Tread Softly, page 25
The image showed three laughing lads holding beer bottles – Kev, Jase and Tyler. And the sender and text beneath hadn’t escaped Beatrice’s notice.
“Looks like the stag weekend has begun in earnest,” she said.
Ana looked at the picture once more. “I’d say it has. Lock up your daughters, Bilbao.”
“And apparently you’re joining them tomorrow?” Beatrice kept her enquiry light and innocent, as she continued to butter her roll.
Ana snorted with laughter and shook her head. “I should have known you’d spot that. You don’t miss a trick, do you? Yes, all right, I’m joining them for lunch. Kev invited me. He seems like a decent bloke.”
“Definitely,” Adrian agreed. “Not to mention totally ripped.”
The waiter brought an ice bucket and the first bottle of cava.
“Ana, you must be exhausted. Do you need to de-brief or would you rather just enjoy the food?” Matthew asked, with classic avuncular concern.
“Food first, no doubt about it. But I have updates, unless you’re sick to death of the whole thing. Would you ever pass the bread over, Matthew? My stomach feels like my throat’s been cut.”
They ordered chorizo, quails’ eggs, tortilla, Gernika peppers, kidneys in sherry, octopus, three kinds of ham, green beans and asparagus, with plenty of bread.
As the plates arrived, Beatrice saw Matthew’s eyes widen and a sense of calm settled on her. Not every Beatrice-related experience meant disaster. Meanwhile, Ana ate and talked at a similar speed.
“All four of Aguirre’s muscle men refuse to talk. Aguirre himself accepts all the wine fraud charges, but won’t even discuss the murders. Still insists Luz killed herself. The whole guilt-over-pregnancy deal is blown, as the autopsy showed she wasn’t.”
“Do they know if the test belonged to her sister?” asked Beatrice.
“Haven’t heard yet, but that’s the premise I’m working. Salgado is subject to an internal police investigation. Word is that it’s going to be a slap on the wrist and early retirement. Milandro’s slated to take over. New broom and all that. God, this ham with the acorn oil – I could just roll in it. Now we’re not talking just the police, but governmental organisations, media and major companies. Lots of dirty fingers in mucky pies. Everyone’s likely to get splattered now the shit has hit the fan. Ah, sorry, we’re eating.”
Adrian bit into a tiny egg and followed it with a nibble of asparagus. “Don’t worry. It would take more than that to put me off this food. You know, I’m almost looking forward to coming back for the trial. We simply must revisit this place. Every mouthful is a joy. Now what about Jaime?”
Beatrice stopped chewing.
Ana shook her head. “No sign. My guess is the Aguirre network set him up elsewhere, new identity, the whole shebang. Turns out Jaime Rodriguez wasn’t even his real name. Dirty little scumbag slipped the net. If I could get my hands on that stinking heap of ...”
“You won’t,” said Beatrice, prodding a kidney. “Write him off and focus on the trial. The Aguirres will take care of their own.”
She felt the weight of Matthew’s gaze, but raised her glass as deflection.
“A toast. To a successful collaboration and justice served.”
Glasses glinted and sparkled, as three voices repeated her words.
“Justice served!”
They drank, met each other’s eyes and returned to the spread. In the contented appreciative silence, Beatrice made another decision. Her sabbatical was over. It was time to get back to work.
Thank you for reading
a Triskele Book.
Enjoyed Tread Softly? Here’s what you can do next.
If you loved the book and would like to help other readers find Triskele Books, please write a short review on the website where you bought the book. Your help in spreading the word is much appreciated and reviews make a huge difference to helping new readers find good books.
More novels from Triskele Books coming soon. You can sign up to be notified of the next release and other news here:
www.triskelebooks.co.uk
If you are a writer and would like more information on writing and publishing, visit www.triskelebooks.blogspot.com and www.wordswithjam.co.uk, which are packed with author and industry professional interviews, links to articles on writing, reading, libraries, the publishing industry and indie-publishing.
Connect with us:
Email admin@triskelebooks.co.uk
Twitter @triskelebooks
Facebook www.facebook.com/triskelebooks
Coming next in the
Beatrice Stubbs series ...
Cold Pressed
One dead pensioner is an inconvenience, but three octogenarian deaths begin to look suspicious. The Greek Tourist Authority, investigating a series of fatalities on a British cruise ship, asks for international assistance.
Beatrice Stubbs flies to Athens, eager to escape the increasing awkwardness at home. When another elderly woman falls to her death, a link emerges and terror petrifies the ship. Everyone is the next potential victim. And the killer is one of them.
Bad news arrives from home, and Beatrice appreciates how fragile life can be. Just as she’s ready to give up, two unlikely allies unearth a connection and a sixty-year-old secret comes to the surface.
Someone has an axe to grind. The only obstacle in the way is Beatrice Stubbs.
Also from Triskele Books
COMPLICIT
‘On the beach stood the adverse array (of Britons), a serried mass of arms and men, with women flitting between the ranks. In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with dishevelled hair, they brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations …’
When Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus, recorded the invasion of the small island of Mona Insulis off the North Wales coast in 60AD – the beginnings of a propaganda war against the Druidic religion began.
Two thousand years later, that war is still being fought.
For two millennia, descendants of a small sect of Anglesey Druids have protected their blood lineage and mysterious secrets from the world. Until members of this secret society are murdered one by one.
Detective Sergeants Gareth Parry and Chris Coleman, along with new girl, DC Megan Jones, must stop this killer at all costs. What they discover will shock the whole police team and leave consequences which have an impact like no crime in the history of the force.
Set along the dramatic Menai Straits, Complicit is a story of greed, loss and obsession.
Also from Triskele Books
TRISTAN AND ISEULT
In a land of fog and desperate tribes, Tristan fights to protect western Briton from Saxon invaders. In the wake of battle, he returns to Kernow bearing grave news, and the order of power shifts.
As Tristan defends the west, his uncle, King Mark, faces enemies to the east beyond the sea: the Irish Bloodshields. Mark is determined to unite the tribes of Briton and Ireland and forge an alliance that would see an end to war and the beginnings of peace.
Iseult, the daughter of Irish kings and a woman of the blood, resigns herself to her inevitable fate: marriage to Lord Morholt. A bloody duel changes her course, and she finds herself stranded on the coast of Kernow bringing with her the possibility of peace. But when she loses her heart to one man and marries another, her future and that of Briton flutters grey.
Three people and a hope that will never fade, this is a story of promise; the legend of love.
Also from Triskele Books
GIFT OF THE RAVEN
The people of the Haida Gwaii tell the legend of the raven – the trickster who brings the gift of light into the world.
Canada. 1971.
Terry always believed his father would return one day and rescue him from his dark and violent childhood. That’s what Indian warriors were supposed to do. But he’s thirteen now and doesn’t believe in anything much.
Yet his father is alive. Someone has tracked him down. And Terry is about to come face to face with the truth about his own past and about the real nature of the gift of the raven.
Marsh, JJ, Tread Softly
