Virtually Scared To Death (Julia Blake Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Gillian Larkin Page B

things might
have turned out differently.

 

Chapter 4

 
    I
was back at Canal View Court on Thursday morning.
    Steve,
the caretaker, was standing outside the lift. He looked worried.
    “Hi
Steve, is something wrong?” I asked.
    “Did
you clean for Mark Castle on Monday?” he said.
    “Yes.
Why?” I put my cleaning bag down.
    “Did
he say anything about going away? On holiday perhaps?” Steve asked.
    “No.
He only tells me if it interferes with when I’m going to clean for him again,”
I replied.
    Steve
pointed to a pile of post, “If Mark goes away he tells me to collect his post
and to drop it into his apartment. Look at that pile. He hasn’t collected his
post for 2 days now. And you know how particular he is about collecting his
letters.”
    “That
is strange,” I agreed. “Have you knocked on his door?”
    Steve
nodded, “There’s been no answer but I’m sure I heard some sort of noise inside.
I didn’t want to use my master key in case he was in the middle of one of those
games of his. I wouldn’t want to disturb him.”
    I
picked up my cleaning bag. “I’m due at Ivy Brown’s apartment now. We can go and
check on Mark on the way. If he’s in the middle of something, and we disturb
him, I’ll tell him it was my idea to check on him.”
    Steve
rubbed the back of his neck, “There’s something else. The master key to the
apartments, I’ve lost it. Or it might have been stolen. I have a spare but my
bosses will go crazy if they find out I’ve lost the original.”
    “Where
do you normally keep it?”
    “On
a hook in my office. And I keep my office locked. It’s a mystery. I’m sure I
didn’t leave it anywhere,” Steve said worriedly.
    “We
can have a good look for your key later. Let’s go and check on Mark first,” I
suggested.
    We
got into the lift.
    On
the way up Steve said, “I could do with some more of your business cards. We’ve
got new people moving in and I always suggest you as a cleaner.”
    I
smiled. “I know you do, Steve, and I can’t thank you enough. I haven’t got any
cards with me but I’ll drop some off next time.”
    “You
don’t have to pay me, you know, every time you get a new client through me,”
Steve looked uncomfortable. “I don’t like taking your money, you work hard for
it.”
    “I
absolutely insist on paying you. It’s only a small amount and I declare it on
my taxes! I love cleaning these apartments. They’re much nicer than some of the
places I’ve cleaned.”
    We
got out of the lift and walked towards Mark’s door. I could hear something.
    “It
sounds like the game Mark was showing me the other day,” I said.
    “So
he is away with his fairies! We don’t need to bother him,” Steve began to walk
away.
    All
of a sudden I felt uneasy.
    I
stopped Steve. “I think you should open the door. I’ve got a feeling that
something terrible has happened to Mark.”

 

Chapter 5

 
    Mark
was lying on the floor near his computer. I called out his name and ran over.
    “Is
he all right?” Steve’s voice trembled.
    It
didn’t take me long to discover that Mark was dead.
    “You
need to phone the police, and an ambulance,” I told Steve. I didn’t know what the
procedure was for dealing with a dead body, I’d never found one before.
    Steve
walked over and crouched next to me. His hands shook as he touched Mark on the
arm, “Is he ... dead?”
    I
nodded. “Do you want me to phone the police?”
    Steve
straightened up. “No, I’ll do it.”
    He
took out his phone and was soon talking to someone. I looked at Mark. His face
was twisted. There was a bottle of pills lying open at his side. I recognised
the bottle from his bathroom, but there was something different about the pills,
they looked a darker blue than normal.
    Steve
finished on the phone. He walked closer to Mark and looked at his face.
    “He
looks like he’s been scared to death. Do you think it was his heart? He had a
weak heart, you know.”
    “I
didn’t know, he never