The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1) by Diana Xarissa (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“I may have done. I got very little sleep last night, and there are still things I don’t properly understand, as well. We’ll talk about it properly when I get home. I need to go and see how Edward is today, and then we need to get back to our honeymoon.”

“Ring me again in a few days.”

Janet laughed. “Don’t worry if I don’t. I expect we will be having fun and making up for lost time.”

Edward was sitting in a chair in his room, fully dressed and reading a stack of papers.

“How are you?” Janet asked as she entered the room.

“Much better, thanks. I overslept, but I think I needed the sleep.”

“I overslept as well, and then I had a long conversation with Joan.”

“Oh?”

“I rang her when you disappeared. She’s been worried about me ever since.”

“She’s probably furious with me. No doubt she blames me for the danger you were in.”

“She does, but it doesn’t matter. I may have left out some of the worst parts of the story, though. I didn’t want her to worry too much.”

Edward chuckled. “Very good. Maybe she won’t refuse to let me back into Doveby House after our honeymoon is over.”

“It’s as much my house as hers. She can’t keep you out.”

Edward pulled her into an embrace. When it ended, he picked up the papers that he’d tossed aside.

“Interesting reading,” he said.

“Really?”

“Theodore and Tony are brothers. Theodore is older. Authorities in the US have spoken to their mother. She claims her husband was abusive and that she ran away when she found out she was pregnant a second time because she was afraid for her life and for the life of her unborn baby. Apparently her husband didn’t want any more children.”

“She left Theodore with her husband?”

“She did. He and Theodore never knew she’d had a second child, and she never told Tony anything about her marriage or his older brother. She changed her surname to match that of the man she became involved with some years later, and he formally adopted Tony when Tony was around six or seven. It appears that Theodore and Tony met a year or so ago, entirely by chance, and somehow discovered that they were related.”

“That must have been a shock for both of them.”

“According to Theodore, everything that happened next was Tony’s idea,” Edward told her.

“So much for brotherly love. One more question, though. Tony said that the knife he used to stab Bobby on the plane had Dixie’s fingerprints on it. I thought Bobby’s fingerprints were the only ones found on it, though.”

“Bobby thought Lucy was the one behind the murder attempts,” Edward replied with a sigh. “That’s why he didn’t want to discuss them. He loves her and he wanted to do whatever he could to protect her. He brought in bodyguards to keep himself safe, but he also did everything he could to make any investigation into the attempts as difficult as possible. When he woke up and found the knife in his chest, he wiped it clean before he handed it to the police.”

Janet sighed. “What a mess.”

Edward nodded. “But you need to go back to Paris and pack your things. I’m looking forward to getting back to our honeymoon hotel. I hope you didn’t check out?”

“I didn’t,” she assured him.

“I have to see the doctor in an hour or so. Assuming he approves, I’ll be released some time after that. You go and get your things from number fourteen and I’ll see you back in our room before six o’clock.”

“Ring me if anything changes,” she told him after a lengthy kiss.

“I will,” he promised. “There’s a car waiting for you outside. Take this.”

He handed her the marble heart and she slipped it back into her pocket.

Janet chatted with the driver as he drove her back into the city.

“I’ll just wait here for you,” he said as he pulled up outside the hotel.

“I’ll be as quick as I can,” Janet replied.

She took the lift to the fourth floor and used her keycard to get into her room. It didn’t take her long to pack her bags. When she got off the lift in the lobby, she nearly walked into Dixie and Lucy.

“Hello,” she said, uncertain of what sort of reception she’d get from the two women.

“Janet,” Dixie cried. “Are you okay? Did Tony really hold you hostage at gunpoint?”

Janet nodded. “He thought that would help him get away.”

Lucy frowned. “I’ve never had good luck with men, but none of them have ever tried to murder my father before. It’s quite disturbing, really.”

Dixie patted her arm. “He had us all fooled,” she told her. “I didn’t care for him, but I never thought he was a killer.”

“It’s going to be very difficult for me to trust anyone again,” Lucy sighed.

“You’ll feel better after our vacation,” Dixie assured her. She turned towards Janet. “I’m taking Lucy to the Virgin Islands for a month. She needs to be somewhere for a while where people aren’t talking about this. And I need time to get to know her better.”

Lucy smiled wanly. “Neither of us has given the other a fair chance. We’ve both always felt as if we were competing for Daddy’s time and attention. Daddy isn’t coming to St. Croix with us, though.”

“How is Bobby?” Janet asked.

“According to the doctor I spoke to this morning, he’s going to be fine. Bobby wants a second opinion, though, and he wants it from his own doctor. He’s been cleared to fly home first thing tomorrow,” Dixie told her.

“We’ll be flying with him and then leaving him in Texas before we head to