Love Him to Death by Tanya Landman Read Free Book Online Page B

alive. It was sad, but there was no one to blame: she had died of natural causes.
    The doctor’s verdict was passed from guest to guest within seconds. Everyone agreed that Ruby’s death was a bit of a downer, but nobody seemed unduly bothered about it – after all, it wasn’t like any of them had known her well. The only people who’d been remotely close to the old lady were Bill, Angelica and Josie – and even Josie hadn’t known her long. Bill was now sitting, distraught, in his mother’s room, keeping her corpse company. Josie was pacing up and down fretfully on the terrace. Angelica had disappeared.
    Meanwhile, the Z-list celebrities laid into Sally’s beautifully prepared wedding feast like a flock of seagulls. Every possible taste was catered for and every international cuisine was represented: there were tables laden with everything from roast beef and Yorkshire puddings to chicken tikka masala, sweet and sour pork, green curry and pizza. But in the blazing heat neither Graham nor I felt particularly hungry. We took a small plate each and helped ourselves to a couple of chargrilled sardines and a bit of Greek salad. Then we headed for a quiet corner where we could talk.
    “Do you reckon the doctor was right?” I asked Graham quietly.
    He frowned. “He’s a medical practitioner. He ought to know what he’s doing.”
    “It doesn’t feel quite right, though, does it?”
    “No, it doesn’t.”
    We’d come across so many suspicious deaths lately that we’d developed a fine instinct for anything dodgy.
    “I reckon someone might have stolen those tablets,” I said.
    “What makes you think that?”
    I remembered Ruby’s expression as she’d rummaged in her bag. “Well, it didn’t even occur to her that she might have left them back at the villa – that’s why she kept on fereting around in her bag. She
knew
she’d put them in there: maybe she even remembered doing it.”
    “Old people’s memories can sometimes be defective,” Graham pointed out. “Young people’s too, for that matter.”
    “Yes, I know – but she wasn’t exactly the daft-old-dear type, was she? She seemed pretty sharp to me. Suppose someone took them out of her handbag before she left the villa? Someone who knew she had a medical condition…”
    “And that climbing up to the chapel would put a big strain on her heart,” Graham added. “And if she failed to take her medication, death would be the inevitable result…”
    “So it might be murder?”
    Graham nodded. “I agree, the whole thing does seem suspicious. Although I can’t begin to imagine who would want an old lady dead. Or why.”
    “Murder by ‘natural’ causes,” I said. “Very clever. Who could have done it, though? Josie? Angelica? They must have known about the tablets.”
    “Both women certainly had the means and the opportunity,” Graham agreed. “But what about the motive? Why would either of them want to kill Bill’s mother?’
    I thought back to the scene we’d witnessed when we arrived. “Angelica wanted Ruby to talk to Bill. Do you remember? Maybe she’d pinned her hopes on Bill’s mum talking him out of getting married, and then when it didn’t work she was angry enough to want Ruby dead. She seems pretty unbalanced. And we saw her running away – that makes her look guilty.”
    “Guilty –or afraid. She may have simply found the body. Most people find death somewhat unsettling.”
    The terrace we were standing on overlooked the villa’s swimming pool. At that moment Josie came into view. She’d ditched her Greek-goddess outfit and was clad in a gold bikini and matching sandals with killer heels. She seemed to be having some difficulty walking in them, as if she wasn’t used to it, and looked a bit like a kid who’d raided her mother’s wardrobe. She’d clearly decided to go ahead with the planned post-wedding photo shoot despite Bill’s absence, because the man from
Hi!
magazine was trotting along behind her like a