Champagne and Catastrophes Read online

  Champagne and Catastrophes

  Agatha Frost

  Published by Pink Tree Publishing Limited in 2018

  All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © Pink Tree Publishing Limited.

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For questions and comments about this book, please contact [email protected]

  www.pinktreepublishing.com

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  Contents

  About This Book

  Newsletter Signup

  Also by Agatha Frost

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Thank You!

  Also by Agatha Frost

  Newsletter Signup

  About This Book

  Released: October 23rd 2018

  Words: 51,000

  Series: Book 14 - Peridale Cozy Café Mystery Series

  Standalone: Yes

  Cliff-hanger: No

  Julia and Barker have finally set a date for the wedding, but that doesn't mean Julia has jumped straight into the planning, even though it's only three months away. With their daughter, Jessie, backpacking around Australia for the month, Julia has no excuse not to start the preparations, but she can't bring herself to dive into the huge task.

  An old school friend of Julia's moves into the cottage across the lane, and she is over the moon when she finds out that Leah happens to be a wedding planner. Julia feels like fate has delivered Leah to her, but things soon turn sour when it seems not everyone in the village is happy to have Leah back after two decades away. When Leah vanishes under suspicious circumstances days into the wedding planning, Julia quickly learns that her old friend isn't quite what she thought.

  With Julia's other best friends, Roxy and Johnny, in the frame for Leah's disappearance, Julia must get to the bottom of the case. Where has Leah gone, why are Roxy and Johnny so involved, and what did Leah do that was so terrible twenty years ago?

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  Also by Agatha Frost

  The Peridale Cafe Series

  Pancakes and Corpses (Book 1) - OUT NOW

  Lemonade and Lies (Book 2) - OUT NOW

  Doughnuts and Deception (Book 3) - OUT NOW

  Chocolate Cake and Chaos (Book 4) - OUT NOW

  Shortbread and Sorrow (Book 5) - OUT NOW!

  Espresso and Evil (Book 6) - OUT NOW

  Macarons and Mayhem (Book 7) - OUT NOW

  Fruit Cake and Fear (Book 8) - OUT NOW

  Birthday Cake and Bodies (Book 9) - OUT NOW

  Gingerbread and Ghosts (Book 10) - OUT NOW

  Cupcakes and Casualties (Book 11) - OUT NOW

  Blueberry Muffins and Misfortune (Book 12) - OUT NOW

  Ice Cream and Incidents (Book 13) - OUT NOW

  Champagne and Catastrophes (Book 14) - OUT NOW

  Wedding Cake and Woes (Book 15) - COMING SOON

  The Scarlet Cove Seaside Series

  Dead in the Water (Book 1) - OUT NOW

  Castle on the Hill (Book 2) - OUT NOW

  Stroke of Death (Book 3) - OUT NOW

  1

  “You’re breaking up,” Julia said as the video of her daughter jittered across her phone’s screen. “Jessie?”

  “M-M-trailia-g-d-” Jessie’s fragmented voice struggled through the tiny speakers and the bad connection. “It’s awesome!”

  “I think she’s trying to say, ‘Australia is awesome.’” Barker’s shout from the dining room made Julia jump. “Ask her what she’s been up to.”

  “I would if this silly thing worked!” Julia jabbed the screen with her finger, but the video of Jessie had devolved into a mushy mess of pixels. “I just want to check that our daughter is alive and well. Is that too much to ask?” Julia shook the phone and squinted at the screen. “Jessie? Can you hear me?”

  “Try the garden,” Barker called over the sound of his typing. “Sometimes, the signal is better out there.”

  Still in her dressing gown and slippers, Julia unlocked the cottage’s front door and hurried into the garden, her eyes fixed on the phone. As though a magic spell had been cast, Jessie’s face snapped into focus.

  “There you are!” Julia cried, her smile beaming. “I’d almost forgotten what you looked like.”

  “I’ve only been gone for six days,” Jessie said with a signature eye roll. “Are you in your dressing gown?”

  “You are nine hours ahead.” Julia pulled her pink gown together as she peered up and down the quiet lane—not that she had any close neighbours to catch her outside in her nightclothes. “It’s only eight in the morning here. What have you done today? Tell me everything.”

  “Hello, Miss S!” Billy called. His face appeared behind Jessie on the tiny screen. “We’re missing your cakes.”

  “Shove off, Billy.” Jessie pushed him away from the camera’s view. “Everything is fine. You’re not worrying, are you?”

  Julia considered her response as she paced across the grass. When Jessie had mentioned that she wanted to spend a month backpacking around Australia, Julia had been apprehensive. When she had realised Jessie was telling her and not asking, Julia had been even more anxious. Though Jessie was eighteen and legally an adult, Julia couldn’t help but worry. It soothed her a little to know that Jessie’s boyfriend, Billy, and her older brother, Alfie, were there with her, but it hadn’t stopped Julia from losing sleep.

