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

“Surely that was pretty much the same job every time,” Janet said.

“It was never as simple as it sounded,” he told her, shaking his head. “One woman I brought decided that she wanted me to stay with her, in her bed. It took a great deal of effort to persuade her that we weren’t well suited.”

“James Bond would have just slept with her,” Janet said.

Edward laughed. “If James Bond worked for my agency, he’d have been let go the first time he slept with someone associated with an assignment. It works in books and the movies, but not in the real world.”

Janet nodded. “But that only happened once?” she asked.

“One of the men I brought here decided that he wanted to sleep with Maggie,” Edward recalled, using Margaret’s nickname. “I had to convince her to turn him down, which wasn’t easy. Maggie loved men, but he was about to be shipped off to Mexico for an extended stay and I didn’t want her to try to follow him.”

“My goodness.”

“And then there was the man who tried to burn some important documents in his room,” Edward sighed. “He nearly set the entire house on fire. Maggie was furious, and it cost the agency a small fortune to make things right again.”

“Which room?” Janet asked.

Edward winked at her. “You won’t find a single trace of what happened.”

They walked around a corner and then stopped in front of the carriage house.

“Is Joan still considering turning this into a small self-catering unit?” Edward asked.

Janet shrugged. “We haven’t really discussed that lately, either. I don’t know that either of us has been inside since the body was found. It’s, well, it’s just creepy.”

“So you don’t know if the ghost has gone or not?”

“We don’t, but he or she should still be there. As I understand it, the ghost has been there a lot longer than the body had been.”

“We should investigate,” Edward suggested.

Janet sighed. “You can investigate.”

“You don’t want to come inside with me?”

“I don’t know,” Janet told him. “As I said, it’s creepy in there.”

“Where is the key?”

“On the hook by the back door. You’ll need a torch, too.”

“I thought you got the electricity problems repaired.”

“We had the faulty electricity disconnected and a proper line run from the house, but that doesn’t mean that the ghost won’t switch off the lights when you’re in there.”

“I’ll be right back,” Edward told her.

Janet sat down on a nearby bench and pulled her coat tightly around her. She hadn’t really noticed the cold breeze while she and Edward had been walking around, but now that she was stationary, it seemed to want to blow right through her.

“Hello.”

The voice came from behind Janet, and it made her jump.

“Stuart,” she gasped as she jumped up from her seat.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said quickly. “I thought you would have heard me coming.”

“I was lost in thought,” she told him.

Stuart Long was a retired gardener who’d found that retirement didn’t really suit him. He spent nearly all of his time maintaining the gardens at Doveby House in exchange for a small stipend and unlimited tea and biscuits. It was his house that had burned down back in June and, for some time after the incident, he’d stayed at Doveby House with the sisters and Michael. When it became obvious that it was going to be some months before reconstruction on the house was even going to begin, Stuart had bought himself a tiny cottage about half a mile away.

He was still at Doveby House nearly every day, even during the winter months, working in the garden, but he was enjoying having his own space again. In addition to having his house rebuilt, he was in the middle of a messy legal case involving the woman he’d thought was his wife. Janet knew he didn’t like talking about her or the case, so she forced herself to be polite and not bring it up as he joined her on the bench.

“How are you?” he asked her.

“I’m fine. How are you?” she replied.

“I’m fine and, for the first time in a long time, I think I actually mean it,” he replied.

Janet smiled at him. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“I finally have my cottage exactly the way I want it, and I’ve been thinking about simply staying there even after the house is rebuilt.”

“Oh?”

“I don’t need a three-bedroom house, not when I’m all alone. And I’m not in any hurry to have anyone else in my life, either. After my time with Mary, I think I’d rather be alone for the rest of my life.”

“Never say never,” Janet told him.

Stuart laughed. “My daughter says that, too, but she also insists that she has to approve of any woman I meet.”

“That may be for the best,” Janet suggested, knowing that Stuart had been estranged from his daughter while he’d been married to Mary. The two women had disliked one another, and Mary had forced Stuart to cut all ties with his daughter not long after they’d married.

“Here we are,” Edward said as he approached, waving the key to the carriage house.

“What do you need in the carriage house?” Stuart asked.

“Nothing,” Janet told him. “Edward was just wondering if it’s still haunted.”

“It is,” Stuart told her. “I don’t keep anything in there any longer, not since you built my shed for me, but I do check on it every once in a while. I’ve been locked inside at least a dozen times in the past three months. That’s why I always keep the spare key in my pocket.”

Janet looked at Edward. “See? We don’t need to go inside.”

He chuckled. “But we could,” he suggested.

Stuart laughed. “I’ll stay out here and let you out when you