Murder on the menu, p.1
Murder on the Menu, page 1
Murder on the Menu
A Shilpa Solanki Mystery Book 2
Marissa De Luna
Copyright © 2022 Marissa De Luna
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The right of Marissa De Luna to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Bloodhound Books.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publisher or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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www.bloodhoundbooks.com
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Print ISBN 978-1-5040-6773-7
Contents
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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
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Acknowledgements
A note from the publisher
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Also by Marissa De Luna
A Slice of Murder
(A Shilpa Solanki Mystery Book 1)
For Peter
Chapter One
Shilpa peered over the cliff. It was a twenty-metre drop into the waves crashing beneath her. She put her hand on the wooden railing to steady herself as she looked past the glimmering sea towards the golden sands of East Portlemouth. She squinted in the sunlight and reached for her sunglasses perched on top of her head, pulling them down over her eyes. To the right of the treacherous rocks was a small, secluded cove that was only accessible via a stainless-steel ladder secured to the cliff face. Shilpa imagined the residents of the luxurious 1920s mansion known as Arden Copse had many a tale to tell about that little stretch of sand, their own private beach.
‘Careful.’ A hand on her shoulder yanked her back. ‘That railing isn’t secure.’
Caroline Arden-Harris pushed a stray strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and showed Shilpa where the wood had rotted close to the rusted bolts which just about held it together.
‘Someone once fell to their death down there,’ Caroline said.
Shilpa instinctively took a step back.
‘It was years ago, now. It’s why we have a railing, but it needs repairing.’
‘A job that the estate manager should have seen to by now, with the party and all.’ A tall woman, much younger than Caroline, with a button nose and sumptuous chestnut curls had joined them on the viewing platform at the top of the cliff, bringing a strained atmosphere with her.
‘He’s been busy,’ Caroline snapped. A man pulling a trolley with two huge planters containing viburnum bushes struggled past them. ‘Over there, behind the bench,’ she directed. Then she took her phone out from her gilet pocket and touched the cracked screen. ‘This blasted phone,’ she said. ‘It’s so temperamental.’
‘I’m sure Roy can get you a new one,’ Annabel said.
Caroline pocketed her phone. ‘I’ll speak to Jack later,’ she said, ignoring Annabel’s comment.
Shilpa didn’t know Caroline well, but she had had several dealings with her. It was Caroline who had sought her out to make a birthday cake for her father’s eightieth tomorrow. They were having a party on the lawns to celebrate. Mrs Arden-Harris had been calm and composed in all their dealings. Even when the purple-and-yellow pineapple guava flowers she had very much wanted to adorn her father’s cake were unavailable, she simply asked for an appropriate alternative and moved on. Shilpa had been surprised and impressed. Rich clients were used to having every whim met and Shilpa had braced herself when she had picked up the phone to Caroline.
‘And anyway,’ Caroline continued. ‘Daddy wants the railing removed. It somewhat obstructs the view. It’s not like there’ll be any children at the party.’ She looked Annabel up and down, but her young stepmother didn’t seem to take offence.
‘It’s just an ugly reminder of what happened,’ Caroline continued. ‘Jack will fit a shorter railing here and it will be in place for tomorrow,’ she said, resuming her usual composure. She adjusted her hair and smiled brightly at Shilpa.
‘If you say so,’ Annabel said. ‘I just came to see how things were going.’
‘Everything is under control,’ Caroline said. One of the electricians who was stringing up the lights caught her attention and she left Shilpa alone with Annabel. There was an awkward silence before Caroline returned.
Annabel cleared her throat. She took her phone out of her jacket pocket and looked at the screen. ‘My manicurist is here. I’ll leave you to it,’ she said.
‘Surplus to requirements,’ Caroline said under her breath, staring at Annabel’s back as she crossed the narrow road and climbed the steps up onto the front lawn of Arden Copse.
‘So what happened?’ Shilpa asked, attempting to break the spell Annabel had cast on Caroline.
Caroline turned to her. ‘She married my father.’ Caroline touched her fingers to her lips. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘You didn’t mean that, did you? What happened down there on Mermaid Rock?’
Shilpa nodded.