  “Mum? Is everything okay?”

  “Oh, yes.” Julia nodded and pushed a smile onto her lips. “I haven’t been worrying.”

  “You know I can see you, right?” Jessie rolled her eyes again. “You’re a terrible liar. There’s no need to worry. We’re having a great time, and I’ve got Alfie here. He’s travelled the world twice over.”

  Jessie tapped something on her screen, and the camera suddenly flipped to show Alfie and Billy sitting around a campfire as a pink sun faded into the orange sky behind them.

  “You know what I’m like,” Julia said with a wave of her hand. “Don’t worry about me worrying. That will make me worry more. I don’t think I’m making much sense, am I?”

  “You’re not.” Jessie chuckled. “But you are crazy. How’s the café? How’s Mowgli?”

  “Everything is fine here. Tell me about your day! Don’t skip the details.”

  Jessie explained how they had hitched a ride in the back of a ‘very cool guy’s truck’ to a popular backpacking hostel fifty miles outside Sydney, where they were sharing dorms with thirty other ‘really cool’ people. Julia listened carefully, smiling and nodding, hoping her distress was not written all over her face.

  “We’re going horse riding tomorrow.” Jessie let out a long yawn. “One of the guys here knows someone
who knows a guy who runs a farm. Should be fun.”

  “Just be safe.” Julia’s voice faltered. “I miss you.”

  “Six days, cake lady.”

  “I’m allowed to miss you.”

  Jessie looked around before bringing the phone closer to her face and saying, “I miss you too, but only a little bit. Just don’t freak out, okay? I’m going to have a beer with the guys. Love you.”

  “Love you too,” Julia said loudly. “And don’t drink too—”

  Jessie ended the call before Julia could finish her warning. Julia dropped onto the creaky, moss-covered bench under her sitting room window and let out a deep sigh as she peered up at the bright blue, August-morning sky. Though she had no idea how the next twenty-four days were going to go, Julia was sure the ache in her chest was only going to grow with each passing day.

  Julia had no idea how long she had been sitting on the bench thinking about Jessie, but a car driving slowly down the lane dragged her out of her daydream. She watched as it ground to a halt in front of the only other cottage Julia could see from her garden. She stood and pulled her gown tight as she watched a tall, slender woman with pin-straight, sandy-coloured hair climb out. The mystery woman peered over the top of her car at the tiny cottage, shielding her eyes from the sun.

  “A new neighbour?” Julia’s question drifted on the warm morning breeze as she dipped down behind the bushes circling her garden.

  She squinted over the edge of the greenery for a better look, but under the sun’s glare, the newcomer was nothing more than a head of gleaming hair. She walked around her car and popped open the boot before pulling out a large cardboard box.

  After hurrying inside, Julia swiftly changed out of her dressing gown and into a peach-coloured summer dress. She ran a brush through her chocolatey curls, spritzed on a little sweet perfume, and threw on a coat of black mascara.

  “New neighbour!” Julia called into the dining room as she ran towards the kitchen. “We have a new neighbour!”

  “Huh?” Barker replied, his fingers still drumming on the keyboard. “How’s Jessie?”

  “She’s fine.” Julia peered into the packed fridge until her eyes landed on the orange-zest carrot cake she had baked the previous night. “Someone is moving into Emily Burns’ old cottage.”

  “That’s been empty for a year.”

  “Exactly!” Julia pulled the cake from the fridge and peeled the lid from its plastic display case before transferring it onto one of her prettiest china plates. “I’m going to introduce myself. Why don’t you come?”

  “Deadline,” he replied, his typing only pausing so he could slurp his coffee. “Maybe later.”

  Julia headed to the front door, cake in hand, before realising her new neighbour wouldn’t have any tea or coffee making ingredients yet. Doubling back, she filled a plastic carrier bag with half a jar of coffee, a box of black tea bags, a bag of sugar, and a small carton of milk. She almost closed the bag but threw in a handful of individually-wrapped peppermint and liquorice tea, just in case the new neighbour liked Julia’s favourite tea. With excitement fluttering in her chest, Julia left her cottage.

  Making her way down the garden path, Julia wondered if she was being a little premature in welcoming her new neighbour to the village. The newcomer might want to be left alone to unpack, after all—though Julia knew nobody would turn down a freshly baked cake; nobody nice, at least. Shaking these thoughts from her mind, she remembered that Emily Burns had appeared to greet Julia the second her moving van had pulled up outside her cottage three years ago. If she sensed hostility from the new arrival, she would hand over the cake and leave her to her day.

