Dead Jealous Read Online Free PDF Page B

detective said.
    ‘She was looking for someone. A friend. She thought she might be here but I don’t think she was.’
    ‘What was her friend’s name?’
    Poppy tried to remember but the name was gone. She screwed her eyes shut, racking her brain. She saw Beth smiling up at the stars. Remembered the way she’d looked at her from under the long black lashes.
    Flirting.
    Beth had been flirting with her, it’s just she’d been too bloody thick to notice until...
    ‘Poppy?’
    ‘I don’t remember!’ she blurted.
    Mum squeezed her arm. ‘It’s OK, Poppy. I’m sure the policemen understand.’
    The Old Fox exchanged a glance with his sidekick. ‘What did she say about this friend?’
    ‘She was in love with her.’
    ‘ Her? ’ the younger guy repeated.
    Poppy could hear the titillation in his voice. Was that what Beth had had to put up with all her life? Sad blokes thinking that they were the one who could turn her, or hell, they wouldn’t mind watching. ‘Yes, her . Have you got a problem with that?’ She glared at the detective.
    He shrank back into the bench and said nothing.
    ‘And yesterday was the first time you’d met her?’ the old guy asked.
    ‘Yes.’
    He nodded. ‘Right you are. We’ll need a formal statement, of course, but maybe we’ll leave that until later. Until you’ve had time to think. Will you still be here?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Mum said. ‘I think maybe we ought to go home.’
    ‘No, Mum! Your handfasting. I’ll be here.’
    ‘Mrs Sinclair—’
    ‘—Donoghue,’ Mum corrected.
    ‘Sorry. Mrs Donoghue, maybe you could come outside and give one of my constables your contact details, just in case you decide to take Poppy home.’
    ‘Of course. Will you be OK?’
    Poppy nodded and got up to let Mum out.
    DS Grant watched his boss leave with Mum, but didn’t move. He waited until they were out of the door before sitting forward and leaning his elbows on the table, just as his boss had done. It had been planned. Now the real questioning would start.
    ‘Poppy, is there anything else you can tell us?’ he asked.
    Hold on, there was something. There had been someone there before she got there. ‘There was someone up on the bluff. This morning. At first I thought it might be Beth, but it wasn’t. It was a bloke staring out at the lake.’
    DS Grant scribbled something down in a notebook. ‘You can’t give me a better description?’
    ‘No; it was sunrise. Just a shadow really.’
    He pressed his lips together and nodded. ‘You’d definitely never met Beth before?’
    ‘Definitely.’
    ‘Then how did you end up talking to her?’
    ‘I was looking for somewhere quiet. I went up the bluff and Beth was already there. We just got talking.’
    ‘Did you and she...’
    ‘What?’
    He smiled coyly. ‘Hit it off?’
    ‘We got on, if that’s what you mean.’
    He shuffled in his seat. ‘Look, there’s a young woman dead and we need to ask uncomfortable questions.’
    Poppy couldn’t help rolling her eyes. Even so, she felt her cheeks redden. ‘I didn’t fancy her, if that’s what you’re trying to ask.’
    He nodded. ‘What did you think of her?’
    ‘What d’you mean?’
    ‘Was she happy…depressed?’
    ‘You mean depressed enough to kill herself? No. I don’t think so.’
    ‘Had she been drinking?’
    ‘Yeah, but she wasn’t drunk. Certainly not drunk enough to drown in shallow water.’
    ‘What was she drinking?’
    Poppy saw the glow of the sunset glint gold in the bottle. She blinked the image away. ‘Jack Daniel’s.’
    ‘And how much had she had?’
    ‘I’m not sure. No more than half a bottle.’
    He bit his rubbery bottom lip and nodded seriously, like he’d worked it all out. ‘That’s a lot of Jack Daniel’s.’
    ‘She wasn’t drunk. I’d have noticed.’
    ‘I’ve seen it before. One minute they’re as sober as a judge, the next they’re off their faces. It’s sad, but it happens a lot around here. It’s a nice evening, they