Birthday Cake and Bodies (Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 9) Read online

  “Look at me,” Liz said, tossing her hand out as she directed Paddy towards a twisting stone staircase. “I ended up here, and I’m not even a native.”

  “I’ve spent so much time with you, and I still don’t feel like I know you very much at all, Liz Jones,” Simon said, his voice echoing as he trailed behind her. “I feel like my whole life is laid out to see and yet you’re still a mystery.”

  “There’s not much else to know,” Liz said with an uncomfortable laugh, fighting off the sudden urge to spill the intimate details of her loss. “I came here for a quieter life so I could live my dream of being a painter.”

  “And the bits in between?”

  “Merely filler,” she said, the urge vanishing as suddenly as it had sprung up. “I’m more interested in the here and now. Isn’t that the only way to live?”

  “I suppose,” Simon said when they reached the top of the staircase. “Although, I don’t think tonight is the night for living in the present, not when there’s ghosts wandering around these corridors.”

  A small laugh escaped Liz as an icy breeze whistled down the corridor. They turned another corner and headed up three steps into one of the rooms. A glass-less window frame stood grandly on the far side of the room, looking out over the town.

  “This was the master bedroom,” Simon said with a wink as he walked towards the window. “The legend says this is the room where the nobleman found his wife with the cook and –”

  “Went on a beheading spree?”

  “Exactly,” he said with a deep chuckle. “You can see everything from up here. Look, there’s your shop.”

  Liz joined Simon by the window and looked out into the dark, the twinkling lights of the town sloping towards the never-ending sea.

  “It really is breath-taking up here,” she said, her hot breath turning to condensation in the air. “I need to come up and paint this view during the day.”

  “I think you should,” Simon said with a nod, turning to her with an easy smile. “You’re a great painter.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, the words catching in her throat as something bubbled up from her chest. “And you’re a great cheese-maker.”

  He turned back to the view, his faint brows tensing in the middle of his nose.

  “Why Scarlet Cove?” he asked suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  “Why did you move to Scarlet Cove?”

  “Should I not have done?”

  “You know what I’m trying to say,” he said, turning to her suddenly, squinting as though he was trying to look inside her for the answers he craved. “You could have gone anywhere for a new start. There are plenty of places with pretty views to paint. Why this view?”

  “Honestly?” Liz replied before clearing her throat, her fingers drifting up to scratch the side of her head. “I was walking past a charity shop one day and one of the books in the window caught my attention. I went inside, picked it up, and I couldn’t stop staring at the crystal blue sky and the harbour. I didn’t put any more thought into it. I knew I wanted to leave Manchester, and in that moment, I knew I had found my new home. I didn’t question it because I knew if I had, I would never have taken the leap. That was six months ago, and now here I am.”

  “You started your new life based on a book cover?” he asked, more than a little confused. “That’s crazy, Liz!”

  “It’s as good a reason as any.”

  “What are you running from?” he asked before gulping so hard she would have sworn he was swallowing sawdust. “What happened in Manchester?”

  Liz stared deep into Simon’s eyes, wanting so badly to reveal herself to him, but unsure of how to do it. Had she not left that version of Liz behind? She was living in the present, and she could not think of anywhere she wanted to be more than next to the stunning view with the handsome farmer.

  “Kiss me, Simon,” she whispered, the words catching in the back of her throat. “I don’t want to talk anymore. Just kiss me.”

  Simon nodded, a dumbfounded look spreading across his face. He grabbed the sides of her coat with trembling fingers, pulling her into him. Paddy’s lead slipped from her fingers as she closed her eyes, two months of wondering about to reach a deserved conclusion.

  She felt Simon’s hot beer breath hit her nostrils, and it struck her that it was possibly the most masculine scent there was. She wondered what it would taste like to mix the beer and wine, sure she was about to find out.

  Simon’s lips brushed against hers, but a loud thud pulled them back just as quickly. Liz opened her eyes and turned to the door; the spell had been broken.

  “Paddy,” she muttered.

  As though it took longer for Simon’s spell to be broken, she headed for the door, leaving him by the window. It was not until she was running back down the spiral staircase towards the red lights that she heard Simon’s footsteps behind her.

  She stubbed her foot against something heavy in the dark, forcing her to stop in her tracks. The weight of it made her assume it was a piece of fallen stone, but it rolled away into the shadows like a football. Heart pounding in her chest, she looked down the corridor towards the red light, relief spreading through her when she heard Paddy’s familiar bark. Leaving the solid ball behind, she set off towards the noise, skidding to a halt when she saw Paddy, and more importantly, saw what he was barking at.

  “Oh my God,” escaped her lips before she had time to think.

  She scooped up the lead, her eyes transfixed on the scene in front of her. Just like on that night countless centuries ago, a headless body lay motionless on the stone tiles, blood trickling out of the neck into a far-reaching scarlet pool.

  “Liz?” Simon’s shaky voice echoed down the corridor. “I think you need to see this.”

  Unable to take her eyes away from the headless body, Liz walked backwards, the lead wrapped tightly around her hand as Paddy continued to bark. Gulping hard, she forced herself to turn around, her heart stopping once more when she saw Simon shining his bright phone screen on what she had kicked.

  She had not kicked a ball, she had kicked a head, and not just anyone’s head, but Polly Spragg’s boyfriend, Nathan’s head…

  TO BE CONTINUED!

  The 2nd book in the Scarlet Cove series, Castle on the Hill, is coming October 24th! Click here to PREORDER your copy!

  Also by Agatha Frost

  The Scarlet Cove Seaside Series

  Dead in the Water (Book 1) - OUT NOW

  Castle on the Hill (Book 2) - PREORDER

  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) - PREORDER

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