‘It was a long time ago. Fifty-five years. Someone my father knew. A party girl, I suppose you could call her. She had one too many and tripped. Fell over the edge. This was all before I was born. Shall we head back towards the house? Come,’ Caroline said, leading the way. ‘Do you know,’ she added, changing the topic, ‘that to the rear of the house, beyond the pool there is a lawn that leads down to the copse, behind which there is a stream and a pond. Daddy’s estate is just enormous.’ Caroline stopped and looked at the house. ‘One day Jacob and Monty will inherit the lot,’ she said to Shilpa, adding to clarify, ‘My sons. Daddy has no other children or grandchildren so…’ She trailed off.
‘I wasn’t aware of the copse,’ Shilpa said, following her guide to the front of the house.
‘That’s what gives the house its name,’ Caroline said, stopping again to catch her breath.
The 1920s mansion stood on higher ground and towered over its lawns and the viewing deck with the unstable railings that looked over Mermaid Rock. The house was of a time with high arched windows which contrasted with the clean, horizontal, whitewashed walls. Palm trees dotted the beautifully manicured gardens, with a stunning magnolia tree taking centre stage. Blue agapanthus and red camellias were in bloom, primed and ready for the party.
Shilpa too, had inherited a beautiful house on the water, not quite as grand but nevertheless the inheritance had changed her life. She momentarily wondered how Jacob’s and Monty’s lives would change when they took control of Arden Copse. They had been born into wealth, so she doubted that it would have any effect whatsoever.
Shilpa smiled to herself and followed her host. Before she entered the house through the French doors that stretched the length of the left side of the house, she turned back and took one last look towards the sea. She heard the waves crash once more against Mermaid Rock.
Chapter Two
‘Have you seen the news?’ Brijesh asked. Shilpa’s lodger in his checked pyjama bottoms was sitting cross-legged on her sofa with a mug of tea in his hand.
Shilpa didn’t have to watch the news. She had been there when it happened and had been interviewed by the police. Not that she was able to tell them much.
The living room hadn’t changed much since her arrival last year. Although she had done various bits of renovation over the last twelve months, she had left the sitting room and kitchen as they were. The same old cream sofas sat in the middle of her open-plan sitting room, one facing the cream gloss kitchen and the other facing the bifold doors that looked over the estuary.
The tide was out. Shilpa never tired of the changing landscape of the estuary. In winter it could be wild an
‘No work today?’ she asked.
Brijesh shook his head. ‘I have an off day.’
‘A day off,’ she said, smiling. She was getting used to Brijesh’s expressions. After Brijesh had moved out last summer, Shilpa had lived alone, but she found that she missed his company. In the two brief weeks that Brijesh had lived with her, they had become friends, and given he was now dating her best friend Tanvi, they were almost family.
‘Typical,’ her mother had said when she told Mrs Solanki that Tanvi and Brijesh were in a committed relationship. ‘I sent him to your house. What happened?’ her mother asked. As if relationships were so black and white.
She loved Brijesh as a friend, definitely not a lover. Tanvi, on the other hand, who had had her fair share of men in the past, seemed to be besotted with this unlikely candidate. They had been dating for the past year. Tanvi was still working in London, unable to commit to the slower pace of life in Devon, although Shilpa knew the move was inevitable. Brijesh said London was far too busy for him after having lived most of his life in the small Indian state of Goa, and so with his girlfriend in London and Shilpa still single, they seemed to spend much of their free time together. When Brijesh’s landlady decided to double his rent, Shilpa offered him her spare room at a fraction of the cost and in a much better location.
‘Tanvi?’ she asked.
‘Conference she couldn’t get out of,’ Brijesh said. ‘Come see this,’ he added, looking back at the television screen.
‘I don’t need to watch it play out on television. I was there, remember?’ Shilpa clasped her hands together to stop them from trembling.
‘Do you know that Roy Arden owned most of the land in Otter’s Reach and Mermaid Point? He sold it off piece by piece in the eighties and nineties, getting richer with every transaction. He made a killing.’
‘Have you been reading that local history book again?’ she asked. Brijesh leaned over to the side table and picked up the dog-eared book. Shilpa adjusted her cardigan. She was wrapped in anxiety. She had got home in the small hours of the morning and had only just surfaced. Every time she thought about the party and what had happened, she felt a fresh wave of nausea.
Brijesh picked up the remote and muted the television. He turned to face her. ‘So tell,’ he said, like an excited teen who had missed the party of the year.
Shilpa pressed the green flashing light on her coffee machine. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she waited. Caroline had asked her to stay on after she dropped the cake off and Shilpa obliged, keen to see how the other half lived. It had been an incredible party, she had to admit. It just didn’t end very well.
