at the young man “—and Charley go past on their way from the Patterson’s decking job to the pub earlier, I never saw nor heard them come back past.”

  The sheriff looked at Reg with raised eyebrows. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Is that it?”

  “Nobody walked from The Old Chestnut after Jeff left there,” Willow said with a hint of impatience, forgetting that she’d struggled to follow Reg’s line of thinking just a half-hour ago.

  Reg cleared his throat. “No male, anyway.”

  Willow nodded. “No men passed that way, so Charley can’t have been the murderer.” She jerked her head toward Lee. “Mr. Harrington can tell you all about the check Mr. Lacy is supposed to have forged, and I believe he also reported to you some tools were stolen off the building site they were working on.”

  The sheriff snorted in disbelief. “First off—” he began ticking items off on his fingers “—we only have your word for it, Reg, that no one passed by there. Since you’ve already lied to me about where you were that evening, forgive me if I don’t blindly take you at your word. Second, you were working with Mr. Lacy at the time, weren’t you, Lee?”

  The young man nodded, pursing his mouth.

  “Hardly an unbiased point of view. Thirdly, the tools were only reported stolen the next morning, after Mr. Waterman had been murdered. That’s not an alibi at all.”

  “What about the woman?”

  All eyes turned to Harmony as she spoke for the first time.

  Sheriff Wender gave another massive sigh. “Fine, I’ll bite. What about what woman?”

  “Well—” Harmony shifted on her chair, looking uneasy “—from what Reg says, there was a woman who came along the road not long after Jeff passed by. Isn’t that right?”

  Reg nodded in agreement.

  “Now, he didn’t see her—” Harmony held up her hand to forestall the coming objection from the sheriff “—but I’m sure we can all agree there’s only one woman with a large complaint about Jeff Waterman in Aniseed Valley. Shelby Causer.”

  Willow felt a pang of misgiving as Harmony spoke the woman’s name. It didn’t seem fair to be blaming her, behind her back, especially when Shelby would soon be working in the tea shop. If I ever finish getting it built. “We don’t know that—”

  Harmony held her hand up again, this time cutting Willow off mid-sentence. “No, we can’t tell for sure who it was, but that makes the most sense to me. What about it, Sheriff? Is there a reason we’ve overlooked that crosses Shelby Causer out from your list of suspects?”

  “Yes,” the sheriff said at once, and Willow gave a short sigh of relief. “She has an alibi for the night in question. She stayed the whole afternoon and evening with her sister over in Wilber Pines, and we have a sworn statement to support it. If you want to find another suspect, you’ll have to try harder than that.”

  As Willow stared at the sheriff, she felt her stomach lurch, then drop down to the floor. She twisted her hands in her lap, not wanting to say anything but too honest to keep the information to herself.

  She clearly remembered the day she went into The Old Chestnut, following up on what Charley might know. The bartender had made a joke about it being a long time since a pretty woman had been inside and Charley had responded with a quip about Shelby.

  It might all turn out to be a mistake, anyway.

  Willow grasped onto that hope like a lifeline as she cleared her throat. “Actually, I’m fairly certain Shelby Causer was in town that night, despite what her sister says. Both Charley and the bartender at The Old Chestnut said she was in the pub.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Willow winced as the paper hit the doorstep. The bend down to pick it up wasn’t nearly as painful as reading the headline.

  SHELBY CAUSER FOUND GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER

  Although Willow hadn’t accompanied the sheriff when he went to Shelby’s house to question her, she’d heard afterward that the woman had immediately confessed when confronted with the evidence from the bartender that suggested she was in town on the night in question.

  The confession had been accompanied by a lot of sorrow in the community. Although Willow could imagine the stressors that the woman was under, the act of taking a hammer and striking Jeff Waterman down was so far beyond her comprehension that she shied away from even thinking about it.

  An even greater shame was that if Shelby had just held on, then the community would have gone some way toward righting her dreadful situation. Instead, now, the money raised was all being directed to fix up the school–also a worthy cause.

  As if intuiting Willow was in need of a bit of light relief, both Reg and Harmony turned up within a few minutes of each other. Between sorting them out with refreshments and playing with Mavis, there was barely time to dwell on the terrible outcome.

  “They’re tearing Shelby’s house down today, did you know?” Reg asked as he finished up his cup of tea. “A few of the fellows who’ve been doing the inspections gratis are going along to watch. We could join them if you like.”

  Willow opened her mouth to say, no, it was a terrible idea, and somehow ending up saying, “Yes. I think I’d like that.”

  Harmony looked about as shocked as Willow herself, but they soon bundled themselves up against the cold weather and headed out the door.

  “It’s hard to believe that nowadays something this terrible could happen.” Reg shook his head. “If only that scoundrel had owned up and rectified the damage, everyone would be better off today.”

  He sounded so miserable Willow gave him a concerned once-over. “We can leave if you like. I don’t really care that much about the place coming down. It was just the spur of the moment.”

  But Reg was adamant. “I feel horrible knowing that if me and the guys had only reached out sooner, we might’ve been able to engineer a different end.”

