And The Earth Moved: Romantic Comedy Cozy Mystery (Amber Reed CCIA Mystery Book 1) by Zanna Mackenzie

normally a rare occurrence around these parts. People don’t stand much chance of getting away with anything dodgy in Palstone with Mrs Stafford on the case and telling all and sundry. Not that Charlie and I were doing anything dodgy in the car of course.
    “She said he’d arrived in the village today. He’d been asking questions about Ennis. Here to investigate a break-in up at the big house or something. How come you were in a car with him?”
    I fill up the bags of peanuts clipped to the board behind the bar to avoid looking at Debs as I reply. I hate fibbing but at the moment I don’t have any choice. “My car was playing up and Charlie happened to drive past and helped me out. Gave me a lift back to the village.”
    “Amber!” Debs shouts. “You got into a car with strange guy? You know that’s crazy. Why didn’t you call me?”
    “You were working.”
    “I could have taken a quick break in the circumstances. Thankfully he wasn’t an axe murderer. Where’s your car now anyway? Did you get it fixed?”
    And Charlie says I’m the one with all the questions! He hasn’t met Debs yet.
    “Two pints of local beer and an orange juice please, Amber.”
    Phew. Saved by a customer from trying to come up with more answers for Debs. I finish serving the drinks and hope she’ll have forgotten her earlier inquisition.
    Debs turns on her barstool to look towards the darts teams over in the corner of the pub. “Liam looks in a good mood tonight.”
    I watch Liam, his brother Ryan and the others all being loud, clapping and jeering as the game of darts gets going. It’s going to be a noisy and busy night.
    “A pint of whatever the best lager is please.”
    I turn to see Charlie leaning on the bar. He beams me a smile and a wink and I feel my cheeks flush. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Debs looking Charlie up and down.
    “Hi, I’m Debs,” she says, turning towards him.
    Charlie nods a greeting. “Good to meet you, Debs. I’m Charlie. A friend of Amber’s.”
    “So I hear you’re investigating some goings on up at Ennis’ place,” she says to him. That’s Debs for you, straight in there, no preamble.
    “That’s right,” he says pulling some money out of the back pocket of his jeans and handing it to me as I put his drink on the bar.
    “Found anything interesting yet?” she asks, a hopeful expression on her face. “Poor Ennis, the locals love him to bits but he tends to keep a low profile thanks to all the hassle he gets from the media people wanting to catch him up to no good.”
    “Does he usually get up to no good then?” Charlie asks and I can see he’s switched from pub customer into investigator mode.
    “Amber could tell you that better than me,” she laughs. “So, what have you found out so far?”
    Charlie smiles at her, shaking his head. “Sorry but I really can’t tell you anything about the case.” He taps the side of his nose. “All top secret stuff.”
    I’m summoned to serve a few of the locals and when I return to the end of the bar where Debs and Charlie were standing I see that Debs has gone.
    “Went off to talk to some friend,” he explains to me, unprompted. “Speaking of talking. Any chance you can slip away for a few minutes?”
    Everyone is engrossed in watching the darts game now so I nod, beckoning him through the door at the side of the bar and into the storeroom. He closes the door behind us.
    “I’ve had forensic results back. No sign of foul play,” he says quietly. He’s standing so close I’m suddenly aware of how small and cramped this storage area is.
    “At least not recently,” he continues. “There are apparently some scars of battle on Joel’s body indicating he might have been in a fight with someone in the last few days but they’re older than last night so not relevant to his death. No bump on the head suggesting he was knocked out and pushed over the edge of the quarry or anything like that.”
    “Was he drunk or high and fell over