Murder at the Lighthouse: An Exham on Sea Cosy Mystery (Exham on Sea Cosy Crime Mysteries Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  Under the Lighthouse

  Coffee and Cake

  Robert's Discovery

  Fuzzy’s Disgrace

  The Bakery

  Coffee and Suspicion

  Dinner

  Nest Egg

  Walnut brownies

  Annie Rose

  Photographs

  Bear Walk

  Mangotsfield Hall

  Mandy

  Breaking and Entering

  Bear’s Adventure

  Guy

  James

  Cheese

  Mushroom Sauce

  Chicken and Chips

  The Other Lighthouse

  The Knoll

  Diary

  Rubbish

  Balancing the Books

  Funeral

  Wake

  Ancestors

  Max

  Thank you for reading

  Murder on the Levels

  The Exham on Sea Mysteries

  Frances Evesham Books

  Victorian Books

  Author's Note

  Under the Lighthouse

  The autumn high tide discarded Susie Bennett under the lighthouse, on the beach she’d avoided for twenty years.

  Miles of sand stretched on either side, bleak and deserted except for Susie, dog-walker Elizabeth Forest, and a springer spaniel called Shipley. Elizabeth shivered. She should have brought a thicker coat. She tugged the hood further down, against the wind that snapped strands of wet brown hair across her face.

  “What’s that?” She freed the dog from his lead and squinted ahead. Shipley barked, whiskers quivering, head pointing across the sand, towards the nine stumpy legs of the lighthouse. “Probably just an old sack washed up on the tide. Still, we’d better take a closer look.” Sand clumped on Libby’s boots. Closer to the lighthouse, where the mud sucked and tugged at the unwary, she picked her way with care, testing every step.

  This was no old sack. Shipley nudged Libby’s legs and licked her hand, his tongue warm and soft. She rubbed the dog’s ears. “It’s just a drunk, I think.” The drunk’s jacket offered less protection against the weather than Libby’s anorak. “We’d better wake him.” She braced herself for a mouthful of abuse as the sleeping drunk woke, and shook one of the leather-clad arms.

  The figure slid noiselessly to the sand. The spaniel nosed it, whining. “Quiet, Shipley.” Libby squatted beside the body, brushed sopping wet hair from the icy cheek, and searched the neck for a pulse. She knew from the hollow sensation in her stomach what she would find. “It’s a woman.” Shipley howled. Libby staggered up, legs trembling. “What’s more, she’s dead.”

  They were still alone on the beach, the only walkers to brave the morning’s weather. Libby shivered. “We’d better tell the police.” She tugged a mobile phone from an inside pocket and fumbled, jabbing at the numbers.

  “Hello, do you need fire, police or ambulance?”

  This was only the second corpse Libby had seen. The first, belonging to Trevor, had been laid out at the hospital, triggering a mix of horror and guilty relief.

  There was nothing she could do for this woman. Who could it be? A local? No one Libby recognised, but then, she hardly knew anyone: just Marina, Shipley’s owner; Frank, the proprietor of the bakery where she worked; and a dozen members of the local history society.

  Slim and tiny, the dead woman wore skin-tight jeans. A brown ankle boot encased one foot, but the other was bare, the expensive footwear long gone. The woman’s lips were fuller than nature intended. Cosmetic work in the recent past? Drenched hair half-concealed a small, neat face with a turned-up nose. A line of darker hair, along a parting on the side of the head, suggested highlights; a proper salon job, not a do-it-yourself.

  Libby peered into the pools of water left stranded under the lighthouse, looking for a handbag, hoping for clues, but the sea had taken that as well.

  I shouldn’t touch the body again. Libby knew the rules: everyone did. Don’t disturb the scene. They were still alone. She ought to wait for the police to arrive, but something about the woman’s arm, tucked at such an awkward angle into a jacket pocket, nagged at Libby. It wouldn’t do any harm just to give it another small nudge, surely?

  She twitched the sleeve. The arm jerked. Libby gulped, then took a slow breath. It was just rigor mortis. She pulled again, harder. The stiff hand popped out of the pocket, rigid, fingers pointing to the bleak, wide Somerset sky, and a chunk of plastic tumbled from the jacket. Libby whispered, “Sorry,” as though the dead woman could still hear.

