Yvette's Death (Cara Daniels Cozy Mystery Book 3) (2 page)

Chapter 4

Cara followed the car that was following
Yvette. They all drove to the shopping centre that was on the other side of the
town. Cara parked at the rear of the car park. Robin flew out of the car and a
second later popped his head through the glass of the driver’s window. He said,
“Yvette’s gone inside and so have those men.”

Cara moved her hand towards Robin’s
head. “Don’t do that! Either bring your whole self through or wait outside for
me.”

Robin grinned at her and then moved his
head out of the car. He walked at her side as they entered the shopping centre.

Yvette walked into a large supermarket,
so did the two men. Cara and Robin followed a little way behind.

Robin said, “Why are they following
her? Do you think they’re going to ask her about the shop? Maybe ask if they
can have it instead?”

Cara gave a small shrug. She couldn’t
talk to Robin here, no one else could see him.

That didn’t stop Robin from talking to
her. “Cara, look at what they’re doing now! Oh! They’re taking a picture of
her! And look, that smaller man with the squashed nose is on his phone now.
Shall I find out what he’s saying?”

Cara gave him a curt nod and turned to
examine a selection of cooked meats.

Robin returned to her side a short
while later. “Squashy-nose said to someone on the phone that Mr Banks has a
problem that needs sorting out, that it needs taken care of asap.”

“Who’s Mr Banks?” Cara muttered.

“It’s the other man, the taller one. He
told Squashy-nose to send the photo of the problem. He sent the photo that he’d
just taken of Yvette. Cara! I don’t like it. Those men are evil. I could feel
the evil coming off them in waves. What are you going to do about it?”

Cara picked up a packet of beef and
placed it in front of her mouth. She whispered, “What can I do about it?
Where’s Yvette now?”

“It’s the first sign of madness!” a
voice behind her said.

Cara spun around and saw Yvette smiling
at her. Yvette said, “Talking to yourself, it’s the first sign of madness. I don’t
know why people say that though, I talk to myself all the time.”

Heat flooded Cara’s cheeks. “I wasn’t
talking to myself. I was talking to … this beef! No, not talking, just looking
closer at the packet and …”

Yvette waved a hand at her. “You don’t
have to explain yourself to me.” She waggled her eyebrows dramatically. “Have
you been following me?”

“Yes we have!” Robin declared. “And
it’s a good job too! Two dastardly men are following you.” He looked behind
him. “They’ve gone! Cara, where did they go? Are they hiding behind the cheese
counter? I’m going to check.” He lifted off the ground and flew away.

Cara was glad to see him go. It was
hard to ignore someone so loud and theatrical. She said to Yvette, “No, I
wasn’t following you. Have you noticed that there isn’t a wool shop in this
centre?”

“I have, my shop is the only one for
miles.”

“Can I ask, how do you advertise your
shop? Do you have a website?”

Yvette laughed. “I wouldn’t know where
to begin with a website! My husband says I should have one but I’ve never had
the time to look into it. Do you think I should have one?”

“Definitely. That’s what I do for a
living, I design websites. You can have a page for online ordering, and a page
where people can sign up for special offers. You could even start a blog, let
people know about the rejuvenation of the shopping parade.”

Yvette shook her head. “You’ve lost me.
I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

An idea came to Cara, one that would
allow her to keep an eye on Yvette. Cara said, “I can put a basic website
together for you, as a thank you for teaching me how to knit. I can show you
how to post blog entries, how to install a subscriber’s sign-up box.”

Yvette laughed. “You’ve lost me again.”

Cara took a deep breath and said, “Why
don’t I come round to your house and talk you through the process? I’m free
tonight.”

Yvette thought for a moment. Then she
nodded. “You’re right, I do need a website. That would be wonderful if you
could help. I’ll give you my address. Are you sure?”

Cara blinked as she saw the black death
line around Yvette thicken slightly. She knew that meant Yvette had moved
closer to her death. Cara forced a smile and said, “I’m sure.”

Chapter 5

Cara didn’t like leaving Yvette but
Robin assured her that Yvette wasn’t in imminent danger. He said, “I’ll get a
warning on my watch if her death gets closer than one hour. It’s still showing
that she’s going to die in the next forty-eight hours.”

Cara considered what Robin had said
about his watch earlier. He caught her concerned look and added, “Would you
like it if I followed Yvette for the rest of the day?”

Cara nodded as they walked out of the
shopping centre. Robin gave her a mock salute followed by a big grin. “I’ll
catch up with you later!”

