Claire's Candles Mystery 05 - Fresh Linen Fraud Page 5

  “Consider it done. It’s about time you joined one of my classes. I’ve been asking you for months.”

  “Well, I never said—”

  “You’ll enjoy it,” Em interrupted with a wink. “Trust me.”

  Em said her farewells, leaving Claire to return to the shop. Most Monday mornings in the square were slow, so there weren’t any customers quite yet, though it was worth opening for the random rushes they might get later in the day.

  Still, she didn’t condone falling asleep at the counter.

  “You’re fired!” she cried, clapping her hands sharply.

  Damon shot up, an order form stuck to his cheek. He blinked around the shop through glasses sitting askew on the bridge of his nose.

  “Sorry, late night playing Dawn Ship 2 online with Sean.” He stifled a yawn as he straightened his glasses. “Wait, did you just fire me?”

  “Yes, with no warnings.” She smirked. “We were right about Eryk firing my mum. I straight up asked her last night, and she lied to my face, but Eryk’s brat of a son just confirmed it.”

  “What did she do?”

  “Apparently she was rude and difficult to work with.”

  “That’s nothing new.”

  “What if I throw some fraud in the mix?”

  “Fraud?” Damon laughed, though it faded out when Claire didn’t join in. “Oh, right. That doesn’t sound like your mother. Shame Eryk isn’t here to ask. We could crack out the Ouija board?”

  “Sounds easier than trying to get it from my mother.” She straightened the samples on display next to the till. “Why is she trying so hard to pretend nothing is happening?”

  “Embarrassment?” he suggested, sipping the coffee she’d made him nearly an hour ago even though it had to be stone cold by now. “Though, if she really committed fraud, surely Eryk would have gone to the police?”

  “That’s a good point,” she said. “How do you feel about having our first work outing tonight?”

  “Like, a night out?” Damon’s eyes lit up. “Manchester or—”

  “Actually,” she interjected before he could get his hopes up. “I was thinking more a yoga class.”

  “I feel the same way about that as I do about you firing me.” He squinted. “Since when are you into yoga?”

  “Since I found out Eryk’s wife and daughter attend Em’s classes.”

  “You’re doing that face again,” Damon said, circling his finger. “You look all determined.”

  “Is that such a bad thing?”

  “It freaks me out,” he said, pushing up his glasses. “I thought you were only trying to clear your mother’s name?”

  “I am.” She shrugged. “Eryk’s wife and daughter might know about this fraud accusation, that’s all.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.”

  “If it’s a random burglary, like DI Ramsbottom seems to think, hopefully he’ll soon prove it.” Claire reached into her pocket and tossed the chocolate bars she’d bought onto the counter. “Now, shut up, or I’ll fire you for real.”

  “I’m shaking in my boots, boss.”

  Claire couldn’t fathom ever having a real reason to fire Damon … but she’d never imagined anyone firing her mother, either. Peeling the purple foil off a crumbly Twirl bar, the implications of what ‘fraud’ her mother could have committed scratched at her every thought.

  “You were joking about the yoga class, right?” asked Damon.

  “Oh,” said Claire around a mouthful of chocolate, “absolutely not.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Everyone is looking,” Damon muttered, crossing his arms in front of his body as he half-hid behind Claire. “I’ve never felt more uncomfortable.”

  “You look fine.” She lunged, but the crotch of the pink and yellow linen trousers still didn’t give. “Although Em’s idea of baggy is my idea of barely fitting.”

  “At least you got a t-shirt.” He edged further behind Claire. “Some people shouldn’t wear vests, and I’m one of them.”

  “We spent half our lives in the same lumpy jumpsuits at the factory.”

  “They left a lot to the imagination.”

  “No one is looking.”

  Claire wished that weren’t a lie.

  Everyone was looking. She wasn’t sure if they were judgemental or just curious about the newcomers to their yoga class. Damon and Claire certainly stuck out in their borrowed clothes, but they were far from wearing the wildest outfits.