  Willow hooked her arm through Reg’s on the left-hand side, while Harmony did the same on the other. “All the ifs and maybes can’t change what happened. You were headed in the right direction, and the blame for the tragedy can only be laid at two people’s door.”

  At that, Harmony tutted. “It doesn’t feel right to blame the murder victim.”

  “I’m not blaming him for getting murdered,” Willow hastened to explain. “I’m accusing him of being a terrible builder who couldn’t care less about whether his client’s needs were met.”

  “Not like your builders, eh Lee?” Charley said coming up behind them.

  Lee stood off to the side, shuffling his feet and looking as though he’d rather be anywhere else but there.

  “Well, of course, my builders are nothing like that,” Willow agreed. “I only hire the brightest and the best.”

  That caused Lee to color a brilliant shade of red in addition to looking like he wanted to leave.

  “Oops. There it goes,” Reg said as the first bite of the roof surrendered to the digger’s mighty jaws. “Goodness. I always think of my house as being so strong, but this makes it look like tinfoil and cardboard, doesn’t it?”

  “It’d be a different story if there were brickwork but, yeah.” Charley nodded. “Those machines certainly let you know who’s boss.”

  In an hour, most of the excitement was over with. Lee made his excuses first and left, while the remaining group members accepted Willow’s invitation to return to her place for a cup of tea.

  “I want to try out the new tea rooms,” she said as they wandered back to her house,
pairing up on the sidewalk. “You can pretend to be my first customers.”

  Reg’s eyes gleamed. “Does that mean we get to send everything back until it’s exactly to our liking?”

  “If you’re prepared to pay for it,” Willow quickly shot back. “Otherwise, you don’t need to take the play acting quite that far.”

  Instead of walking through the front door, Willow forced them to trot up the new path to the side and around the back. “I’m serious,” she warned them sternly. “I need a thorough try out of what’s involved if I’m ever to sort out the requirements for my staffing.”

  Leaving them to it, she ducked inside and hurried along to open up the conservatory doors.

  Although at one stage it had seemed impossible the building work would ever be finished, Willow was now overjoyed at what had been achieved. After a few long conversations with Charley explaining the ins and outs of what she needed—a process that felt a thousand times more comfortable than when she went through it with Jeff—he and Lee took over and turned her vision into bricks and mortar.

  The conservatory was so different from the ramshackle building it had sprung from, that if Willow were plonked down inside with no point of reference, she never would have been able to guess that’s where she was. Windows offered a clear view of the gardens on every side, while still managing to enclose the space and make it feel cozy.

  In summer, one entire wall of windows could be slid back to open up the space to the afternoon breezes—an option that would offer as much refreshment as Willow’s excellent assortment of herbal teas. In winter, the double glazing retained whatever heat the afternoon sun brought with it. A row of air conditioning units was tucked along behind the serving counter, at floor level, to aid with keeping the room temperate.

  But it was the new kitchen that set Willow’s heart pitter-pattering with anticipation. She hurried through to it now, getting the water on to boil before her guests had the change to put in their orders. Not that they needed to—Willow knew them off by heart.

  Reg, she served up with his mint tea first, letting the leaves settle in the cup to form a green shelter at the base. Next up, Harmony’s taste buds had decided on hibiscus for their monthly flavor shakeup. The fruity overtones were perfect for warming up a pair of wintry hands.

  Charley’s order was her favorite to prepare—the assortment of dried berries adding a bold color of crimson into the hot water while the floating stevia leaf added a touch of variance for the eye and sweetness for the palate.

  “Tea’s all very well,” Charley said, taking as large a sip as his mouth could stand of the hot liquid. He patted his stomach and gave her a cheeky grin. “I’m still partial to a little bit of something else, on the side.”

  Willow held up one finger, disappearing back into her gleaming kitchen once more. When she returned, it was with a tray laden with scones, cut in half, and with two silver bowls, one filled with cream, the other jam.

  “I don’t know if this is what you’re used to, back home, but this is what I think of every time you start talking with that accent of yours.” Willow placed the tray down, letting Charley serve himself first.

  “It’s not what my mother would’ve made,” he said, and Willow felt a small pang of disappointment. Then his grin reappeared, even wider than before. “But that’s only because she didn’t know how to bake. These’re lovely. Better than I could hope to get in Harrods.”

  “I notice you’re not interested in what we have to say,” Harmony said, jerking her thumb over at Reg to include him in the sentence.

  “Of course, I want to know what you think. That’s why I invited all of you.”

  “Mm-hm.” Harmony pursed her lips and rolled her eyes.

  “What do you mean by that?” Willow asked, laughing. “Am I meant to guess at what you’re thinking now?”

  Reg and Harmony exchanged a quick glance, full of meaning that sailed straight over Willow’s head. Before she could ask them again what was going on, Charley patted his stomach, having demolished two of the scones already.

  “Why don’t you sit down, now?” he said, standing up and moving aside his empty plate and cup. “When this place opens, you’ll be on your feet for so long each day you’ll regret not taking up any opportunities to sit down that was offered. I’m going to make you a special cuppa.”