Now on her own, Cara walked through the
car park. She wished she’d have got Mr Banks’ first name, she could have looked
for him online. Never mind, she had other things to occupy her time. One of the
first things she was going to do when she got home was to look on the council
website, see if she could find those plans that Sol had talked about. It did
seem too good to be true.

A short time later, Cara sat in front
of her laptop and let out a sigh of irritation. She pointed at the computer and
said, “It’s no good having a fancy website if it takes forever to load! Typical
council organisation!”

She gave up waiting for the council
site to load and looked at knitting shop websites to give her an idea of the
services they provided. She grimaced as she came across a site called Becky’s
Yarn Supplies. Those background colours did not work well together. She made
lots of notes and then started to put together a site for Yvette. She was soon
absorbed in her work and didn’t notice the time passing.

Her heart missed a beat as someone
whispered in her ear, “Time to go!”

Robin grinned at her. “You really
jumped then! I thought you were going to fall off your chair.”

“Don’t sneak up on me! What are you
doing here?” Cara leapt to her feet. “Oh! Is it Yvette? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, she’s having a nice meal
with her family. I left her a second ago. She was talking about you to her
husband and said that you’d be at their house soon.”

Cara looked at her watch. “Heck! I
didn’t realise what time it was.” She closed down her laptop and tucked it
under her arm.

As they drove towards Yvette’s house
Robin told Cara about Yvette’s family. “Her husband is lovely, I can see the
love in his eyes whenever he looks at Yvette. And her son is a cheeky little
chap, looks just like his dad. You should have seen their faces when Yvette told
them about her shop. The husband wasn’t sure at first but he looked on the
council website and saw the plans.”

“He got further than me,” Cara grumbled
as she drove down the road where Yvette lived.

Robin’s happy tone changed. “They were
so excited about the changes. Yvette said her mum would have loved seeing the
row of shops full again. They were making plans for their future.” Cara stopped
the car outside Yvette’s house. Robin put his hand on Cara’s arm and said,
“Don’t let her die, Cara, she’s got so much to live for.”

“I’ll do all that I can to keep her
alive,” Cara promised. “I’ve got you to help me. We’ll be fine.”

Robin gave a slow nod. “I wish I could
share your confidence but don’t forget, we’re both new to this soul saving
business. What if we get it wrong? What if we can’t stop Yvette from being
murdered?”

Cara put her hand on the driver’s door.
“Robin, we’re not even going to consider that possibility. Are you coming
inside with me?”

Robin turned his head and looked
towards the rear window. “No, I’m staying here. Those two men we saw earlier
have been following you. They’ve parked a few cars back.”

Cara stiffened. “Why have they been
following me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they saw you
talking to Yvette at the shopping centre earlier. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

Cara took her laptop and bag out of the
car and crossed the road towards Yvette’s house. It was hard to walk normally
when she could feel eyes watching her every movement from the car parked down
the road.

Yvette opened the door on the first knock.
She beamed at Cara and said, “I was beginning to think you’d never come!” She
pulled the door open. “Come in!”

Yvette led her into the living room
where a man and young boy were reclining on the sofa. They looked like mirror
images of each other, one smaller than the other. The man stood up and extended
a hand. “You must be Cara, I’m Jake, Yvette’s husband.”

“Hello.” Cara shook his hand.

The boy jumped up and stuck his hand
out in the same manner. “I’m Ryan, Yvette’s son. How do you do?”

Cara laughed and shook his hand. Yvette
ruffled her son’s hair and said, “You are too cheeky by half! Haven’t you got
homework to do?”

Ryan grinned and flung his arms around
Yvette. “I’m too happy to do my homework, Mum! I can’t stop thinking about that
tram going to your shop. Will we get free tickets?”

Yvette kissed the top of his head.
“They don’t give free tickets to boys who don’t do their homework.” She gave
him a gentle push. “Go!”

Ryan laughed and ran out of the room.

Cara swallowed the lump that had formed
in her throat. “Yvette, I’ve created a website for you, it’s nothing special,
just a basic one. We can add order forms and other things later.”

Jake shook his head. “I can’t believe
you talked Yvette into having a website - at last!”

They all sat down and Cara placed her
open laptop on the small table in front of the sofa. There was an eerie silence
as she brought the website up and clicked through the pages. Cara swallowed
nervously as she looked up from the laptop. Didn’t they like the site? She
thought she’d done a decent job on it.

Yvette was clutching her husband’s
hands. Tears ran down her cheeks. She said, “Cara, it’s amazing, it’s
wonderful. I can’t thank you enough.”

Jake cleared his throat and added,
“It’s such a lovely design, so eye-catching and welcoming.”

