Free Andrea Frazer - Holmes and Garden 01 - The Curious Case of the Black Swan Song by Andrea Frazer Page A

about,’ replied Mabs, although she flushed with embarrassment.
    ‘You think I haven’t noticed the way you are around her, and you talk endlessly about how great she is, taking on the hotel with her grandfather. Well, let’s see how she copes on her own now,’ snarled Lebs.
    ‘You have a sewer for a mind. And I’m sure Pippa will cope exceedingly well.’
    ‘If she knew how you felt about her, she’d completely flunk it and leave the area as soon as possible.’
    ‘I don’t know what’s got into you this morning. You’re being perfectly horrible,’ said Mabs almost in tears.
    ‘Just making my position perfectly clear. I’m your partner, and this is my house. If you want to go on living here, count your blessings and don’t go thinking the grass is greener.’ At this, Lebs turned her back on Mabs and pretended to go back to sleep.
    Garden decided to stick with what he had put on and, after a shave and a bit of a wash, he started on his way down to breakfast.
    A wrong turning brought him to what he identified as Holmes’ room, but instead of being able to go in and ask for company to find the bar-cum-restaurant, he found the whole end of the corridor taped off as a crime scene. This was a bit of a facer, and he about-turned to seek another route.
    On his way he stumbled upon the girl from Reception, whom he now knew was the deceased owner’s granddaughter, engaged in a rather heated discussion with Margery Maitland, both using raised voices in a bit to outdo each other.
    ‘Ladies, ladies,’ he interrupted. ‘I’m sure it’s only the tension created by the tragic events of yesterday’ – he’d woken up a bit by now – ‘that have caused you to fall out. I’m sure there must be an amicable solution to whatever you are in disagreement about.’ Good Lord, he sounded almost like the father he barely remembered.
    ‘I want to reschedule last night’s committee meeting for tonight in the hotel, and Pippa here doesn’t think she can accommodate me, although I don’t know why, when there are simply dozens of little rooms scattered round this maze of buildings that would do admirably.’
    ‘Not if you expect waitress service, there aren’t,’ snapped back Pippa Berkeley angrily. ‘There simply aren’t the spare members of staff. And I’d like to point out that, due to my grandfather’s demise, I am now the proprietor of this establishment, so you can put that in your pipe and smoke it.’
    Placing himself between the two battling females, now separated by himself as well as two generations, he enquired if a trolley could be loaded with refreshments, to be collected by one of the committee members.
    ‘It could,’ replied Pippa shortly.
    ‘And would you be able to find someone willing to do that?’ asked Garden of the older woman.
    ‘Why, I’d be glad to do it myself,’ replied Margery Maitland, with a sycophantic little smile at their unofficial referee.
    ‘Well, that’s settled then,’ replied Garden, smiling too and taking advantage of this chance meeting by asking if one of them would be good enough to accompany him to the ground floor, as he was desirous of breakfast, and wasn’t terribly good at finding his way around yet. He left the scene with both ladies for company, as neither wanted to give way to the other in accompanying this lone male to his destination. If they only knew the truth about him, he doubted they would have shown such keen enthusiasm. His female dress sense was better than theirs any day.
    The slight rush of adrenalin from the police visit and the argument that had initially made him feel better had worn off by the time he took a seat at a table opposite Holmes, and he was only able to manage a nibble on a piece of dry toast and some black coffee. Holmes got on with putting away a plateful of fried things that Garden couldn’t even bear to look at. Keeping his eyes firmly on the contents of his plate and coffee cup, he asked Holmes if he had had a visit