  The sudden, shocking wail of police sirens brought an officer, younger than her own son, running down the beach. Libby held out one hand, as if to protect the body. “Be careful.”

  The young, plainclothes officer raised an eyebrow above intense blue eyes and waved an ID card under Libby’s nose. “Detective Sergeant Ramshore. Step over there and leave it to us, now, please, madam.”

  A policewoman in uniform escorted Libby from the beach, leaving the blonde, dead stranger forlorn, a small, plastic ring with a pink stone tumbled beside her on the sand.

  Coffee and Cake

  “There’s no reason to cancel the meeting.” Marina folded her arms, enclosed in the purple sleeves of a wafty silk caftan, across an ample chest. “The police said they’d keep you informed. They’ll let you know what they find out.”

  “Yes, but…” Libby wasn’t confident the young officer would bother.

  “No, listen to me.” Marina was not the newly retired deputy head of the local primary school for nothing. She understood command. “You need a distraction, Libby, or else you’ll worry. I know you.”

  Libby bit back a reply. Marina, leading light of the WI, the music society, the food fair and the local history society, assumed the town’s new arrival couldn’t make the smallest decision for herself. She’d taken the unsuspecting Libby under her wing and somehow talked her into providing cake for the history society meetings. “Everyone’s sure to love it, dear, and they’ll all buy your book.”

  “Hmm. If I ever finish it.”

  Marina waved away such nonsense. Writing a book about celebration cakes, full of photographs, must be the easiest way possible to make a living. “Anyway, you can practice on us.” Libby duly supplied a different, elaborate confection for each meeting. She had to stand on her own feet, now her husband was dead, and she needed all the publicity she could get.

  Marina sampled a slice of today’s contribution, a pineapple and coconut upside-down cake with a cream cheese frosting. “Mmm. Delicious. Best yet.” The doorbell rang. “There you are.” She beamed. “It’s too late to cancel, now. Angela’s here.”

  Soon, Marina’s grand drawing room was full. “Quite a turn-out,” Angela Miles murmured in Libby’s ear. “Almost everyone’s braved the rain, today. News travels fast. Good heavens, even Samantha’s gracing us with her presence.”

  Samantha Watson folded a pair of long legs, sheer black tights hissing as she smoothed a tight pencil skirt over shapely knees. She enjoyed a carefully-constructed reputation as the town’s intellectual: a solicitor, she regularly completed the Telegraph crossword. She allowed very few social occasions to take up her valuable time, but today, she’d made an exception. “One of my clients has cancelled her appointment, so I’ve just popped in for a minute.” Samantha smiled, doing the society a favour. “Such a shame, another tragedy on the beach. More visitors stuck in the mud, I suppose.”

  Allowing Marina to p
lace a slice of cake on her plate, she cut it neatly into tiny squares and popped them, one after another, into a lipsticked mouth, her little pink tongue flicking out to chase stray crumbs. “Quite nice,” she pronounced. She allowed her gaze to fall on Libby. “I hear you found the body?”

  Libby had no chance to answer, for Marina’s excitement overflowed. “Such a shock, finding a body. Honestly, it gave me palpitations, just hearing about it. You must just be in pieces, Libby dear.” Her voice sunk to a dramatic whisper. “Imagine, a dead body, lying there all night, out on the beach, in such dreadful weather.”

  Samantha cleared her throat, to focus attention back on herself. “I spoke to Chief Inspector Arnold.”

  Libby frowned, puzzled. Angela murmured, “That’s why she’s come, of course. To tell us she’s in the know.” Angela winked. “Samantha hears all Arnold’s secrets.” She whispered. “Pillow talk.” Libby swallowed a splutter of laughter. She knew Samantha married her handsome, rather dim husband, Ned the local builder, when they were still in their teens.

  Angela went on, “Ned came from the old family that used to own the Hall. One of his ancestors was the earl, but the title died out years ago and the family sold up. You don’t often see Ned and Samantha together, these days.”

