Yvette's Death (Cara Daniels Cozy Mystery Book 3) (4 page)

Chapter 10

Cara brushed her tears away and started
the car. She drove to Yvette’s house and parked across the road from it. She
was glad to see that Yvette’s car was in the drive. She looked along the road,
she couldn’t see Mr Banks’ car. Was he planning on paying Yvette a visit? Would
he confront her in front of her family? Cara thought back to when Mr Banks had
called into the shop earlier. He knew the name of Yvette’s husband and child,
he must have made some enquiries about her. Was that why he’d taken some photos
of her at the shopping centre?

As the night drew in the hairs lifted
on the back of Cara’s neck as her imagination began to play tricks on her. Was
Mr Banks hiding in the shadows somewhere? Robin had told her that Yvette was
going to die in her shop, perhaps he was wrong, perhaps the circumstances had
changed. She wished she could talk to Robin now.

Cara felt a chill shoot down her back
as she spotted a crouched figure moving along
 
Yvette’s garden wall. The figure held
something in their hands. It looked sharp, a knife?

The figure reached the driveway and
began to creep up the drive. The moon came out from behind a cloud and shot a
sliver of light onto the figure.

Cara gasped. It was Becky Webb! And she
was holding a knife! Cara had been too busy thinking about Mr Banks that she’d
forgotten about the threat that Becky Webb posed.

Cara leapt out of her car and yelled
out, “Oi! I can see you, Becky Webb!”

Becky jumped and dropped the knife. She
looked over at Cara and ran off down the drive and into the street.

“Come back here!” Cara shouted and she
chased after Becky. Becky sped round the corner at the bottom of the street,
Cara ran after her.

Becky suddenly came to a stop and spun
around. Cara didn’t stop in time and bumped into her. Becky grabbed hold of Cara’s
shoulders and spat, “Why the hell am I running away from you? You don’t scare
me.”

Cara tried to wriggle free but the
freakishly strong arms of Becky held her still. Cara said, “I saw you sneak up
Yvette’s drive! I saw the knife! You were going to kill her!”

Becky’s hands dropped. “Kill her? I
wasn’t going to kill her!” Becky’s hands flew to her chest as if offended. “How
could you say that? I would never kill anyone.”

Cara pointed at her. “Then why did you
have a knife? And why were you creeping around?”

“I was only going to slash her tyres.
And scrape a warning onto her car. That’s all.”

Cara’s hand came down. “What? You
weren’t going to kill her?”

“Of course not! What kind of person do
you think I am?” Becky looked upset.

“The kind of person who slashes tyres!
I should report you to the police.”

Becky sighed. “You might as well. I
don’t know what came over me, thinking I could slash someone’s tyres.” She
shook her head. “I’m not the violent type, although I do like a good fight.”

Cara glanced at Becky’s big arms. She
could well believe that.

Becky slumped to the ground and put her
head in her hands. “I’m a useless lump. Mum always said that about me and she’s
right.” She looked up at Cara. “I’ve tried to prove Mum wrong by starting my
own online business. This knitting one is the third one I’ve tried. I can’t get
my head around all that online stuff, all the marketing you have to do. My
heart’s not in it. I’d rather be fighting.”

Cara sat at her side. “What kind of
fighting do you like?”

Becky gave her a small smile and said,
“Wrestling. I love wrestling, it’s my hobby. I wish I could make it my job
somehow but I don’t know how to.”

“I do,” Cara said, her anger at Becky
had now changed to sympathy. “I’ve got a client who runs his own wrestling
business. His business is growing so fast that he’s always looking for
committed staff. I could give you his details, you could at least email him.
Mention my name if you like.”

Becky stared at Cara. “You’d do that?
For me? After what I’ve done?”

Cara nodded and reached into her
pocket. “Here’s my card. Email me and I’ll send you Bill’s details.”

Becky took the card as if it was made
of gold. “Thanks so much.” She carefully placed the card in her pocket and
stood up. She pulled Cara to her feet and said, “Why did you think I was going
to kill Yvette? People don’t just go around killing other people.”

Cara’s thoughts flew to Yvette. Damn!
She’d taken her attention off her. Cara said a quick goodbye to Becky and ran
away.

