Peridale Cafe Mystery 21 - Profiteroles and Poison Read online

  PROFITEROLES AND POISON

  PERIDALE CAFE - BOOK 21

  AGATHA FROST

  CONTENTS

  About This Book

  Newsletter Signup

  Also by Agatha Frost

  Prologue - Murder on the Christmas Express

  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

  Chapter 19

  FRESH LINEN FRAUD - Chapter 1 Sneak Peek!

  Thank You!

  Newsletter Signup

  Also by Agatha Frost

  Published by Pink Tree Publishing Limited in 2021

  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

  www.agathafrost.com

  About This Book

  Released: March 5th 2021

  Words: 57,000

  Series: Book 21 - Peridale Cozy Café Mystery Series

  Standalone: Yes

  Cliff-hanger: No

  With Baby South-Brown’s arrival just around the corner, Julia joins the local book club during her maternity leave. What better way to rest, relax, and connect with a few of Peridale’s book-loving citizens? But when one of the book clubbers dies during a meeting, everyone’s a suspect.

  Meanwhile, with a missing father and a murdered woman already on Barker’s plate – not to mention the poison pen letters demanding his return to novel-writing, or else, arriving with alarming frequency – Barker’s biggest case yet as a private investigator gets more complicated with each passing day.

  And the Braxton Hicks contractions, baby shower drama, and “Ten Things Every Father Must Do To Prepare For Baby!!” articles aren’t helping matters. With Barker and Julia’s lives looking disturbingly like one of the novels Barker no longer writes, it will take their combined investigative skills to get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding them.

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  ALSO BY AGATHA FROST

  Claire’s Candles

  1. Vanilla Bean Vengeance

  2. Black Cherry Betrayal

  3. Coconut Milk Casualty

  4. Rose Petal Revenge

  5. Fresh Linen Fraud (NEW!)

  Peridale Cafe

  1. Pancakes and Corpses

  2. Lemonade and Lies

  3. Doughnuts and Deception

  4. Chocolate Cake and Chaos

  5. Shortbread and Sorrow

  6. Espresso and Evil

  7. Macarons and Mayhem

  8. Fruit Cake and Fear

  9. Birthday Cake and Bodies

  10. Gingerbread and Ghosts

  11.Cupcakes and Casualties

  12. Blueberry Muffins and Misfortune

  13. Ice Cream and Incidents

  14. Champagne and Catastrophes

  15. Wedding Cake and Woes

  16. Red Velvet and Revenge

  17. Vegetables and Vengeance

  18. Cheesecake and Confusion

  19. Brownies and Bloodshed

  20. Cocktails and Cowardice

  21. Profiteroles and Poison (NEW!)

  22. Scones and Scandal (PRE-ORDER!)

  Other

  The Agatha Frost Winter Anthology

  Peridale Cafe Book 1-10

  Peridale Cafe Book 11-20

  Claire’s Candles Book 1-3

  PROLOGUE - MURDER ON THE CHRISTMAS EXPRESS

  A STANDALONE PREQUEL SHORT STORY FIRST PUBLISHED DECEMBER 19TH 2020 ALONG WITH FIVE OTHER FESTIVE SHORTS AS PART OF THE AGATHA FROST WINTER ANTHOLOGY (OUT NOW!)

  J ulia had no idea why she was at Peridale’s tiny train station.

  Wrapped up warm and hands buried deep in her pockets as a fierce wind whipped at her chocolaty curls, she looked up and down the station’s single platform. The screen was still blank, and the announcer hadn’t signalled that any of the regular trains were passing through any time soon. She’d expected at least some clues to how she would spend the day, but as of yet, none had presented themselves.

  “I can tell you’re trying to figure it out.” Julia’s husband, Barker, smiled coyly as he pushed back his thick coat sleeve to check his silver wristwatch – a gift from Julia on his recent forty-first birthday. “If you direct your attention to the tunnel, all will soon be revealed.”

  Following Barker to the edge of the platform, Julia peered into the tunnel, but only darkness and swirling leaves greeted her. Despite finding out about her Saturday morning ‘surprise’ only last night, Barker claimed to have had it planned for months – not that he would give so much as a hint about what it might be. She hadn’t even known the train station was their destination when they’d set off from their cottage that morning.

  The best part was that she hadn’t needed to find cover for the café. With only a month until her due date, she’d reluctantly handed over the day-to-day responsibilities to her nineteen-year-old daughter, Jessie, who, to no one’s surprise, was running everything perfectly. Aside from antenatal appointments with Barker, baby-clothes shopping with her sister, and meetings for the book club she’d recently joined, Julia truly had nothing better to do.

  She wasn’t too proud to admit how mindlessly bored she’d been lately.

  A distant whistle echoed down the curved tunnel, standing Julia’s neck hairs to attention. Warm light slowly illuminated the darkness, and the first hint of steam forced its way free of the tunnel. The wind whirled the locomotive’s billowing smoke around them as the brakes screeched to a halt.

