“Are you okay?” Nova asked, as Phyllis leaned on a table to catch her breath.
“We…were…wrong…” The older lady gasped. “Everything…we thought…is wrong.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Phyllis straightened up, and Nova saw a strange intensity in her eyes. “We thought it was Michael who killed his mother, but it was Cynthia!She’sthe murderer…and I think she’s behind Michael’s disappearance too.”
It was such an absurd statement that Nova couldn’t help laughing.“Phyllis, I’m sorry, but you really need to stop reading so many murder mysteries.”
Phyllis wrinkled her nose. “Laugh all you want. Miss Marple was used to people laughing at her and dismissing her as a silly old lady too.”
“I don’t think you’re silly, Phyllis, just—”
“Greed was the motive, just like I said it would be!” Phyllis interrupted. “Michael lost all their money, so Cynthia killed Eve to get her hands on the inheritance. And she’s the one having an affair, not Michael. My guess is that after killing Eve, Cynthia and her lover kidnapped Michael to frame him for the murder and get him out of the way so they could be together.”
“People do all sorts of crazy things when they’re in love,” Arthur said with a knowing nod of his head.
“Hang on, I don’t think Michael was kidnapped,” Nova said. “PC Khan told me that they found his car abandoned in the middle of Bodmin Moor, so it sounds like he drove down there after the book club.”
“No!” Phyllis slammed her hand on the table, making them all jump. “The abandoned car must be part of Cynthia’s plan, to make itlooklike Michael ran away. I have to give it to the woman, that’s an excellent touch.”
“How did you find all of this out?” Nova asked.
The older woman looked away. “That’s not important.”
“Phyllis, tell me.”
“You’ll just make a fuss.” She crossed her arms and let out a long sigh. “Fine.Earlier today, I went to Eve Watkins’s funeral.”
“What?”
“I suspected that Michael might attend in disguise, so I went totry and catch him red-handed. And then I learned some new information at the funeral—don’t ask me to reveal my source—that led me to attend the wake at Michael’s house. And while I was there, I learned that Cynthia has a lover, and they plan to flee the country now that Michael’s out of the way.”
“Phyllis!” Nova burst out when the woman finally stopped speaking. “What the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?”
“Oh nonsense, I was never in danger.”
“What if Cynthia had recognized you from when we went round there last week?”
“Well, thankfully she didn’t,” Phyllis said, rubbing her left arm and not catching Nova’s eye.
“I wish you’d told me about your plans, I’d have come too,” Arthur said with a chuckle. “It’s like something out of one of Esi’s books.”
“This isn’t funny,” Nova said. “You could have been arrested for gate-crashing a funeral and trespassing on private property.”
“Oh, stop being such a drama queen,” Phyllis tutted. “I was merely paying my respects to an elderly member of the community.”
“Did you find anything else at the house?” This was the first time Ash had spoken, and Phyllis looked startled at seeing him there.
“I did, as a matter of fact.”
She made a big show of reaching into her handbag and pulling out a sheet of paper. She laid it down on the table with a grand flourish.
“Is this a credit card bill?” Arthur asked.
“It is. Michael owed over one hundred sixty-five thousand pounds, and by the looks of things, this was a final demand. He and Cynthia were running out of time to get the money.”
“This proves they were in financial difficulties, but it doesn’t prove either of them killed Eve,” Arthur said. “We’d need more than this to go to the police.”
