Chapter 27
On Friday morning Jamie was rifling through the selection of teabags when he noticed his paper with the scores on it was no longer beside the kettle.
He searched for it to no avail, then cursed Cal for moving his things.
Why move his tea scores? After grumbling to himself about Cal’s inability to respect boundaries, he switched the kettle off before it finished boiling.
Without his scorecard he wasn’t interested in the tea anymore. He’d have coffee instead.
Sitting by the window, sipping the bitter coffee and gazing out at the deserted beach, he felt a rush of determination.
If he really wanted to stay in North Berwick for the next couple of months, he needed to get the business back for The Handy Lass.
To do that, he had to prove he hadn’t made a mistake with the Langfords’ banister rail.
Someone had tampered with it, and he was determined to figure out who. His gut told him the cleaner had nothing to do with it, but after what he’d heard about her making threats and about her stealing from her previous job, he probably shouldn’t rule her out based on a gut feeling.
He wanted to speak to her again. And to Amira. Heck, he wanted to speak to everyone involved again – pester them until someone let something slip.
Sadly, Cal was tied up at the gym for the morning, but he gave Jamie the phone number for the cleaner and wished him luck.
Petra didn’t answer the first time he tried calling her, and the second time it went straight to voicemail. He didn’t leave a message.
When they’d met the other day it had been mid-morning. Were dog walkers creatures of habit? Unsure what else to do, he walked along West Beach to the place they’d met her last time and loitered at the top of the beach for a while before giving up and heading back into town.
He’d try Petra again later.
The walk wasn’t a complete waste of time, though, since something occurred to him which he’d like to ask Amira about when he spoke to her.
A woman around forty staffed the front desk in the physiotherapy centre. She wore jeans and a V-neck jumper and a welcoming smile.
“Hi,” Jamie said. “I was hoping to catch Amira. Is she here?”
Her eyebrows twitched together. “No. You don’t have an appointment, do you?” She glanced at the computer. “There’s nothing on her calendar until later.”
“No. I only wanted to ask her something.”
She smiled. “Sorry.”
“No worries.” Jamie’s gaze swept the room. This would be easier if he had Cal with him. Cal would dive in and ask questions without caring how he came across. There was no reason Jamie couldn’t do the same, though. At least if he could override his instinct to apologise and walk straight out again.
He introduced himself instead. “Are you the owner?”
“Yes. Catherine. Can I help you at all?”
“Maybe.” He pulled his shoulders back. “I met Amira at the Langfords’ house on Monday.”
“Ah.” Her features relaxed, but her eyebrows lifted slightly.
“I’ve been wondering about something,” he said.
“I know Amira had an appointment with Mrs Langford on Tuesday morning. Obviously, she didn’t need the appointment in the end.
” He cringed, but carried on. “Amira wouldn’t have known Mrs Langford didn’t need the appointment, so I wondered why she didn’t turn up. ”
Catherine eyed him sceptically. “Who did you say you were?”
“Jamie,” he said, despite knowing she wasn’t really interested in his name.
“Are you friends with Amira?”
He shifted his weight. “I’m concerned about her,” he said, dodging the question. “There’s been some gossip flying around since Mrs Langford died.”
“Wait a minute! Jamie? Are you the one who’s taken over Moira’s business?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard the gossip,” she said. “People are saying you made a mistake with some repairs and that’s why Mrs Langford fell.”
“That’s not actually true. But there are other rumours going around. About Amira.”
“What about her?” Catherine jutted her chin out and Jamie felt certain he was on the right track for getting her to open up.
“Apparently Amira was at the Langfords’ place the evening before Marguerite died. A neighbour saw her, and heard shouting.”
“That can’t be right. Amira didn’t have an appointment in the evening.”
“But she had one on Tuesday morning.” Again, Jamie shifted his weight. “She didn’t turn up for it . . .”
He hoped Catherine might shed some light on that, but she was busy chewing on her thumbnail.
“Anyway,” he said when the silence stretched on, “I wanted to check on Amira since I know how hard it can be when people are spreading rumours about you. I hope it won’t be bad for your business.”
That got her attention.
“How do you mean?”
“I’ve lost a few jobs over it,” he said with a deliberate sigh.
Her jaw tightened. “I can’t afford to lose business.”
“I was actually hoping to help,” Jamie said. “I thought that if I knew the truth, I could put a stop to the rumours. Obviously, I wouldn’t ask you to give out confidential information, but if you could tell me why Amira didn’t go for the appointment on Tuesday, that would be really helpful.”
“The appointment was cancelled,” she said bluntly.
Jamie tilted his head. “As I understand it, the appointment was for ten. Which was around the time Mrs Langford was found. How did anyone know to cancel the appointment?”