  Half the class were women in skin-tight bra tops and leggings, while the other half were decked out in finery even whackier than Em’s. There weren’t many rooms in which Em’s daily outfits wouldn’t be the most eye-catching, but in this one, she ended up somewhere on the simple end of the spectrum.

  Damon and Claire sandwiched themselves between an older woman decorated in beads, rings, and bracelets, and a lady with the biggest hair Claire had ever seen. Both offered warm smiles. The woman with the jewellery clattered as she put her hands into prayer and nodded.

  “Namaste,” she said.

  “You too,” Damon replied, moving closer to Claire. “One wrong move and these shorts are going to split, I swear. I hate you, Claire. I hate you so much.”

  “We don’t hate here,” Em announced as she strode to her position in the corner of her yoga area. In the mirrored walls, two more Ems appeared. “For the next hour, we simply be. We choose love, and we let go. By the end of my class, Damon, I daresay you’ll have experienced a transformation that will make you wonder why you didn’t come sooner.” Em shot a playful smile at Claire. “Same to you, my dear friend.”

  “I still hate you,” Damon whispered, resisting the natural separation as people laid out their mats. “After this, you owe me that staff night out.”

  “Deal.” She laid out two pink mats. Once Damon took his, Claire copied the arm-flinging stretches happening around them. “Now pay attention. Remember why we’re here.”

  “And so, we begin.” Em inhaled, her eyes closing as her hands went into prayer pose, prompting everyone bar Claire and Damon to copy. “And now, down into Child’s Pose.”

  After catching Ryan’s tickled expression in the mirrors from where he watched from across the gym, Claire did her best to ignore him and follow those around her. Being such a beginner, she didn’t feel too bad about staring. As much as she was mimicking their moves, she was trying to figure out who Eryk’s wife and daughter were.

  After easily dismissing half the group, only two women around Eryk’s age and three about the right age for a daughter remained. Identical pale hair and eyes gave the women away long before Claire saw them interact during a short break midway through the class.

  “You’re doing very well,” Em said, drifting to Claire and Damon as the order of the class melted away into groups. “A little distracted, but I see the effort.”

  “What about me?” Damon asked after gulping water.

  “Damon…” Em grinned as she took him in, clearly trying to find a compliment. “You look like you’re having fun!”

  “Yeah,” he agreed, wiping sweat from his brow. “Maybe.”

  Watching through the mirror, Claire noticed the mother and daughter duo drift to the row of lockers at the back of the gym. Next to the lockers, Ryan trained a man on an elliptical machine.

  “You’re doing great, Pete!” Ryan encouraged. “Another two minutes and you’ve crushed this workout.”

  Seeing Ryan in his enthusiastic work mode was always strange. He’d been so shy around her lately. Here, in his element, he had an easy, confident glow that made Claire smile.

  “Am I making a fool of myself?” she asked him, keeping one eye on the women at the lockers.

  “No more than usual,” he said with a grin. “You’re doing great. Is Damon alright? He keeps tugging at his shorts.”

  “Ah, yes.” Claire patted Ryan’s stomach, still surprised by the feeling of abs under her fingertips. “Your and Em’s idea of baggy clothes doesn’t quite line up with what we
’re used to.”

  Ryan laughed as he helped his wobbly legged victim off the torture device. As casually as she could, Claire dropped into a lunge. Swapping feet, she took a long step and lunged again until she was in earshot of the two women.

  “Berna, I told you,” the older woman whispered as they rooted through their bags in their side-by-side lockers, “I’m going home as soon as possible, and you’re coming with me.”

  “And I told you, I’m staying here.” Berna’s hand rested on her midsection. “I have bigger things to think about now.”

  “It’s what your father wanted.”

  “And what about what I want?”

  “You don’t know what you want,” Anna snapped. “You’re still a child. Everything we want is in Poland. Our friends, our family.”

  “Everything you want.”

  The young woman slammed her locker door and breezed past Claire to the yoga mats.

  “Berna!”

