Murder by the Sea Read online

  Murder By the Sea

  A Violet Carlyle Mystery

  Beth Byers

  Contents

  Summary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Also By Beth Byers

  Also by Amanda Allen

  Preview of Philanderer Gone

  Summary

  September 1925.

  Vi and Jack have fled for the sea shore. Both to enjoy the sea air and to gather up their friend, Rita Russell who’s come home at last. A little sea air, a ramble or two, afternoon naps, lingering mornings over a cup of Turkish coffee and perhaps all will be aright again.

  Only one morning adventure ends with a body and yet again, Violet, Jack and their friends find themselves involved in a mysterious death. Will they be able to find the killer before he strikes again?

  For Auburn, Tessa, Bonnie, and Carissa

  who helped me get this baby done with my hand injury

  Chapter 1

  The scent of coffee, especially Turkish coffee, was magical. Dark, strong, bitter—Violet felt it must be the scent of heaven. Perhaps that scent would have been perfected by the scent of a recent rain and lavender in the distance. What else would heaven smell like but those things, perfectly combined?

  Of course, at that moment, the scent of Turkish coffee combined with a salty, sea breeze and the baby Vi in Violet’s arms. Heaven. She was transported beyond the moment to a surreal, impossible, wonderland. Leaning down, she breathed in sweet Violet Junior. It seemed that Kate had located a lavender cream that combined with new baby smell and milk breath. Perhaps that was why Violet’s theory about heaven’s scent was so reliant on a distant lavender field.

  Violet glanced up from the baby, grinning at the idea, and caught her husband, Jack, smiling at her. He was holding baby Agatha as though he’d held dozens of babies. She had to admit that a baby looked good on him. He was one of those incredibly large and broad men. The word mountain came to mind. He had big shoulders that seemed to hold up the world, with a heavy jaw, strong arms, and strong hands that held Agatha so carefully. Jack might not have been traditionally handsome, but he was rugged and all that Violet might have desired. There was, she knew, no one more suited to her.

  The house they’d taken near the ocean had a large back patio area with tables that allowed them to breakfast outside while their dogs ran. The ocean breeze that had so enchanted Violet rose swiftly and gusted past the table before slowing to rise and fall in tune with the waves in the distance. The ocean wind darted through her favorite people. It swirled around Violet’s sister-in-law, Kate, who was savoring a cup of coffee as though she hadn’t had one in ages, and then went past Violet’s twin brother, Victor, who was shoveling in his breakfast with near desperate speed. Violet rolled her eyes at him and noted the wind ruffling her friend Denny’s hair. He was leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, as he snoozed over his loaded breakfast plate.

  If she could have followed the wind, she’d have noticed how it went inside the house where Denny’s wife, Lila, was coming down the stairs of the house. Or how it seemed to dart up the train tracks to her friend Hamilton Barnes as he was catching a late-morning train from London to Felixstowe to join them for a long weekend by the sea while they waited for their friend Rita’s ship to come in.

  If Violet could have traced the wind back to its origin over the sea, she’d have seen that same breeze swirl around Rita as she leaned over the rail of a ship and watched the waves crash against her steamship. Next to Rita was a handsome blonde man with round spectacles and an engaging grin. He was the type of man to steal a girl’s heart and imagination, and the breeze would bring them both to Violet in the coming hours.

  “I never thought that last heat wave would break,” Victor told Violet around a mouthful of food.

  Violet lifted her brow at Victor, who grinned after he swallowed. He was far more concerned with eating than he was with appeasing Violet. She suspected it came back to the babies in Violet’s and Jack’s arms. The twins had been through a good three or four nannies so far and we’re currently without one.

  Little Agatha wrinkled her nose and screwed up her mouth, and Violet considered amending her thoughts about Victor’s whining over the nannies. However, Jack placed his hand on Agatha’s back and said something in his deep, low voice. At the sound, Agatha blinked at Jack and then settled back against his chest.

  Violet clucked down at little Violet and then reached over to rub Agatha’s back as Jack unconsciously rocked her.

  “They smell new,” Violet told Victor. He just nodded, mouth full, but she could hear how he’d respond—‘They are new.’

  “We’re calling her Vivi,” Kate told Violet, still not bothering with food when there was Turkish coffee to be had. “To prevent confusion.”

  “Oh, I like it. I am surprised you were able to get away from your mother so quickly.”

  Kate’s mother, Mrs. Lancaster, was—without question—unwilling to have Kate very far away. “Victor told me that he’d rather remove his skin that continue to linger around my mother. She was correcting his every move with the girls.”

  Violet gasped and Victor didn’t even blink at the sound. He was crazy if he thought that Mrs. Lancaster wouldn’t attempt to torture him over the departure.

  “I told her that Vivi and Agatha needed their aunt.”

  “Did she protest?”

  “Strenuously,” Victor agreed. “Dear, sweet Grandmother Lancaster said I was a fool and the only thing Vivi needed was a clean nappie and a father who had a lick of sense.”

