A Gravely Troubling Discovery
A Gravely Troubling Discovery is the fifth in my Cosy Crime series, The Dinner Lady Detectives. The small town of Dewstow is a fictional interpretation of my hometown in South Wales and the real-life characters that inhabit it. The Dinner Lady Detectives series stars Margery and Clementine, a middle-aged married couple working as dinner ladies at the local secondary school. Unfortunately for them, their quiet lives keep being interrupted by murders. In this scene, the dinner lady team visit the local golf course to try and find more information about a case…
They all pulled up at the country club at eleven on Saturday morning, driving down the long driveway in a convoy and stopping in the same car park. If the club had been expecting a heist, then it would have been particularly obvious what was about to happen. As it was, Margery and Clementine were counting on the fact that they were not expecting one, so that they could achieve what they came to do. She had worried all night about it, and so she hadn’t slept well at all. She was concerned that they were overstepping some imaginary line again, as they had done so many times in the past. Clementine had no such concerns.
‘It just makes sense,’ she assured Margery as they climbed out of the car. ‘We’re all here for nice, normal reasons that no one could possibly have a problem with. And we’re paying for it aren’t we?’
‘Ceri-Ann and Gloria are paying for their afternoon tea,’ Margery said. ‘But Karen and Sharon are having a free gym trial. And we certainly aren’t paying for this wedding planning appointment.’
‘That is true,’ Clementine rubbed her chin in thought. ‘Maybe we should charge Seren for the session as wedding planners.’
‘I’m already paying for a venue though,’ Seren reminded them as she got out of the back seat of Margery’s car. ‘Well, it’s just a marque and I don’t know where we’re going to put it yet, but it won’t be as expensive as this place. I bought a new jacket specially because I didn’t know how posh it would be and they forgot to take the security tag off.’ She raised the sleeves on her new white jacket to show them the metal tag still attached to one arm.
‘Gosh, I really don’t know how we’re going to find anything out here Clem,’ Margery wrung her hands together. ‘It all seems so silly.’
‘We’re going to try and spot Mr Redburn while Ceri-Ann and Gloria break into the front desk computer,’ Clementine said, not even trying to remove the grin that had spread over her face.
‘You just said that there would be nothing but normal reasons for being here!’ Margery scoffed.
Clementine clapped her hands together, looking gleeful with all the excitement. ‘Perfectly normal… with a few extra steps, Margery!’ she said, grabbing her phone out of her bag.
‘You all right with them earphones?’ Ceri-Ann called over as Clementine handed Margery an earbud. ‘Don’t forget to put your hair over your ear to cover them!’
‘This is a terrible idea,’ Gloria said, and Margery began to open her mouth to agree. ‘We should just try and steal the computer, save all this messing around eating cakes. We do enough of that at work.’
Margery closed her mouth again. If Gloria was fully on board with the situation, it wouldn’t do much good to argue against it. Besides, they were all here now and the plans were all in place.
‘I’ll eat all the cakes if you feel like that mate,’ Ceri-Ann laughed. ‘Anyway, we won’t be able to carry a computer out in my condition, probs. You’d have to carry it out for me.’
‘Oh, now you care about carrying things,’ Gloria scoffed. ‘Where was that attitude a few weeks ago when you tried to put the potato delivery away? You know you’re not supposed to lift anything heavier than an orange while you’re pregnant.’
There was no time left for Margery to do any more worrying, now. Instead, she let Clementine connect the phone to the earbuds and dial Rose’s number while she watched Gloria and Ceri-Ann head into the club, arguing about the weight of a box of potatoes as they went.
‘We’ll head in, too,’ Karen said, picking up her gym bag. Sharon followed suite. Margery had a sneaking suspicion that they were both only in it to use the gym facilities and had no intention of helping, but the plan was so wishy-washy anyway that she couldn’t blame them.
‘Hello Rose?’ Clementine said, a finger on her earbud as though she was playing the main part in a spy film. ‘Come in Rose, are you there? Over.’
‘Hello,’ Rose said, sounding amused on the other end of the line. ‘Of course I’m here! Now shut up and get inside.’ Through her earbud, Margery could hear a soft crunching sound and wondered if Rose was eating popcorn while she listened.
‘Come on, Seren,’ Clementine said. ‘You’ve got to pretend to be the bride now.’
‘I am the bride,’ Seren said, her voice wobbling with uncertainty.
They made their way across the grounds and into the main building, entering through the large double doors. Karen and Sharon were already checking in at the main desk and a man in sportswear was watching over them as they both filled in a form on a clipboard.
Hannah Hendy lives in a small town in South Wales with her long-suffering wife, their daughter and two spoilt cats. A professional chef by trade, she started writing to fill the time between shifts. She now writes cosy crime fulltime, a dream job! She is the author of the bestselling cosy crime series, The Dinner Lady Detectives, published by Canelo Crime and Canelo US. Hannah is represented by Francesca Riccardi at Kate Nash Literary Agency.
Social Media
Instagram – @hannahhendywrites
Facebook – @hannahhendywrites
Twitter – @hendyhannah
Website – hannahhendywrites.com
Crime Cymru 