Heat rushed through Cara and she looked
back at her laptop. “If you give me an email for a contact address I can make
the site go live now.”

Yvette laughed. “Really? Just like
that? It’s like magic!”

Cara added a few more details then she
said, “Yvette, click on that button.”

Yvette leaned over and did so.

Cara smiled at her and said, “Your site
is now live.”

Yvette looked from Cara to her husband.
“This has been one of the best days of my life.”

Cara felt the lump again in her throat.
She said, “I’m sure there’ll be many more happy days.”

Chapter 6

Robin was in the car when Cara returned
an hour later. He said, “Those men in the car behind stayed a little while, it
was like they were casing the joint.”

“Casing the joint? Where have you got
that expression from?” Cara asked.

Robin smiled. “I watch a lot of films,
humans are fascinating.” He looked towards Yvette’s house and then checked his
watch. “We don’t need to stay here, Yvette is safe for the night.”

As Cara drove home she said, “Do you
think we need to worry about Mr Banks and his friend?”

“I’m not sure yet, we don’t know what
they’re up to, if anything,” Robin said. “Did Yvette like the website?”

“She loved it. I told her she could put
videos on it too, show people how to knit and crochet. There are many
possibilities. She can make enough money from the site, she won’t have to rely
solely on the shop.”

Robin said, “I heard that worried tone
in your voice. What’s wrong?”

Cara frowned. “I’m not altogether
convinced that the council will go ahead with their plans. I’ve done work for
people who’ve relied on the council for planning permission, which then never
came through. I still haven’t managed to look at the proposed plans for the
shopping parade, the page wouldn’t load again when I tried it inside Yvette’s
house. Her husband, Jake, tried on his computer but the same thing happened to
him.”

“Perhaps you should go to the town
hall, don’t they keep the plans there?”

“They do. That’s a good idea. You
should hear how happy Yvette and her family are about the plans, I don’t want
them to be let down.”

“You’ll have to let me know how you get
on,” Robin said.

Cara shot him a quick look. “What?
Aren’t you going to come with me?”

Robin turned his back on her and looked
out of the window. Cara pulled the car over and stopped. She prodded Robin and
said, “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”

Robin looked over his shoulder and
mumbled, “I can’t tell you, you’ll get upset.”

Cara sighed. “I won’t. Come on, is it
something to do with Yvette?”

Robin turned round and faced her. He
shifted in his seat. “I can’t stay with you all the time. I’ve got to help
another soul saver.”

Cara felt her eyes stinging. “You’re …
you’re leaving me?”

“No! No, I’m still helping you but I
have to help someone else too. I have to go and talk to him now, I have to tell
him about his new case.”

“I see.” Cara folded her arms and
looked out of the window.

Robin said, “I can leave you because
you know what to do, you’ve already made contact with Yvette, you know more
about her life and circumstances.”

“I see,” Cara repeated.

Robin gave her a little shove. “I’m
only leaving you for a while, I’ll be back tomorrow. This other soul saver that
I have to see isn’t as clever as you, he’s going to need my help more than you
do.”

Cara sniffed.

Robin said, “Look at me, Cara.”

Cara reluctantly did so. Robin said,
“In the short time that you’ve been a soul saver you’ve done a wonderful job.
You care about people, you notice things about them. You can handle Yvette’s
case on your own. You know you can.” He moved closer and whispered, “If you
carry on as you are I think you might become as good as your gran!”

Cara laughed. “You’re just saying that!
Okay, you go and look after your other friend. I’m going to look at the
council’s plans tomorrow, then I’ll call on Yvette and stay with her as long as
I can. And I’ll keep an eye out for Mr Banks.”

Robin nodded. “That sounds like a good
plan.” He jumped and looked at his watch. “I knew I shouldn’t have put it on
vibrate.” His face fell. “Oh, I’ve got an update on Yvette’s death. She’s going
to die tomorrow, some time in the afternoon or evening. And she’s going to die
inside Olivia’s Wool Shop.”

Cara banged her fist on the dashboard.
“No she’s not! I won’t let her!”

“I know you won’t,” Robin said. He
touched Cara on her arm, a warmth flooded through her body. Robin added, “You
take care, I’ll see you soon.”

He disappeared.

Cara swallowed down the feeling of
panic that was rising in her body. Trying to stop someone being murdered was a
big responsibility, but one she had to face up to.

As soon as she got home, Cara made a
list of things she needed to accomplish the next day. Once she’d been to the
town hall she was going to glue herself to Yvette’s side if she had to. There
was no way that she was going to allow Yvette Carter to be murdered.