Yvette’s car was still in the driveway
as Cara huffed to a stop outside her house. She stopped for a moment to catch
her breath. She wanted to talk to Yvette to make sure she was still okay. An
excuse came into her head. She would tell her that she didn’t need to worry
about Becky Webb any more. She’d miss out the details about the knife, Yvette
didn’t need to know that.

Cara nodded to herself, that excuse
would do. She walked up to the door and knocked on it. Jake answered the door.
He smiled at Cara and said, “Hiya! Here to perform some more online magic?”

Cara smiled in what she hoped was a
casual manner. “Hi, I was hoping to speak to Yvette.”

Jake said, “You’ve just missed her.
She’s nipped out to the wool shop. She’s taken my car.”

Cara’s smile died. “Why?”

“An urgent wool matter,” Jake said with
a laugh. “She got an email asking for a certain colour of wool. The client, a
Mrs Banks I think Yvette said, wanted to know if Yvette had that colour in
before she made the long journey to her shop in the morning. I told Yvette it
could wait until the morning but she wouldn’t listen! Can I take a message?
Cara?”

Cara wasn’t listening, she was already
racing down the drive and towards her car.

Chapter 11

Cold sweat was trickling down Cara’s
back as she drove towards the shop. She swerved into the car park. She couldn’t
park outside the wool shop because there were already two cars parked there.
One must be Jake’s car, and the other one belonged to Mr Banks. The shop lights
were on.

Cara ran across the road just as Mr
Banks got out of his car. Cara ran up to him and yelled, “Leave her alone! I
know what you’re up to! Leave her alone!”

Mr Banks stared down at Cara. “What on
earth are you babbling about?” His eyes narrowed. “Ah, Cara Daniels, you’re the
one who designed that lovely website for Mrs Carter. That was a waste of time.
Move.”

Cara stood her ground. She hadn’t
realised Mr Banks was so tall. She said, “You’re going to kill her! I know you
are. You want her shop! You’re going to kill Yvette for it!”

A coldness came into Mr Banks’ eyes.
“Be careful with your accusations, young lady. And keep your voice down.” He
put his hand under her elbow and marched her down the street. Cara noticed that
the man with the squashy nose got out of the car and followed them. What were
they going to do to her?

Mr Banks stopped and said, “I’m not in
the habit of killing anyone, it’s not good for my business. I do want that shop
and I’m going to offer Mrs Carter a good deal. If she agrees I’ll let her have
two units that I’ve already rented from Sol Lewis. They’re further down the
road but the units are bigger. I’ve seen the customers that she’s bringing in
and I know I’ll be able to entice them into my café.”

Cara folded her arms. “So you’re not
going to kill her?”

“Most certainly not! Have we finished
here? I’m going to have a word with Mrs Carter. I’ll admit that I did trick her
to come here at this time but it was only to talk.”

Cara looked at him. Was he telling the
truth?

There was a heavy feeling in Cara’s
stomach. She was missing something. She knew Yvette was in danger, she’d seen
the death line around her.

Cara sniffed. What was that smell? She
said to Mr Banks, “Can you smell something? It smells like something is on
fire.”

A movement at the end of the road
caught her attention. Her breath caught as she saw Sol Lewis running away from
the row of shops. He was carrying a petrol can. With mounting horror she
remembered Sol’s joke about setting fire to his shops so that he could collect
the insurance money.

The man with the squashy nose yelled
out, “Fire!”

Mr Banks shoved Cara out of the way.
“My car! Move my car!”

The two men dashed towards the car,
jumped in and sped away.

Cara ran back to the wool shop. The
smell of smoke was stronger here. Not giving a thought to her safety, Cara
burst through the shop door. A cloud of smoke immediately enveloped her. Cara
pulled her jacket over her mouth and dropped to the floor. She saw something up
ahead. Yvette’s feet! Cara scuttled over and grabbed them.

Don’t be dead! Don’t be dead!

Using strength she didn’t know she had,
Cara pulled Yvette towards the door. The burning smoke curled into her throat.
Cara began to cough, tears streamed down her face. She grabbed Yvette’s feet
more firmly and pulled her through the door and out onto the street.

