Free Death in the Aegean by Irena Nieslony Page A

of her handbag and a couple of minutes later, a very sleepy Jane answered her phone.
    “Jane, hello, it’s Eve. I’m out walking Portia and I just bumped into Paul. He told me Lucy had been murdered. It came as such a shock.”
    “He told you?” Jane exclaimed, waking up abruptly. “I didn’t think he would tell anyone, but I expect he felt you should know as you were the one to discover her body. Anyway, I’m glad he did. I have something to talk to you about, though I know I shouldn’t. If you get involved in trying to solve the murder, David’s going to be cross with you, isn’t he?”
    “Oh forget about David,” Eve exclaimed excitedly, but then realized that she was being unkind to the man she loved. “Oh Jane, I didn’t mean that. I had already decided that if Lucy had been murdered, I wouldn’t tell David that I was getting involved. I’ve also promised myself that I’m going to be very careful this time. I don’t fancy being poisoned again, or being thrown down a cellar and having my house set on fire. No, I will take precautions.”
    Eve suddenly realized that she was rambling on and hadn’t let Jane speak. She felt guilty which was totally unlike her.
    Goodness, I must be getting soft, she thought.
    “So what have you got to tell me?” Eve quickly asked Jane.
    “I’d rather talk to you face to face, Eve. Give me twenty minutes and come over for breakfast; that is if you’re hungry?”
    “Starving. All this walking in the early hours has given me an appetite!”
    Eve closed her call and smiled, still not having apologized for waking Jane up. She was much too excited that Lucy had been murdered to think of anything else.  
    * * * *
    It didn’t take long for Eve, with her dog in tow, to reach Jane’s house. Jane’s home had belonged to her father, John Phillips, who had been murdered the previous summer. When Jane came over at Christmas, she had intended to put the house on the market, but after her disastrous relationship with James Anderson, she had fallen for Paul Fowler and had decided to stay on indefinitely. It made perfect sense to live in her Dad’s house for the time being.
    Jane gave Eve a cup of coffee while she made breakfast. Eve was hungry after her walk and was pleased to see that Jane was preparing a full English breakfast. There were mushrooms, eggs, baked beans, fried bread, hash browns, sausages and bacon for Jane and vegetarian sausages for Eve.
    Eve had stopped eating meat and fish over twenty years ago, but had been disappointed by the lack of vegetarian products to be found on Crete. Luckily she had discovered that the local English freezer shop did stock some vegetarian sausages and burgers. Jane had held a small barbecue recently to which Eve and David had been invited and she had some of the vegetarian sausages left over.
    “Breakfast looks delicious, Jane,” Eve exclaimed.
    “I thought you could do with it. I doubt if you ate properly yesterday with everything that happened.”
    “No, I didn’t. I missed lunch completely, had a few crisps and nuts in the afternoon with a couple of rather large G and Ts and then had a slice of quiche at The Black Cat in the evening. I must admit that I could find room for a full English breakfast this morning.”
    “I hope you’re feeling a bit better today, Eve. I’m sure it must have been awful finding Lucy’s body.”
    “Yes, it was. It was horrible.”
    Eve trembled, remembering the previous day. She had become so excited about finding out who had murdered Lucy that she had forgotten how dreadful discovering the body had actually been. Suddenly it all came back to her.
    “I literally tripped over her, Jane,” Eve continued. “I didn’t sleep at all well last night. I had a terrible nightmare about Lucy.........I’m alright now though......at least I think I am.”
    Eve paused for a moment, attempting to put the image of Lucy’s body out of her mind.
    “Yes,” Jane said. “I’m sure it’ll take time to