  Not wanting to linger, Claire lunged away, shaking her arms out as she reached Damon. Sat cross-legged on her mat, Berna looked like she was fighting back tears as her fingers tapped away on her phone.

  “That’s Berna, Eryk’s daughter,” she told Damon. “Sounds like her father was trying to send her to Poland.” As Claire stretched her calves, she looked at the lockers again. “The woman with the red flower in her hair is Anna, her mother. Apparently, she’s in a rush to get back to Poland and wants to take her daughter with her, but Berna has different ideas.”

  “Who are you?” he whispered. “What does any of that have to do with finding out about your mother’s supposed fraud? Just ask them.”

  “I will,” she whispered back. “But it’s nice to have some background information.”

  “You’re like a machine.”

  The second half of the class advanced to the point Claire couldn’t fake her way through the moves. As the surrounding women bent and twisted through Lotus to Firefly and into the painful-looking backbend of King Pigeon, Claire and Damon bowed out. With all the panting and huffing between them, all attempts at grace were futile, and it felt kinder to stop embarrassing themselves.

  “You made the first half easier,” Claire said to Em as the class finally packed up.

  “Perhaps a little. I don’t like to scare people off with the more complicated moves right away, though there are more challenging moves than the ones you saw.”

  “Head spinning and levitation?”

  Em chuckled. “That’s my next class.”

  Someone behind Claire laughed, and they turned to see Berna rolling up her mat.

  “Sorry,” she said to Claire, still laughing. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but that’s the first thing that’s made me laugh since…”

  Em backed away, her smile saying, ‘I’ll leave you to it.’

  “I’m not sure I’m cut out for this,” Claire admitted.

  “First time?”

  “That obvious?”

  “You did good,” she said as she stood. “You should have seen me at the first class my mother dragged me to. Couldn’t even touch my toes.”

  Despite her breathy laugh, sadness clouded her icy eyes. She and Tomek had to be close in age, though Berna had an air of maturity that her brother lacked.

  “I know it doesn’t help,” Claire offered before Berna drifted away, “but I’m sorry about what happened.”

  “Thank you,” she said, letting down her long blonde hair from a ponytail. “If Em has taught me anything, it’s the importance of human connection, so it does help. I’m sorry about what happened too. I feel as though I’m wandering around in a daze to stop myself breaking down.” Her eyes glazed over and then immediately snapped back. “I’m over-sharing. I shouldn’t be transferring my energies to you like this.”

  “You don’t have to apologise,” she said. “I’ve done my fair bit of over-sharing in my time. Dealing with these things is never easy.”

  “These things,” she repeated, her smile tightening. “Death is such an ugly topic of conversation these days. Unavoidable, and yet we avoid it like it’s not coming for everyone. In Poland, when I was fourteen, my grandmother died. There, we mourned. We welcomed the sadness and faced our darkness. Here, we must keep calm and carry on.”

  Berna’s eyes cut across to her mother, who was talking to Em as she organised the yoga mats.

  “I’m afraid that’s one of our British flaws.”

  “You could say that, yes.” Berna stared at her mother until flicking her gaze back to Claire. “How did you know my father?”

  “My mother works for him,” she said. “Or should I say worked. He fired her on Friday.”

  “Ah, the problem woman,” Berna said, “as my father called her.”

  “She has her flaws too,” Claire admitted. “Bottling up the bad stuff being one of them. She’s the walking embodiment of keep calm and carry on, I’m afraid. I don’t suppose you have any idea why your father fired her?”

  “I’m not involved with the post office,” she said. “But I think it was something to do with pensions.”

  “Your brother said fraud earlier.”

  “Yes, that too,” she said. “And I’m sorry you had the displeasure of talking to my brother. Even in grief, he’s still a brat.”

  “I … noticed.”

  “Perfect clone of my father.” Berna’s top lip curled as her hand drifted to her midsection and dropped away just as quickly. “I’m sorry I don’t know more about your mother. And I’m sorry for referring to her as a problem. My father’s words. He’s always had an issue with confident women.”