Even if the appointment had been later, he couldn’t imagine anyone being in a state of mind to remember to cancel it.
“It was cancelled the night before,” Catherine said. “The email came through late, so I only saw it in the morning.”
“Why did they cancel?”
“Not because Amira isn’t good at her job, if that’s what people are saying.
Marguerite was doing better and Mr Langford didn’t think the appointments were necessary.
” She shook her head. “That’s a good thing.
When we do our jobs well, people improve and don’t need us anymore.
If only the gossips would talk about that. ”
Jamie nodded. “Amira wasn’t surprised that they didn’t need her, then?”
“She was actually. And . . .” She glanced at the floor. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“I only want to get things straightened out and stop these rumours.”
She lowered her voice. “I was only going to say that Amira didn’t take it well when I told her about the email. She was adamant there must have been a mistake and wanted to go straight over to the Langfords’ on Tuesday morning and discuss it. I told her not to. It would look unprofessional.”
Jamie’s mind whirred. “Do you know if Amira enjoyed working with Mrs Langford?”
“She loved it.” A frown wrinkled her forehead. “At least until recently.”
“What changed?”
She hesitated. “She’s been a bit down generally. Not quite herself. Whenever I asked if she was okay, she said everything was fine, but I’ve been worried about her.”
“It’s good of you to be so concerned about your employee.”
“Amira’s a lovely young woman. I hate to think of people gossiping about her.
She’s excellent at her job.” Catherine drummed her fingers on the reception desk.
“She took a couple of days off this week. Which isn’t like her, but I was actually glad.
I think she needs it. I only hope she works through whatever has been troubling her. ”
“I hope so too.”
Jamie thanked her for her help, promised to put a stop to any rumours he heard about Amira and said goodbye.
Outside, he stood frozen on the pavement, mentally chewing over the conversation. As far as he could tell Amira had argued with Marguerite or Heather on Monday evening. Presumably, Mr Langford had sent Catherine the email later that evening.
What on earth had they argued about that had caused them to cancel the physio appointments?
The sound of a car door slamming got his attention. Down the road, Amira stood beside a green Mini. Heather Langford got out of the passenger side and closed the door behind her. Amira didn’t look at Heather as she strode towards the physio practice.
“I said I’m sorry!” Heather called.
Amira didn’t look at her.
“I’m sorry!” Heather was louder now, but she didn’t move to follow Amira. “I’m sorry, okay!”
Amira walked into work, leaving Heather on the pavement with tears falling down her cheeks. She didn’t seem to register anything around her as she wiped at her face.
After a moment, she turned on her heel and set off at a brisk pace, heading away from Jamie. Clearly she hadn’t noticed him.
What had just happened?
Without a lot of thought he rushed after Heather. She’d rounded the bend before he caught up.
“You were miles away,” he said when he got her attention.
She nodded weakly, seemingly still lost in thought.
“Are you okay?” Jamie asked.
“I suppose so,” she said and continued walking.
Jamie matched her steps. “I spoke to the detective yesterday. The one I met when . . . umm . . . on Monday.”
She whipped her head to him. “Why?”
“Oh.” He swallowed hard. “Just a standard follow-up, I guess, but I also don’t quite understand what happened with the rail. I thought they might figure out the problem with it, but they don’t seem to know much.”
“We’re not blaming you,” she said flatly. “We know it wasn’t your fault.”
“Thanks,” he mumbled. “There’s something I was wondering about. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but was there some bad feeling between your mum and her physiotherapist?”
“No.” Heather stopped and turned to face him. “Why would there have been?”
“Because Trisha told me she heard arguing on Monday evening, and she said the physiotherapist was at the house.”
“I wouldn’t listen to anything Trisha says. She’s a gossip who thrives on drama. There was no arguing.”
“I also saw Amira at the house when I was there. It seems odd that she visited again in the evening.”
Heather’s gaze went to her shoes. “She just called in. She needed a signature on her timesheet.”
“I see.” That was a different story than he’d heard from Amira. She said she’d forgotten her scarf. “But your dad fired her that evening?”
“He didn’t fire her!” She shifted her weight. “Mum was doing better, so she didn’t need the physio anymore. It was nothing against Amira.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you asking all these questions?”
“I’m just trying to figure out what happened.”
“We know what happened. Mum fell. It’s horrible but accidents happen.”
“Sorry.”
Sympathy flashed in her features and she put a hand on Jamie’s arm. “You really don’t need to feel guilty. No one blames you.”
He forced a smile. Guilt wasn’t his issue, though. He knew he wasn’t at fault.
But he was increasingly certain someone else was. And he wasn’t going to stop until he figured out who.