Free Dying Art (A Dylan Scott Mystery) by Shirley Wells

years. What makes you think Prue felt overshadowed?”
    “She was convinced she wasn’t as pretty or as clever as her big sister. She mentioned something about the sister having married twice. She reckoned both husbands were too good for her.”
    “Really? What else did she say?”
    “There was a boyfriend once.” Thompson took a swig of whisky and looked set to gossip the evening away. That suited Dylan. “You have to remember that Prue was legless when she told me all this, but she said there was a bloke when she was a teenager that she really liked. I don’t know whether he took one look at her sister and changed sides or whether, as Prue thought, the sister deliberately set out to steal him. I got the impression that, as soon as she’d taken him from Prue, she dumped him.”
    “Really? Anything is possible, I suppose. Few men could resist Maddie.” Dylan knew that only too well.
    “She’s a looker, isn’t she?”
    “Yeah. What else did Prue talk about?”
    “She used to make me smile when she talked about her landlord. She was always nicely spoken until she mentioned him. That bastard of a landlord, she used to call him. Mind you, I can’t say I blame her. He sounds like a right money-grabbing sod. According to the contract she signed, she was supposed to have a cooker and a washing machine. Well, she had them all right, but they didn’t work. She kept phoning him and he promised to get them fixed. He never did. When she took out the lease, he said he was going to get new carpets put down, but he didn’t do that either. She bought cheap secondhand furniture and reckoned she spent more time moving it around to hide the stains on the carpet than she did using it.”
    “He sounds a joy.” Dylan was meeting him tomorrow so he’d be able to make up his own mind.
    “That’s putting it mildly. He used to call in without warning, too, and she didn’t like that. She’d just got out of the bath one day when he arrived.”
    “Oh?”
    “And there was a time she walked in to find him in her kitchen. She’d told him she was going away for the weekend. Well, whatever she was doing was cancelled so she came home early. She had the shock of her life when she found him in the house. She was furious.”
    “I’m not surprised.”
    “He’s got a real flash place up in the Lake District, so I heard,” Thompson said. “He comes down here quite often, though, because he’s got dozens of houses that he lets. It’s all right for some. Easy money that.”
    “It certainly is.” Dylan was pleased to see his host switch off the big screen. Neither of them had been watching it. It had been an annoying distraction. “So when did you last see Prue?”
    “She was in here a couple of weeks before it happened,” Thompson said, “and I saw her a couple of days beforehand just to say a quick hello. I was nipping in to the bookies and she was heading for that new supermarket on Drake Street.”
    At best, gambling was a mug’s game. For someone like Thompson, whose business wasn’t doing too well, it was a ridiculous idea. Maybe he had debts that he had no hope of paying and was hoping a couple of fast horses or dogs would help him out.
    “How did she seem?”
    “Fine.” Thompson shrugged. “The same as always. Why do you ask?”
    “Oh, I’m just curious. I hadn’t kept in touch with her. I regret that, and I’m finding it hard to accept she’s gone. I wondered if she was happy and if she had plans.”
    “She was fine.”
    “I wonder why that burglar chose to break in,” Dylan said. “The police reckon he always targets empty properties. He must have thought Prue would be away somewhere. She didn’t say anything to you, did she?”
    “Nothing. Like I said, she was her usual self. She didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary.”
    A taxi pulled up outside and disgorged four young men, all in their late twenties. They swept inside the wine bar and sounded as if they’d already had more to drink than