  “Oh, I’m related to her, and I’d say his assessment probably wasn’t too far off,” Claire confessed behind her hand. “She has her moments.”

  “Don’t we all.” Berna’s eyes fixed on her mother again. As she drifted away, she said, “It was nice talking with you…?”

  “Claire.” She extended a hand. “Nice to meet you, Berna.”

  “I didn’t tell you my name,” she replied with a curious smile, shaking Claire’s hand.

  “Tomek mentioned you,” Claire said quickly, her cheeks firing up. “Put two and two together when I realised you were Eryk’s daughter.”

  Berna nodded, but her enquiring gaze lingered on Claire for what felt like an age before she walked away. Claire didn’t breathe until Berna left the yoga area.

  With Damon changing in the men’s, Claire retreated to the women’s changing rooms, smiling awkwardly at those changing semi-nude on the benches. Claire took a cubicle and relieved herself of the outfit she’d borrowed from Em. After rolling on some deodorant, she climbed into her familiar clothes and back to normality.

  When she’d finished, the locker room had emptied, though echoed conversation floated from the open shower block.

  “Come with me,” the echo said. “A new life. The fresh start you keep talking about. Promise me you’ll think about it.”

  Claire fussed with her hair in the mirror, ears straining to catch the next part.

  “As soon as we can,” the echo continued. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary.”

  As Claire applied lip balm, Eryk’s late wife came around the shower wall, fully dressed and dropping her phone into her handbag. Claire smiled at her through the mirror, but Anna didn’t return it.

  “Have fun?” Ryan asked, leaning on a calf weight machine as she exited the bathroom. “You should come more often.”

  “You sound like my mother.”

  “I didn’t mean it in the same way your mother does,” he whispered, pushing a stray hair from her glasses. “Exercise can be a good release, that’s all.”

  “I will admit, I felt myself getting in the zone. Just don’t tell Em or she’ll have me at every lesson. I’m not sure my body will ever be able to do a King Pigeon.”

  “Anything is possible,” he said. “Still on for Amelia’s birthday tea party tomorrow?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it. Though I think you can count the rest
of my family out. Not sure I can put up with my mother’s current energy at a kid’s party.”

  Ryan pressed a goodbye kiss on her cheek. After waving to Em, Claire left through the sliding doors. She found Damon outside, leaning against the old library frontage of the converted gym.

  “I think there’s only one way to follow up a yoga class,” Damon said, kicking away from the wall. “Pint at the pub?”

  “If you insist.”

  “You’re buying,” he said. “You owe me after that public humiliation.”

  “Fair.”

  While Claire didn’t enjoy the extra sweating that came with summer days, she loved the evenings. The slight breeze that still carried a hint of humidity in the warmth. With the walls of the square blocking most of the gentle wind, it was easy to pretend they were in a more tropical location than North West England.

  “It wasn’t that humiliating, was it?” Claire asked as she joined Damon at a picnic table in the softly lit beer garden in front of the pub. “My mother would have called that ‘putting yourself out there’. You never know – it might be a better way to meet new people than the dating apps.”

  They took their first sips of Hesketh Homebrew and breathed sighs of relief.

  “I’ve deleted the apps.”

  “Again?” Claire took another quick drink. “You were only just back on them.”

  “They’re no good,” he said with a shrug. “It’s like online shopping, but all you get are dry conversations and red flags everywhere.”

  “I can’t argue with that.”

  “And who says I need to be on them, anyway?” His brows went up as his finger circled the rim of his glass. “I meet people all the time.”

  “Are you trying to subtly hint that you’re seeing someone, Damon Gilbert?”

  He pushed up his glasses and sipped his pint.

  “You are!” Claire whispered, slapping his arm. “How dare you and not tell me!”

  “It’s not like that,” he whispered back. “It’s complicated.”

  “Does she know you exist?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does she know you like her?”

  “Who said there’s someone?”