Free SAY GOODBYE TO ARCHIE: A Rex Graves Mini-Mystery by C.S. Challinor Page B

stepping into the narrow hallway.
    “Oh. Right. Well, come on through.” She led him into a small but comfortable sitting room where stacks of manuscripts bound in elastic bands weighed down a low coffee table. “I brought some work home for the weekend,” she explained. “Sometimes I don’t get time to read at the office.”
    “I won’t detain you. I have a train to catch, so I’ll get straight to the point.”
    She gave a flirty smile. “Not even time for a drink?”
    “Thank you, no.”
    Felicity indicated for him to take a seat in an armchair and sat facing him on the sofa, leaning forward with her hands in her lap, a blank look on her face. She knows what I’ve come to say , he thought.
    “This is not pleasant,” he began. “For I have reason to believe you are responsible for the death of your client’s cat.”
    Felicity jumped up, rather like a cat herself. “This is outrageous!”
    “Please bear with me while I outline how I came to this conclusion. You will have an opportunity to refute anything I say at the end.”
    She sat back down with an exaggerated sigh.
    “As an agent of not only children’s literature, but also of mysteries and gardening books, you would know about the deadly properties of foxglove and, no doubt, reading loads of mysteries would have provided you with a few ideas. Your motive apparently was to silence Patricia’s muse and end the Claude series before it deteriorated too far. Sales were down , you told me, and you could generate publicity from the cat’s death. Make a killing, so to speak.”
    He stared Felicity down where she cowered on the sofa vehemently denying everything, her face scarlet between her red hair and pink blouse.
    “A newsworthy item,” he went on. “ ‘Beloved Literary Cat’s Demise Under Suspicious Circumstances Ignites Indignation and Grief.’ Was that the sort of thing?”
    “Of course not !”
    “Archie’s murder was intended as a publicity stunt to garner attention from the legion of Claude fans.”
    “How could I have carried out his murder?” she demanded.
    “You came up from London on Wednesday to discuss some work with Patricia and to attend the book club. You left during the book club on the pretext of an important call and came through Patricia’s side gate. The foxglove was readily available in the garden. You used your umbrella to draw the bowl towards you. You mixed the poison with the tuna, and then went on your merry way back to London after the book club. The button yesterday was a red herring when you discovered Patricia suspected foul play. You threw it into the foxglove patch along with the crumbs, thinking to frame Roger. What did you use to cut up the foxglove? Nail scissors?” However, he saw from Felicity’s frigid expression that he was not going to get all the answers. “Patricia was no doubt a demanding and eccentric client, and you were stressed,” he allowed. “You presumably felt it was preferable to retire the cat and curtail the series rather than terminate your contract with Mrs. Forsyth.”
    “Those are a lot of conclusions to jump to,” the agent scoffed, recovering some of her composure.
    “Motive, means and opportunity, Felicity. And I have proof. Your guilty slip yesterday is what made me consider you more closely as a suspect.”
    “What guilty slip?”
    “When you said you never had a chance to say goodbye to Archie.”
    “So?”
    “It was the exact wording that was on the note.”
    “It’s a common enough thing to say, saying goodbye to someone.”
    Rex looked insistently in her blanched face. “You didn’t even ask aboot the note just now. Because you already knew aboot it.”
    “Patricia told me.”
    “She did not. You posted it through the front door as a warning. Perhaps you did not intend to kill Archie, just the series. But then something happened to make you snap. And what’s more, I have evidence of your guilt.”
    Felicity licked her dry lips. “What evidence?”
    Rex