  The cloud cleared, revealing a long, black, steam-powered train.

  For a woman who drove a car from the 1960s and adored vintage dresses from the 1940s, it was quite possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

  “Oh, Barker!”

  “Did I do well?” he asked nervously.

  “You did very well.” Julia rose on tiptoes to kiss her husband, though her bump pressed against his stomach and made the gesture a little more awkward than it had been before. She glanced back at the train, and said, “I’m in a jumper and maternity jeans. Am I not a little underdressed?”

  “Everyone here is welcome as they come,” announced a cheerful voice as the door to one of the many carriages opened. “You must be our Peridale pickups. We’ve been preparing for your stay. Would you like to come aboard?”

  “I’d love nothing more,” Julia said, already unbuttoning her winter coat as she stepped into a small mahogany-panelled c
ompartment. “I’ve always wanted to ride on an old train like this.”

  “Then I’m glad you picked us to be your first,” said the impeccably dressed man as he held out a hand to shake. “My name is Jonathan, and I’m absolutely delighted to welcome you aboard the Christmas Express. I’m afraid I shall have to correct you, though. This is no mere train ride. But more on that later.” Jonathan the conductor opened a door and motioned for them to enter. “Please, let me show you to your seats before the driver sets off again.”

  Julia stepped inside, her smile widening. A spiced cloud of festive scent hit her as she entered the softly lit carriage. Stunningly decorated for Christmas, the long Art Deco carriage appeared to have multiple functions. Four shiny mahogany tables reflected the twinkling festive lights. A glamorously dressed couple of around retirement age occupied one. They nodded and smiled at Julia as both sets of eyes went straight to the bump jutting out from her open coat.

  Beyond that was a bar, a platform that looked like a stage, and a beautiful Christmas tree filled with glass ornaments swaying gently with the train’s movement as it inched forward. Julia hadn’t put her tree up yet, but just being in the room with one made her want to send Barker up to the attic to fetch the decorations the moment they returned home. Not that she was in a rush; she could easily stay aboard the train all day.

  “The two of you will be seated here.”

  Julia shrugged off her coat before sitting at the empty table Jonathan indicated. Before she had a chance to worry about where to put it, Jonathan took it from her and hung it in a closet concealed behind a shiny wooden panel. After scanning the carriage, the conductor took a step towards the door and offered a slight bow.

  “I’ll be leaving you in the capable hands of my beautiful wife, Melanie, while I check on our other guests.” Jonathan held out a hand in the direction of the bar, and the woman polishing a glass behind it gave them all a smile. “You’re free to move around the train, but I’m certain you’ll find everything you need in here. The bathroom is through the door on the other side, and all drinks and food are complimentary. Christmas lunch will be served in due course. In the meantime, drink, have fun, be merry, and please, enjoy the music.”

  Before Julia could point out the distinct lack of music, the door on the other side of the cabin opened at the exact same time Jonathan bowed out of the room. A young woman in a slinky, beaded flapper dress perched on a stool behind an old-fashioned silver microphone, the height of which someone had already perfectly adjusted to land at her red lips.

  “Can you believe this place?” Barker whispered, leaning across the table and grinning. “It’s like stepping back in time.”

  “It’s magical.”

  Lit by a hazy spotlight on the ceiling above her, the singer sat with her eyes closed until the cabin filled with instrumental music. Smiling, she swayed, only opening her eyes when she first started to sing. Her voice was soft and husky, perfectly suited to the jazzy cover of ‘White Christmas’.

  “Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?” asked the woman across the aisle.

  “We’re keeping it a surprise,” Julia said, resting her hand on the bump. “Not long to go now.”

  “You look ready to drop!” The woman reached across the aisle and held out her hand. “I’m Sandra, by the way, and this is my long-suffering husband, Bob. Say hello, Bob.”

  “Hello, Bob,” the man parroted.

  They all laughed, and before long, they were chatting like old friends as the music played and the calm winter English countryside blurred by.

  Julia was in heaven. She couldn’t have designed a more perfect day.

  An hour into their journey, Jonathan returned with a young, formally dressed server by the name of Alexander. He brought in silver trays carrying the most delicious Christmas dinner Julia had ever tasted. After a classic prawn cocktail salad, they ate a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings, followed by a dessert of Christmas pudding with brandy cream, although they kindly served Julia non-alcoholic cream.

  By the time Julia pushed away her final plate, she was more stuffed than she’d felt in months, regardless of the giant-feeling life she was growing.

  “That,” she said, dabbing at the corner of her mouth with her napkin, “is how you do Christmas lunch.”