  “I’d credit you with a lick of sense.” Violet nuzzled her nose against Vivi, breathing her deeply in.

  “Of course you would,” Victor said after guzzling his coffee. “We’re compared too often for me to be entirely without sense and you to be unaffected.”

  Lila moseyed onto the patio a moment later and took in the babies, Victor frantically eating, and Kate sipping her coffee with dark circles under her eyes. “You need to hire a nanny.”

  “We have,” Kate said, “three times. None of them are good enough for Vivi and Agatha. Victor fires the poor women the first time he finds one of the babies wailing.”

  Victor just lifted a brow, his gaze moving from each of the twins to Violet.

  “Seems reasonable to me,” Violet answered.

  “I’m tired,” Kate muttered. “I didn’t sleep the last few months before they were born and I haven’t slept since.”

  “I wonder,” Violet offered, “if I might take them for a long walk after they eat? You could have a nap.”

  “Yes,” Kate said without waiting a moment to even breathe. She shoved her coffee aside and said, “Give me Vivi. I’ll feed her first.”

  Kate took the baby and left while Lila watched the young mother go. There was a look of consternation of Lila’s face and Victor was staring at Violet in gratitude, though he had to have known when they’d agreed to come that a nap was guaranteed.

  “Don’t have two at one go, Vi darling,” Victor said. “They wake in turns, and Kate and I never get a breath of sleep.”

  Violet imagined that having twins would be excellent fun once they slept through the night, and she hoped to have help that she trusted. Victor really should have worked at finding someone before the babies arrived. She suspec
ted he’d hired the first person he kind of liked, ended up not liking her, and then hired another in a vicious cycle.

  “Victor—” Violet didn’t need to expand on her thoughts; he knew what she was thinking, and her brother’s wince told her that he was cursing himself as well.

  Jack changed the subject. “We need to meet Hamilton at the train station. We could have a boy bring his bags back and make him walk with us. I suspect that Hamilton might have some worries to get out.”

  “Back to the matter at hand,” Lila said, looking at Victor. “You need a nanny, and I know one.”

  “No,” Victor said, shaking his head without a moment’s wait.

  “Trust me,” Lila snapped.

  “Why aren’t you hiring her? You’re expecting a little bundle of screaming and vomit.”

  “I already hired her sister. They’re both good, but I’m not expecting my angel for a while. The one I hired will be available when I need her. The sister you should hire is available now.”

  “No,” Victor said. “Just because you met them doesn’t mean they’re good. I have been down this road three times.”

  “Exactly,” Denny said lazily, eyes still closed. “Lila is thinking ahead and doing her research.”

  “Lila knows you’ll be useless, unlike me,” Victor shot back.

  Lila ignored both of them and continued, “They’re named Poppy and Jane, and they’re older, mid-50s perhaps. Both of them with decades of experience and excellent references.”

  “No,” Victor said, his gaze fixed on Agatha in Jack’s arms.

  “They also worked as nurses during the Great War,” Lila added. “They have both nursing experience and experience with babies and little children.”

  Victor paused and then shook his head. “Why aren’t they nursing then?”

  “They only did that to help with the war. Their passion is raising happy babies. They focus on the happy too. Lots of time outdoors as they get older, lots of nature walks and fresh air. Ruddy-faced little darlings. Victor—they only considered us because they like the idea of working for families who spend so much time together.”

  His gaze narrowed on her and she placed her hand over her heart. “I swear they’ve literally raised dozens of babies. Stayed with families for years through the babyhood. Denny visited a number of their former children. They really are excellent.”

  “Denny?” Victor scoffed.

  “He’s determined we’re having a daughter,” Lila told Victor, glancing at Kate. “He says she needs a good foundation and we’re incapable of truly providing it. He even hired that private investigator to check these women out.”

  “The honest one or the shady, but pretty one?” Violet demanded. “Did he hire John Smith?”

  “Smith. I am certain that Poppy and Jane’s rooms were searched, their journals were read, their former children were interviewed. These women know what they’re doing.”

  Kate returned from feeding Vivi to take Agatha. They all winced at the exhaustion on Kate’s face, and Lila added—nearly begging, “I am not strong like Kate. I can’t be a wrung out dishrag like your poor wife. I need a good woman to help me. And—” Lila’s smile was wicked. “I already hired them. They’re both coming on a part-time working vacation to help with the twins. They’ll be here and you can test them out. Though, however, I will be hiring Poppy.”

  “Why do you get that one?”

  “The other one’s name is Jane, and I just don’t like it. I have known too many mean Janes.”

  “I don’t know,” Victor muttered, taking the sleeping Vivi from Kate.

  “You don’t get to decide,” Kate told him. “Not when I’m this tired. We’re hiring these women, popping in on them between all of us, and I’m going to nap every single day.”

  “Kate—”

  She scowled at him as she hissed in stilted periodic statements. “Every single day. I am going to nap.” A light seemed to flow over her face as she added, “Until I wake on my own.”

  “Kate—”

  “They're already hired,” Lila reminded him. “You need the help. Accept it.”

