AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He could live in the overgrowth with God knows what else.
This situation was how I’d ended up sitting at the counter, eating my way through two packets of Jelly Babies, while staring into Tofu’s eyes.
I couldn’t say I’d ever planned to have a romantic stare down with a hairless cat, but I’d done weirder things in my life.
Sadly.
“Gwen, your cat is starting to scare me,” I said, plopping another Jelly Baby in my mouth.
“Stop eating the Jelly Babies, then,” she retorted, focused on her little gnome’s shoes. “He’ll go away if you stop.”
At least they were painting and not drinking.
I was pretty sure I’d throw up if I had to smell alcohol right now. I might have gotten away with the headache part of the hangover, but the longer the day went on, the more unsettled my stomach felt.
The Jelly Babies probably weren’t helping.
“I can’t stop,” I said to Gwen, grabbing another. “It’s like a compulsion.”
“I get that with Pringles,” Barb said, nodding. “You really can’t stop once you pop.”
Viv eyed her. “Isn’t it ‘once you pop you can’t stop?’”
“I don’t know, Viv. I just pop them.”
Ash rolled her eyes and scooped up Tofu, finally bringing our rather unsettling eye contact session to an end.
Thank God. He was starting to give me the heebie-jeebies.
Tofu meowed in protest, and Ash put him down on the floor, then walked over to me and leant against the counter.
“Have you really eaten all those Jelly Babies?” she asked.
I peered into the bag. “No. Not yet. I’m probably about to, though.”
Gwen eyed us both. “If you’re done, we need to discuss what we learnt last night.”
“That’s what we’ve been waiting for you to do,” Ash pointed out. “You’re the ones with the information.”
“Because you two were drunk tarts.” Betty put her paintbrush in the water pot and turned around. “Didn’t Noah take you both home last night?”
“Against my will,” I said, shoving another sweet in my mouth. “I had no say in the matter.”
“I have no idea,” Ash said.
“That’s because you passed out on the backseat.”
Gwen clicked her tongue, tutting. “My good name is besmirched in this town thanks to that.”
Ash rolled her eyes. “Please, Granny. If anyone’s sullying your name, it’s you and your bloody cat you take on walkies. Not to mention your not-so-secret flirting with Montgomery Spencer.”
Gwen opened her mouth to respond, but she was quickly cut off by Viv swiftly changing the topic.
“Anyway, I found out something quite interesting about Alan Sumpter last night,” Viv said before they could bicker. “He was seen heading in the direction of the bed and breakfast the night Declan was killed.”
That shut everyone up.
“Seriously?” I asked.