  Samantha, smiled from one expectant face to another. “Stephen, I mean, Chief Inspector Arnold, of course, told me the woman is Susie Bennett.”

  Marina’s jaw dropped. “No. Not Susie?”

  Samantha beamed, smug mouth curved in a complacent smile. “That’s right, Susie Bennett, the folk singer―or rock singer, was it?” She shrugged elegant, cashmere-clad shoulders. “The Susie Bennett who used to go to school with some of us.” She let her eyes rest on Libby, who was never at school with “us.” “The Chief Inspector says she committed suicide.”

  Seriously? He’s already decided? Libby pressed her lips together and kept her thoughts to herself.

  Everyone in the room seemed to have known the dead woman. Marina gasped. “Oh good gracious me. Susie Bennett! She hasn’t been back for years. Whatever was she doing here?”

  Angela set down her cup of tea. “Libby, dear, Susie is Exham on Sea’s most famous export. She went to the United States and sold millions of records, back in the 80s. She was in a band called Angel’s Kiss. I remember, because my name’s Angela. Actually, Angel’s Kiss was a cocktail, I believe.”

  Marina interrupted. “I remember one of their albums. It came with a drinking straw attached to the cover, I think. That lovely song, ‘What’s In a Name,’ was one of the tracks. Susie played the guitar and sang, and there was Guy with a violin and another boy―what was his name, now? Oh yes, James. He was on keyboards.”

  Samantha fiddled with her pearl necklace. “I don’t want to be unkind, but Susie, or Suzanne, as she was in those days, was rather―how can I put it―strange. You know, she had a big voice, big blue eyes, and a great deal of blonde hair, but there was no brain there at all. I mean, she left school with absolutely no qualifications.”

  “We were all madly jealous of her, to be honest,” Angela admitted. “Off we went to University, or started work as trainees at Barclays Bank or Marks and Spencer, while she went to America and made records. She married a fabulously wealthy record producer, but the marriage didn’t last long. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I haven’t seen or heard of her for years.” She sighed. “We were rather unkind to her, I’m afraid.”

  When the teapot was drained and the cake plate empty, the meeting broke up. “Next time,” Marina said, “we really must talk about history.”

  Finally, only George Edwards, the sole male member of the society, remained. He wrapped the last slice of cake in a paper napkin to take home and, breaking his silence, begged Libby to write down the recipe for his wife, who was at home nursing a cold and laryngitis. “She’ll be sorry she missed everything.”

  Robert's Discovery

  Recessed spotlights picked out the details of Libby’s beautifully equipped kitchen as she made coffee, using the state-of-the-art, instant hot water dispenser, installed last week. She pulled out mixing bowls, sieves and scales, and settled to a trial run of the perfect, elaborate, light-as-air cake she was developing. If it turned out as beautifully as she expected, it would make a wonderful cover picture for the book, “Baking at the Beach.”

  It was this room that persuaded Libby to buy the cottage. Facing south, always either sunny or cosy, perfect for a baking fanatic. Without a qualm, she’d sold Trevor’s treasured collection of trains, lavishing every last penny they fetched on her workplace. From the KitchenAid mixer on the granite counter, to the gleaming rows of heavy bottomed pans that hung on the wall near the double-size range cooker, Libby adored every inch of the room.

  She’d once confided the dream of opening a patisserie to her husband. Trevor took off his glasses and glared, his nose less than an inch away. “Don’t be so stupid.” Libby flinched as saliva hit her face. “Throwing good money after bad. Besides, I expect to find you at home when I come back after a hard day.” He sneered, replaced the spectacles right on the end of his nose, poured a tumbler of whisky and settled down to read the newspaper’s business section. Libby’s new kitchen would have been enough to make him choke on his drink.

  Tomorrow, she’d start the search for a builder, and get rid of the horrid, 1970s bathroom: the one room in the cottage she hated. The orange tiles made her feel sick every time she saw them.