  Julia lingered by the gate and peered through the open cottage door. While she waited for her new neighbour to appear, she assessed what had once been Emily’s beautiful and prized rose garden. Weeds had taken over the grass, which had yellowed thanks to the recent drought. Even though vibrant red roses had persevered without attendance, they lacked the refinement that Emily’s daily pruning had brought.

  The new neighbour walked out of the cottage, dusting her hands. She made it halfway down the garden path before she noticed Julia and stopped in her tracks.

  “Oh, hello,” the woman said, her brows knitting. “Wait. Julia? Julia South?”

  Julia stared at the woman who knew her name, but it only took her a second to realise she was staring not at a stranger but someone she had once called a close friend.

  “Leah? Leah Burns!”

  “Now, there’s a blast from the past.” Leah’s hands drifted up to her mouth as a grin spread across her face. “I’ve been back in Peridale for five minutes, and Julia South has turned up on my doorstep with a cake! If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was dreaming. Look at you! You haven’t aged a day.”

  “Neither have you.” Julia stared at her old friend in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re my new neighbour. How long has it been? It must be twenty years!”

  “Twenty-one years exactly,” Leah said as she looked around at the green countryside surrounding them. “I haven’t stepped foot in Peridale since 1997, and this place hasn’t changed one bit. What are you doing here? Nobody knew I was coming.”

  “I live across the lane.” Julia nodded to her cottage. “I saw your car pull up and I thought I’d welcome you.”

  “You’re telling me I would have got one of your delicious cakes even if you didn’t know me?” Leah shook her head in disbelief. “You really haven’t changed. I still dream about your chocolate fudge brownies. I can’t imagine how much better they are now that you’ve had twenty years practise.”

  “I run a small café in the village,” Julia said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m moving in!” Leah clapped her hands together. “Or, should I say, moving back? It still feels like home after all this time. I never thought I’d come back here, but with Mum’s death, and—”

  “E-Emily’s dead?”

  “Oh.” Leah raised her hands to her mouth again. “You haven’t heard, then? I suppose you should come in. I’d offer you tea, but I haven’t been to the shop yet.”

  Julia handed over the bag in mute silence before following Leah into the cottage. All of Emily’s things were where she had left them. Framed watercolour paintings hung on the walls, and porcelain ornaments covered every surface. If not for the dust, Julia could imagine Emily had merely popped into the village to pick up a loaf of bread.

  “Mum passed away two months ago.” Leah filled the kettle at the sink. “Cancer. It all happened so quickly.”

  “Two months ago?” Julia echoed, the shock evident in her voice. “I can’t believe nobody mentioned it. Surely somebody here knew? She had so many friends in the village.”

  Leah exhaled as she set the kettle on its base. Plucking two cups from the rack, she swilled them under some warm water while the kettle bubbled.

  “Mum was stubborn,” Leah said, unable to look Julia in the eyes. “She made us promise not to contact anyone in Peridale. She was humiliated. She hardly left under the best circumstances, did she? She told us all about that nasty business with the Peridale Green Fingers and all those deaths. She never forgave herself for all the lies she told.” Leah looked through the bag and pulled out two of the peppermint and liquorice tea packets. She gave them a cautionary sniff, but appeared to like what greeted her because she ripped them open and dropped them into the cups. “She moved to the coast with her cousin, Bonnie, and settled into life quite nicely down there. She had even started a new rose garden. We all went down for Christmas, but we could tell something wasn’t right, but she wouldn’t go to the doctors. That’s what Mum was like though. She was diagnosed in March after collapsing in the post office while drawing her pension. Died in May. We wanted to send something to the paper up here, but she had made us promise not to, and it didn’t feel right to betray a dead woman’s promise.”

  Julia’s stomach writhed with guilt. Even though she hadn’t given Emily cancer, she had been
involved in uncovering Emily’s plot to fraudulently become the president of the Peridale Green Fingers society. Emily’s lies to get to the top had resulted in the original president’s accidental death, leading the president’s daughter to kill members of the society in revenge. Because of this, Emily had lived her last months away from the village she adored under a grey cloud of regret.

  “Was it peaceful?” Julia swallowed the lump in her throat.

  “She went in her sleep. She wouldn’t have known what was happening. That’s what the doctor said, at least. It’s something, I suppose.”

  The kettle pinged, and Leah filled the cups to the brim. She took them over to the tiny dining table and set them down on the faint layer of dust. They both sat and stared into the dark surface of their teas.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Julia offered. “I know what it’s like to lose a parent.”

  “My mum was old.” Leah grabbed Julia’s hand. “Yours wasn’t. But thank you, Julia. I can’t believe we’re going to be neighbours after all these years.”

  Julia couldn’t believe it either. Being the same age in a small village, they had gone through school side-by-side. Julia couldn’t remember what had led to Leah leaving the village, but they had been fond friends, especially in their teens.