She picked up her cup and glanced at her watch. She didn’t have to be anywhere, and neither did Brijesh by the looks of it.
‘It was pretty amazing,’ she said, and then stopped. It felt wrong to speak about yesterday, and yet she wanted to share what she had seen. Brijesh would appreciate the fine detail and the trouble that the Ardens had gone to.
‘And?’ he asked, impatiently.
Shilpa sat down on the sofa, leaning back into the soft cushions with her cup of coffee. ‘No expense spared. White orchids everywhere; sparkling lights in the liquidambar trees that border the property; free-flowing Bollinger and a wonderful string quartet.’ Shilpa allowed herself to think back to Roy Arden’s eightieth birthday gathering. Opulent was the only word she could use to describe it. ‘There must have been at least 150 guests dressed in the best designers. Lots of flowing silks in bright colours, men in chinos.’
‘Would you expect anything less from a first-class tax evader?’ Brijesh asked.
Shilpa looked at her friend blankly.
‘He was mentioned in that tax avoidance scandal that broke a few years ago.’
‘How do you know that?’ Shilpa asked. She could imagine someone like Roy Arden having a team of accountants to help him avoid paying his dues.
‘The internet.’ Brijesh waved his phone at her. ‘He wasn’t all that bad though. It says here that he gave people jobs in the last recession and regenerated this area. It’s only natural that he’d have wanted to celebrate with all his friends and acquaintances.’
‘And enemies,’ Shilpa said, the uneasy feeling returning. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes again.
‘Online it said he fell to his death just after midnight,’ Brijesh said.
‘Did it?’ Shilpa asked.
‘You’re not convinced?’
Shilpa was silent. She shifted on the sofa as she tried to figure out what it was that was making her so uncomfortable. Was it the exchange she had witnessed between Caroline and Annabel the day before yesterday when she had been given a tour of the house and gardens? The way Caroline had stared at her stepmother suggested a deep-seated hatred. Had she known then that Annabel was pregnant, carrying the heir to the Arden estate, the estate that Caroline wanted her sons Jacob and Monty to inherit?
Caroline may well have discussed her new half-sibling and his legacy with her father out on the viewing deck. Did things get heated when the sun had set and the party was still in full swing, the string quartet replaced by a swing band, the white orchids exchanged for birds of paradise? Dozens of staff had been working behind the scenes to ensure the crystal was polished, the table linens changed and the guests’ glasses were topped up. Someone would have seen something, surely.
Shilpa had noticed that Roy Arden, full of life for his eighty years, had developed a limp as the evening went on. ‘A late-night party isn’t out of the ordinary for him,’ she had heard one guest comment. ‘He’s still so charming and charismatic.’
‘And virile,’ another woman had responded with a chuckle. The announcement of his new heir had taken most of the party guests by surprise, especially given the way Annabel had been knocking back the champagne. After the announcement, she had immediately swapped her bubbles for something soft, as if no one would have remembered her earlier behaviour.
It was clear that Roy Arden’s leg was troubling him, but Shilpa could tell from Roy’s keenness to talk to anyone who came his way that her host wasn’t one to retire from a party early. Instead, he had seated himself on the bench on the viewing deck at the top of the cliff in front of the large viburnum bushes that Shilpa had seen wheeled over the day before the party.
A member of staff had put out grey-and-white cashmere blankets to keep guests warm. The clifftop viewing deck was dimly lit and separated from the front lawn by the road, but despite the distance, it still seemed very much part of the landscape of the house. Most of the guests stayed on the front lawns enjoying their host’s generosity, but every now and again one or two guests would venture towards the bench to look at the water below. There was something magical about the moon’s reflection on the water and people were understandably drawn to it.
On the wooden bench, Roy had prime position looking out over the still, dark water as guests came and went. The view was now unbroken by the old railing because it had been replaced by a short wooden knee rail as Caroline had promised. As night had descended and Roy had taken his seat on the viewing deck, Shilpa had been on the lawns, standing by the magnolia tree. It was a pleasant September evening despite the cloudless sky. She had wanted to see the house from across the road on the viewing deck, knowing it would look spectacular lit up, but word was out that she had made the white chocolate cake with amaretto and raspberry ganache, and so she had a steady stream of people to talk to. Thankfully she had also accepted two further commissions.