  But it was Violet who made it all better. “We’ll all be here, Vic. We’ll make sure the babies are safe and happy and that we all like these women. You might as well give it a chance. Kate is tired.”

  Victor hesitated.

  “You’re tired too. You aren’t thinking clearly. You’re imagining the worst, but the worst will not happen to the twins. Not with all of us looking after them.”

  Victor searched Violet’s face with his matching gaze. They had the same eyes, the same sharp features, the same witty expressions, but Victor truly was dulled with exhaustion. “Do you promise?”

  “I do,” she swore, taking baby Vivi.

  Chapter 2

  The walk to the train station was a lovely one. Blue skies, a slight wet chill in the air that demanded a jumper, and the scent of the sea lingering on the air. It was all Vi would have wanted from the day. She had put a grey jumper over a blue and white sailor dress and put her hair back with a matching blue headband. Jack was dressed in one of his casual suits and with a straw hat. Jack was discussing the possibility of a toffee apple as they moved along. She was pushing the pram as he was simply too tall. He had tried but had been so hunched over he declared that prams were designed by monsters to make fathers suffer.

  They had their dogs and Ham’s puppies on leashes as they went to get him. Holmes and Rouge trotted along happy and well-trained while Ham’s puppies, Watson and Mary, lollygagged to the point that Jack had tucked one under each arm. The sight of him trying to manage all four dogs had her laughing into her hand as they walked to the train station. They’d sent an auto for both of the nannies, Hamilton’s things, and Ham, if he preferred, but they intended to walk back.

  “Do you want to go fishing?”

  He shook his head.

  “Do you want to go onto the sea?”

  Jack shrugged

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I—I’m a little worried about Ham. I think he thought Rita would come straight back when he wrote her whatever he did. Instead, she took a trip that lingered at different places, letting her continue to adventure.”

  Violet didn’t bother to point out that Rita wasn’t Ham’s to beckon and expect her to come trotting up, leash in her mouth, tail wagging. Rita was a full-grown woman who had done more than the rest of the friends combined. She was independent, intelligent, adventurous, and clever. She was a catch for any man, and Ham had rejected her love. Did he think Rita had no pride?

  Even if she had come back to see if they could work things out, she had to be hesitant. Maybe she’d taken the longer trip back to force herself to weigh what she wanted. Maybe she’d needed time to consider him again after spending months trying to get over him.

  Violet’s mouth twisted at the look on Jack’s face. “It isn’t going to be easy for either of them.”

  “I know—” Jack put down Mary and tried to get her to walk at his side again. “By Jove! I know it. I just wish it could be easy for them.”

  Violet hesitated and then peered down at Agatha and Vivi. “If it were Agatha or Vivi, we would expect someone to earn them. We can’t forget that they’re both our friends. If we do, we’ll lose one of them if things—” Vi didn’t want to say if things didn’t work out. If things didn’t work out, she was very much afraid she’d lose Rita as a friend. If things didn’t work out, Vi was afraid that Ham would blame her for needling him until they got this far. If things didn’t work out, it wouldn’t only be Rita and Ham who looked back with regret. Violet, Jack, they all would.

  But then again, Violet thought, she would not have married Jack because her friends wanted her too, and Rita deserved the same expectations. As did, Ham. Ham deserved someone who married him because she wanted him.

  “I think I’m going to be needing a quiet weekend somewhere else to recover from this quiet weekend,” Violet told Jack.

  “Me to
o. Do you know how many times Ham came over when I was tortured over you, and smoked a cigarette or a cigar with me? How many times he poured me a cocktail or a bourbon and just sat there in the quiet? I bet he was dreaming of a time when I would get over you or marry you and he could go back to visiting museums, reading a book, or going dancing. Anything but sitting in the quiet.”

  “Ahhh,” Violet moaned, “that is the sweetest. Oh! He’s my third favorite bloke—tied with Denny.”

  Jack’s laugh had Violet glancing up at him again, and he asked, “Does your father know he doesn’t make your top five men?”

  Violet lifted her brows in question, and Jack ticked off, “Me, Victor, Denny, Ham, and Tomas.”

  She grinned evilly. “I like your dad a lot too. They can be tied for sixth place.”

  Jack snorted and then picked Mary back up, trying to teach Watson to walk on a leash instead. The train whistle blew in the distance. Ham would be here momentarily. The steamship was supposed to arrive this afternoon, and the passengers and crew were having a farewell party that Rita had begged they attend.

  “This should be an interesting day,” Jack muttered. The red brick building was just ahead with the weathervane spinning in the wind as if it couldn’t quite decide which way the wind was blowing. Vi shivered and leaned down to tuck the blankets closer around the twins, letting her fingers linger on their skin to ensure they were neither too hot nor too cold. Both girls had rosy cheeks, but it didn't seem to stem from the weather, and to the touch they felt quite comfortable. Violet considered for a moment. She’d want the blanket tucked close if she were sleeping outside. She decided to trust her instincts and leave them be.