Kith and Kill (30 page)

‘Who?’

‘Her Next Door.’

‘Her Next Door? But I thought you couldn't stand the woman.’

‘We've had our little differences, I'll grant you. But we've a lot in common, too. We're both raised large families. We're both widows. So when I mentioned I'd like to go to Italy, Renee told me she'd long had a fancy to go there herself.’

‘I never knew she was a Catholic.’

‘She isn't. It's not the Vatican she's interested in, it's the Italians themselves. The men, in particular. Well, just the men, really, I suppose.’

Rafferty laughed. ‘You'll make a right pair. The letch and the lurch.’

‘Lurch?’ His ma looked at him suspiciously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The lurch to the knees, Ma, of course. I'm guessing you'll be doing plenty of God-bothering while you're there.’

‘I wish you wouldn't use that term, Joseph. It's verging on the Blasphemous.’ His ma always used capital letters when it came to religious matters, Particularly when it came to his backsliding. ‘It's disrespectful.’

‘Sorry, Ma.’

‘So I should hope. I'll say a few novenas for you when I get to St Peter's. Pray that you mend your ways and return to the faith.’

‘It's not that I've ever really left it, Ma. I find that once the Catholic Church gets its fangs into you, you never escape. I'm a Catholic whether I want to be one or not. I just don't go to church.’

‘There you go, being Blasphemous again. I can see I'm going to be wearing out the rosary beads on your behalf.’

‘Anyway, never mind all that for now. Of course we'll pay for your holiday.’ This unilateral, eldest child's, declaration made, Rafferty asked, ‘So when do you want to go?’

‘Tomorrow. I'm off tomorrow.’

‘Blimey, there's no holding you, is there, Ma? But I thought you wanted us to pay for it?’

‘Well, and now that you've mentioned it. I'll take cheques. But I've already paid for it. I had to, when I wanted to go at such short notice.’

‘So what's the rush?’

‘Shame on you, Joseph. And isn't it the Feast of All Souls on the 2
nd
of November? I thought I'd put in a few words for your late father, save him from an eternity in Purgatory. So when Her Next Door – Renee, I mean, when Renee said she wanted to go, I knew there was no time to lose in case she changed her mind and went with one of her daughters. She's really very keen. Anyway, I got myself straight online and booked it for both of us.’

His ma had become a ‘silver surfer’ earlier in the year when she'd wanted to trace the more distant family members for a reunion (
Deadly Reunion
) and had used the computer skills she'd learned during a Senior's evening class computer course to contact them all.

‘All Souls’ Day. Right. So are you all packed? Got your passport? How are you getting there? You'll need some Euros – have you bought some? And what about–’

‘Lord save us, Joseph. Do you think I'm some sort of ancient eejit, unable to sort out a few simple things like passports and tickets? They're all organized. And I'm flying, of course. All I need is someone to take me to the airport.’

‘I'll do it,’ Rafferty volunteered, breaking the habit of a lifetime. ‘Where are you flying from?’

‘Stansted.’

‘Okay. Right you lot.’ He looked around at his five siblings. ‘Let's be having your cheques, made out to Mrs M C Rafferty. How much did the holiday cost altogether, Ma? And what do you reckon your spending costs will come to?’

Ma told him. She also did a quick bit of long division mental arithmetic and told each what their contribution should be. Rafferty winced. And now it struck him that not only had he forked out two unnecessary lots of two and a half grand – the first for his contribution to his brother's new car in order to safeguard his career from any risk from hookey jewellery and the second for Abra's new kitchen – but that he was also now going to have to pay his share of ma's holiday and spending costs which were more than he'd expected the dating agency fees to come to. Truly, being a copper in this family was a traumatic business. And now that this latest case was solved the overtime would be coming to an end. He didn't know how he was going to pay for it all.

The girls told ma about the dating agency idea and said they were disappointed that this wasn't now going to happen.

Ma laughed heartily at the dating agency scheme. ‘I'd have thought this family had had enough of dating agencies, what with– ‘ Ma broke off and, after a brief, guilty glance at Rafferty, announced loudly, ‘I'll put the kettle on. We can have the cup that cheers to speed me on my way.’

A clamour broke out then. ‘What's this about a dating agency, Ma?’ they all wanted to know. ‘Did you sign up for one before?’

‘No, of course I didn't. What do I want with a bought boyfriend?’