  The phone rang as she shaved millimeters from the sponge cake. Her son, Robert was excited. “Mum, I’ve got news.” Libby’s heart leapt. He was getting engaged at last. There would be a wedding. She’d need a new dress, and a hat…

  “Are you listening? I’ve discovered a new great, great, great aunt, and what’s more, she lived in Somerset.” Libby sighed and cast a despairing glance at the meringue mixture she’d whipped to exactly the right consistency, as it collapsed, ruined.

  When he was a studious, serious teenager, Robert preferred history to football and Latin to art. He encouraged Libby to join the local history society in Exham on Sea. “You’ll meet some interesting people.”

  Libby had little interest in the Forest relations, Trevor’s ancestors, but Robert worshipped his father. He never saw Trevor’s dark side. She made an effort to sound interested. “Do tell me about it, darling.”

  “You know Dad always said his family were landowners?”

  “Mm hm.” Did he? Libby swallowed a mouthful from a second cup of coffee. She added a slug of whisky and licked her lips.

  “Well, I’ve found someone called Matilda Forest, and she’s a maid in a Victorian house.” Libby almost wished Trevor were here now. An ancestor in service: let him bluster his way out of that.

  Robert was still talking. “And the house is in Somerset, near you. It’s open to the public. Maybe we can all go and visit? Sarah’s keen.” Sarah was his girlfriend. Libby wasn’t sure how long she’d stick with dull-but-worthy Robert.

  Her interest sparked, she asked, “What did you find out about this Matilda?”

  “Well, she had to leave the Hall because she was pregnant. She moved to the next village. The baby kept her surname, but, get this, Mum, his Christian names were Stephen Arthur, and those were the names of the Earl who lived in the house.”

  Libby chuckled. “Are you telling me, your father’s ancestor was what they used to call, ‘No better than she should be,’ after hanky-panky with his lordship?”

  “Honestly, Mum, Dad would be mortified.”

  “So he would.”

  The phone rang again. Still smiling, Libby picked it up. “Hello, darling, what did you forget?”

  The deep voice on the other end of the phone brought her back to reality with a thud. “Is that Mrs Forest? It’s Detective Sergeant Joe Ramshore here.”

  Libby let the silence draw on for a moment. She really didn’t want to talk about the body under the lighthouse. She’d pushed Susie Bennett to the back of her mind. She let her breath out in a lo
ng sigh. “Yes, it’s me.”

  “Well, I’m ringing to thank you for your help today.” Joe Ramshore was the young detective from the beach. The one with blue eyes and a superior expression. “We wanted to let you know we’ve identified the lady you found.”

  “Susie Bennett?”

  “Oh. You’ve heard, then.” He sounded put out. “We think we know what happened, Mrs Forest. I thought you’d like to know that the deceased―” He coughed. “I mean, Susie Bennett, seems to have been alone when she died. I didn’t want you to worry. It was all an unfortunate accident.”

  “An accident?” It didn’t make sense.

  The detective was still talking. “Yes, I’m afraid she had an awful lot to drink. We think she-er-vomited and choked. No one else involved. Only happened a few hours before you found her, though it’s hard to tell the time of death, what with the cold water, and so on.”

  “Oh.” What an anti-climax: to die like that, so foolishly. “What about the ring?”

  “The ring?” He sounded puzzled. “Oh, yes, that bit of plastic on the sand. It was just a toy ring, nothing valuable. I expect it was in one of her pockets.”

  “But―” Libby broke off. No need to confess to moving the body. She compromised. “I just wondered why she’d have a plastic ring in her pocket.”

  “Oh, I see. Well, we don’t know.” The police officer’s tone was measured, pedantic. “She wouldn’t have been wearing it, would she? It’s a child’s ring.”

  Libby rolled her eyes. She could work that out without his help. “Yes, but―”

  “We had a look at it, but there wasn’t anything we could use: no fingerprints or anything, I mean. The weather saw to that.”

  Libby insisted. “I meant, did Susie Bennett have a family?”

  “Ah, I see what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if she has young children.”

  Libby, exasperated, crossed her eyes and waggled her head. Good thing the police officer couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

  “I can put your mind at rest on that, Mrs Forest. We don’t know of any family, as yet. Of course, we’re getting records over from the US, because her husband was American.”