  Willow complied with a laugh, giving Charley a crooked smile and wrinkling up her nose. “What’s special about it?”

  “One,” he said, jerking a thumb back at his chest, “it’s made by me, and that doesn’t happen very often. Two…”

  “Hm?” Willow raised her eyebrows and nodded her head toward Charley after he trailed off into silence. “Two is what?”

  “Two is I’m going to make you a cup of builders’ tea the like of which you’ve never seen before. Now sit still.”

  As soon as Charley walked through into the kitchen, Willow leaned across to Reg. “What on Earth is builders’ tea?”

  He smiled and leaned back. “I don’t know, but I think me and Harmony will leave you alone to find out.” He stood up, Harmony doing the same without protest.

  “Give me a call tomorrow,” Harmony said as Willow looked about her in confusion. “Tell me how your date went.”

  “What date?”

  Her two friends gave each other another smile of collusion before wandering back up the garden path, leaving her and Charley alone.

  “Here you go,” Charley announced, seemingly not noticing half of their party had vanished into thin air while he was in the kitchen. “Builders’ tea. Strong. Black. Over-stewed by at least five minutes.”

  He plonked the cup down in front of her with little finesse, but Willow wasn’t concentrating on the beverage. What she was noticing was the kind lines that radiated out from Charley’s eyes—proof positive of a life spent smiling—and the gentle lilt of his voice, a tone that seemed to speak directly to her soul.

  Chapter One

  Willow gave a yelp as someone knocked on the front door. She was wound a thousand times tighter than usual, dreading her big opening tomorrow. For the past few nights, she’d barely slept, and the dreams she managed to claw out of the darkness were of failure and ridicule—tea being spilled on customers, the conservatory toppling over, the kitchen exploding into flame.

  Harmony stood on the front doorstep, her face peaceful and composed. “I thought you might need company.”

  Willow dragged her friend indoors, giving her an enormous hug. “Oh, my, yes! I’ve been driving myself crazy.”

  Harmony gave a gentle laugh as she extracted herself from the embrace. “I figured as much. Now, you can drive me crazy instead.”

  “I’m worried that I’ve forgotten something important,” Willow confided. “It’s like that sensation when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t quite catch it. I’m sure there’s something more I should do!”

  “Come and sit down.” Harmony perched on the edge of the sofa and patted the cushion next to her. “The best thing to do is to compose a list of everything that must be done for you to open tomorrow. Once we’ve ticked off every item, you’ll know you’re set.”

  Mavis appeared at their feet, looking up expectantly and giving a cautious meow. “Did I forget to feed you?” Willow asked, clutching a fistful of her blouse in horror. She tried to think back through the events of the day, relaxing as the memory of opening a can and spreading the portion out precisely as the kitten liked it popped into her head.

  “I’m not going that doolally,” Willow whispered to Mavis, picking the kitten up around the waist and giving her a bop on the nose. “If you keep asking me for food when you’ve already eaten, you’ll turn out ten times the size you’re meant to.”

  Harmony snorted at that suggestion. “Your little kitten still has a lot of growing left to do. Perhaps you should experiment with an extra serving, now and then.”

  “According to the vet, she’s well fed.” Willow gave Harmony a small nudge on the shoulder. “Pl
ease don’t add any extra concerns to my list. I’ve enough to keep me worried for a lifetime.”

  “Fair enough.” Harmony lifted a notepad out of her handbag, and the two of them built a list of all the things.

  When it grew so large that Harmony needed to turn the page, Willow felt mollified. Yes. It was a daunting task opening a new business. Her addled mind wasn’t inventing the stress.

  “What time are your employees due tomorrow?”

  Willow blanked out for a second. The words sounded so strange in connection with her. She’d never had employees before in her life. Yet, starting tomorrow, she would have.

  “They’re arriving fifteen minutes before the doors open,” Willow said, pressing a hand to her chest where her heart raced. “So, around quarter to nine.”

  Given she wasn’t an early riser, Willow had opted to open her establishment as close to her usual waking time as she dared. Not that she expected to get any sleep at all tonight. Or tomorrow. Or ever again.

  “That seems like the perfect timing.”

  Willow gave Harmony a quick check from beneath lowered lashes. Her friend had been resolutely positive, but a small demon in her mind insisted that was to be polite, and her actual thoughts might differ.

  If they did, Willow could see no sign. Harmony was nodding to herself as she read over the list they’d compiled.

  “Anything else you can think of?”

  “I need to check with Reg and see he got the flyers up.” Willow chewed on the edge of her cuticle, nerves firing up to full steam once more. She’d asked him to pop them into as many stores in town as he could get them into but also any other hangouts he thought appropriate.

  Sometimes Reg’s life seemed full of strange meetings taking place in dark rooms and hidden offices. Those were the places that Willow hoped to gain attention. If the small cliques and niche groups around town treated her tea rooms as a meeting ground, it would assure her custom all year round.

  “Come on,” Harmony said, jumping to her feet. “Let’s go outside and take a peek at how it all looks before the sun goes down.”