‘So who did?’

‘Never you mind.’ She bustled to the door. ‘I'll make that tea.’

The hubbub broke out again when she'd gone through to the kitchen. Luckily, for Rafferty's peace of mind, they didn't know just when his ma was referring to. To turn away suspicious, he forced himself to join in the speculation about just which of them had paid Cupid for his darts, all the while being eyed with amusement by Abra who knew all the dirty details.

Ma returned to the living room with the tea and the speculation died down when it became clear that she was saying nothing. Five minutes later, cheques collected and safely stashed in her handbag, ma said, ‘Now, what can I bring you all back from The Vatican? Holy statues? Holy pictures? Or perhaps a piece of the Sacred Cross if I can get it?’

The girls said they'd rather have a hunky Italian, like Renee and the boys told her not to bother buying anything as there wasn't anything they wanted.

Before
ma set off for her trip to Italy, Abra, after she had told Rafferty, gave her the best anniversary present she could hope for: the announcement that she was pregnant. And this present hadn't cost them a penny. Nor did it need wrapping up with paper and ribbon like the hookey jewellery or the dating agency member's card. It came in the gift-wrapping of Abra's body.

His ma's reaction when they told her, was such as to make Rafferty feel ten feet tall. He'd always been ma's blue-eyed boy, but now he'd definitely been promoted to kingly status. And all for just getting his wife in the family way. He must do it again. It was quite painless. For him, anyway. Though the thought that they had made another little Rafferty was a cause for some disquiet.

Geraldine Evans
has been writing since her twenties, but never finished anything. It was only hitting the milestone age of thirty that concentrated her mind. She then wrote a book a year for six years, only the last of which (
Land of Dreams
), was published. As well as her popular Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series, she has a second mystery series, Casey & Catt and has also had published an historical novel, a romance and articles on a variety of subjects, including, Historical Biography, Writing, Astrology, Palmistry and other New Age subjects. She has also written a dramatization of
Dead Before Morning
, the first book in her Rafferty series.

She is a Londoner, but now lives in Norfolk England where she moved, with her husband George, in 2000.

Kith and Kill
is the latest in her 15-strong humorous Rafferty & Llewellyn mystery series. She is currently working on the next in the series. She also hopes to put out another ebook later in 2011.

You can learn more about Geraldine Evans and her novels at
http://www.geraldineevans.com

Trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-BPA8GByM

DEAD BEFORE MORNING

A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel

By Geraldine Evans

Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.

First in the fifteen-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series.

Detective Inspector Joseph Rafferty is investigating his first murder since his promotion. What a shame the victim is a girl with no name and no face, found in a place she had no business being – a private psychiatric hospital. With everyone denying knowing anything about the victim, Rafferty has his work cut out, so he could do without his Ma setting him another little problem: that of getting his cousin ‘Jailhouse Jack’ out of the cells. Although he has no shortage of suspects, proof is not so plentiful. It is only when he remembers his forgotten promise to get his cousin out of the cells that Rafferty gets the first glimmer that leads to the solution to the case.

Links

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EYUHN8

Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004EYUHN8

Trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t8yxlChfaE

DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN

A Rafferty and Llewellyn mystery novel

By Geraldine Evans

Available from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Android, iPad, iPhone, iBookstore, etc.

Second novel in the fifteen-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series.

When beautiful Barbara Longman is found dead in a meadow, uprooted wild flowers strewn about her and, in her hand, a single marigold, Inspector Joe Rafferty at first believes the murder may be the work of the serial killer over the county border in Suffolk. But then he meets the victim's family – and, after liaising with the Suffolk CID, he rapidly comes to believe that the killing is the work of a copycat… one much closer to home, someone among the descendants of the long-dead wealthy family patriarch, Maximillian Shore. Everyone, it seems, had a motive: Henry the grieving widower; the victim's brother-in-law, Charles Shore, the ruthless tycoon; Henry's first wife, the Bohemian Anne, who has lost the custody of Maxie, her teenage son, to the saintly Barbara. Even the long-dead patriarch, Maximillian Shore, seems, to Rafferty, to have some involvement in the murder, though how, or why, Rafferty doesn't understand until he finally grasps the truth behind the reasons for the killing. A truth sad and dreadful and which had been evident from the start, if only he had had the eyes to see.

Links

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0042P53NS