  As though sensing everyone had finished, Alexander and his trolley returned to clear their plates. While he stacked everything on a shelf concealed by a curtain, the train zoomed into a dark tunnel. In the absence of a view, the blackened windows reflected the goings-on in the cabin. Jonathan and Melanie chatted at the bar behind her, and the singer still serenaded them from her stool.

  “Is that the brakes?” Julia whispered as the distinct whine of metal on metal pierced the air. “Why are we stopping?”

  “I don’t know,” Barker replied, looking around. “They don’t look too worried about—”

  The lights cut out, and Julia and Sandra let out yelps, although the latter followed it up with a laugh. Though the music continued playing, the singer’s voice trailed off. People moved about the cabin around Julia, not that she could see anything. She reached across the table and grabbed Barker’s hands at the same moment the train rocked to a complete stop.

  “Barker…”

  “I’m here.”

  Deep in the darkness, a man groaned.

  When the lights flickered on, a woman screamed. Turning to the source of the sound, Julia could hardly believe her eyes. The conductor, Jonathan, lay slumped over the corner of the bar, a wood-handled knife jutting out between his shoulder blades. The singer added her scream to Melanie’s, and Julia bit her tongue to avoid joining them.

  “My husband!” Melanie cried as she stared at Jonathan in horror. “Somebody has murdered my husband!”

  “Oh, God.” Julia scrambled for her phone. “We need to call someone. We need to…”

  Her phone was useless; she had no signal whatsoever this deep in the tunnel.

  “I’ll go ask the driver what the hold-up is,” said Alexander, already pulling open the door.

  The minutes that followed felt like a bizarre dream. Barker and Bob pulled Jonathan down from the bar, confirming he was dead before moving his body to lie on the floor in the small closed space between them and the bathroom cabin. While the two men spoke in private on the other side of the door, Julia left Sandra – who seemed to relish the chaos – and approached the bar where Melanie was sobbing into her arms.

  “I don’t even know what to say,” Julia said gently, her eyes darting to the spot on the bar where the man had been just moments earlier. “I have no idea what’s happening right now, but I know I’m sorry for your loss. He seemed like a lovely man.”

  “Thank you, he was.” Melanie lifted her head. Despite the wailing, her eyes seemed devoid of any actual tears. “Which is why I don’t understand why someone would do such a thing. Someone took advantage of our breakdown and loss of power to sink a knife into my husband’s back.”

  “Or they orchestrated it?” Julia scanned the cabin, looking first at Sandra and then the singer. Alexander had yet to return from his visit to the driver. “There are so few people in this cabin, and it had to be one of us. Unless anyone heard any doors opening and closing?”

  “Oh, good observation!” Sandra exclaimed, jumping up to join her. “I listened intently the moment the lights cut out. No doors, but someone ripped back the curtain of the trolley. I wonder if that’s where they took the knife from?”

  Hand pressed to the small of her back, Julia waddled over to the trolley and tugged back the curtain. A carving fork jutted from the picked-over turkey carcass, and its handle was the same wood as the knife in Jonathan’s back.

  “Looks like there was another knife in here,” she said, crouching as much as her belly would allow and pointing to the two-inch slit in the skin next to the carving fork.

  “You’re really good at this.”

  Julia thought about mentioning that she’d had a hand in solving
the odd local crime here and there, but she decided against it. As nice as Sandra had seemed all afternoon, this apparent excitement over the man’s death was off-putting. Thankfully, the doors on both ends of the cabin opened just then, giving Julia a reason to leave her. Barker and Bob returned through one, and Alexander through the other.

  “Someone blocked the tunnel with a car,” Alexander revealed. “They’re working to have it moved, but it’s going to take some time.”

  “What if another train comes?” Julia asked.

  “We’re the only train on this line today,” he replied, before adding hastily, “That’s what the driver said, at least.”

  The server squeezed past them and headed for the stage. As he moved to comfort the singer, she brushed him away and took a seat alone at one of the empty tables. She stared blankly through the window as though seeing something the rest of them couldn’t.

  “Got through to the police,” Barker said, resting a gentle hand on Julia’s shoulder as she observed the young woman. “They’re on their way, but it’s going to take some time to get down to us.”

  “This is insane,” Julia whispered, pulling Barker into a tight hug. “We’re trapped on a train with a dead man and the person who killed him. What do we do?”

  “We have some time,” he said, kissing her cheek as he pulled away. “We could see if there’s a way to solve it before the police get here.”

  “You’re proposing we solve it?” Julia arched a brow. “Seriously? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”

  “I’m a private detective, and you’re as good as one.”

  “I’m also heavily pregnant, in case you hadn’t noticed.” She pointed to the bump. “And ever since that … fiasco on our honeymoon over summer, I’ve kept my promise to stay out of police matters. You barely let me investigate the contents of the refrigerator without forcing me into a chair, and now you’re suggesting we actually jump in?”

  “As long as I’m here,” he said, hands cupping the sides of the bump, “I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”