Someone lifted her up and pulled her
across the road. Cara coughed and tried to call out for Yvette. A few moments
later Yvette was laid at her side by Sol Lewis.

He crouched next to Yvette, his eyes
wide with horror. “What have I done?” His look darted to Cara. “I didn’t know
she was in there! What was she doing in there? I thought the shops were empty!”
He let out a wail of anguish and covered his face with his hands. “I’ve killed
her, I’ve killed Yvette.”

Cara looked at Yvette’s lifeless form.

Chapter 12

Robin passed Cara a tissue and said,
“Tell me again what happened. Try not to cry this time, I can’t understand you
when you cry.”

“I can’t help it,” Cara said from her
prone position on the sofa. It felt good to be back home but she couldn’t get
the image of Yvette’s lifeless body out of her head.

Robin sat on the carpet at her side.
“You saved her life. Yvette is okay. If you hadn’t got to her in time she would
have died.”

“I know.” A tear trickled down Cara’s
cheek. “I saw her in hospital, she’s fine.” Cara tore the tissue up and threw
it to the floor. “Why is it always the last minute? Why can’t I get there
earlier and prevent the whole thing from taking place?”

“You didn’t know what Sol was up to.
You didn’t know he was going to set fire to his shops. He told you why, didn’t
he?”

Cara nodded. “He said he couldn’t bear
to betray Yvette by letting Mr Banks take her shop from her. And he couldn’t
bear the thought of working for a thug like Mr Banks. He couldn’t see a way out
of the mess other than destroying the shops. He thought Mr Banks wouldn’t be
interested in a ruined mess. He was right about that, Mr Banks has cancelled
all his leases with Sol and moved on to somewhere else.” Cara looked straight
at Robin. “I don’t think Sol will ever forgive himself for putting Yvette in
danger.”

“Yvette will forgive him. Imagine how
terrible Sol would have felt if Yvette had actually died? You saved Yvette and
you saved Sol’s soul. That’s the most important thing to remember.”

Cara sniffed. “I know that. But why
does it have to be so difficult! Why can’t you tell me exactly when someone is
going to die, and who is going to kill them?”

Robin’s face softened. “That would make
everyone’s lives easier. But we angels don’t know who’s going to commit the
murder. If you saw how many murderous thoughts people have daily, well, you’d
never leave the house! Not all those thoughts lead to action. That’s why we
need your help.” He looked away.

“Robin, what’s wrong?”

He looked back. “I should have been
there to help you. I should have pulled you out of that burning building. In
fact, I should have been there to stop you running in!”

“I would have run in anyway.”

“But I could have protected you! That’s
my job.”

There was silence for a moment. Then
Cara said, “How are you getting on with your friend, the other soul saver?”

Robin tutted. “He’s not my friend, he’s
an idiot. I know that’s not an angelic thing to say but I can’t help it. He
takes forever to take action, weighs up all the pros and cons. He’s not like
you at all, you rush into action like a fool and think about it later.”

“I don’t really rush in …”

Robin went on, “You get yourself
involved in people’s lives whether they want you to or not!”

Cara merely nodded.

Robin smiled at her. “You’re going to
make an excellent soul saver.” He tutted again. “Not like the other person I
have to deal with. I’ve seen a tortoise move quicker!”

Cara said, “Did this other soul saver
do the work that he had to? Did he save a soul?”

“He did,” Robin said with a sigh. “And
I had to give him a white feather. He didn’t even seem pleased, he stuck it in
a drawer!” Robin looked over to Cara’s computer desk. “He didn’t place my
precious feather in a frame like you did.”

“Speaking of which,” Cara said and held
her hand out.
Robin grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.” He stood up and held his arms out.
His huge wings appeared. With a gentle shake from Robin, a white feather
detached itself and floated into Cara’s outstretched hand. The white feather
was immediately replaced with a silver one.

Cara pulled the feather close. “Thank
you. I’ll have to buy another picture frame.”

Robin pulled his wings in and glanced
at his watch. He grimaced and looked back at Cara. “Looks like you’ll have to
buy more than one. We’ve got another job to do.”