Killing Jane Austen - A Honey Driver murder mystery (Honey Driver Mysteries) Read online

  KILLING JANE AUSTEN

  JEAN G GOODHIND

  A film crew arrives in Bath to make a new film about Jane Austen, romantic novelist and one-time resident of that fair city. To the satisfaction of hotel owner and police liaison officer Honey Driver, some of the visitors are staying at the Green River Hotel, bringing a welcome low-season boost to business, most specifically the bar takings.

  Honey, her daughter Lindsey, and even her mother, are offered the chance to work as extras on the film. It's all very exciting ... until reality – and murder – hit. The film's star, the impossibly demanding Martyna Manderley, is found dead, and Honey finds she's landed her own starring role – as prime suspect.

  DI Steve Doherty, Honey's new and, as yet, tantalisingly unexplored love interest, races to the rescue, and the pair embark on a mission to uncover the truth.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  Chapter Thirty Two

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Chapter Thirty Seven

  Chapter Thirty Eight

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter One

  ‘Well? Are you coming or what?’ Steve Doherty was trying to play nonchalant but she wasn’t fooled. He was keen for her to say yes, and what’s more she was keen to say yes.

  Honey Driver, Bath hotelier, also doubled as Crime Liaison Officer on behalf of the Hotels Association which was how come she’d met Detective Inspector Steve Doherty: him of the laconic good looks and sexual promise.

  The promise had been looking quite – well – promising. Doherty was inviting her away for a dirty weekend. At least his tantalizing asides made her presume it would be pretty dirty, seeing as he told her to leave her flannelette pyjamas behind.

  ‘A dab of perfume behind each ear should fit the bill,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t wear pyjamas.’

  ‘Good.’

  Unfortunately his timing was well up the creek. ‘I can’t go.’ The words caught in her throat. She hated saying no. Doherty hated her saying no too. His sigh of exasperation was like a full-force gale blowing down the phone.

  ‘Don’t tell me. You’ve got a do on for the Bone Crushers and Horse Glue Society.’

  ‘No! No, it’s nothing like that.’

  She went on to tell him why she couldn’t come.

  Yet another historical production was being filmed in Bath. This time it was about the life of the most famous spinster ever to write romantic fiction: Jane Austen.

  A film crew had arrived in town and two of the production team – namely the sound technician and the guy operating the lighting generator – were sharing a twin-bedded room at the Green River Hotel. They also frequented the bar a lot. That was when they’d asked Honey and a few others if they fancied being film extras.

  Visions of herself as a kind of latter-day Sophia Loren had sprung immediately to mind. Yes, of course she’d take part.

  So would her daughter Lindsey, who was a sucker for history at the best of times.

  So would her elderly mother Gloria. It was the costumes that did it for her. She just adored wearing anything floaty and feminine. And young guys in tight trousers.

  Mary Jane declined, which wasn’t exactly unexpected. Their resident professor of the paranormal looked puzzled when asked if she wanted to be transported to the Regency period. ‘I see people from that era every day,’ she finally stated. She was referring to Sir Cedric, one-time resident of the room she presently occupied. He was supposedly one of her ancestors and still visited on occasion even though he’d died back in 1792.

  Anyway, being an extra had sounded like being good fun. It was a bit like playing hooky from school. Sit around, get shot by nothing more dangerous than a camera, and have someone cook for you. The half-cut members of the production crew assured her that she’d mostly be whiling away the time reading a book or playing Scrabble.

  ‘Shame. You don’t know what you’re missing,’ said Doherty.

  He was right. They’d been trying to get it together for ages, but things kept getting in the way.

  ‘How about next week?’ she asked hopefully.

  ‘Anything can happen between now and then. I shall probably be on duty. Sure you won’t change your mind?’

  She said that she couldn’t. She’d promised.

  ‘Never mind. I can make other arrangements,’ he said, adding that he would ring her soon.

  It was tempting – very tempting – to ask him what – or who those other arrangements might involve. None of your business, she told herself, and put down the phone. Hell, but it was hard to act uninterested. Visions of what might have been stayed with her and made the blood rush to her cheeks. She felt quite hot – which was far from what she was the following morning.

  Unfortunately, in order to take advantage of the quieter off season, the film was being made in February. And filming started early. Very early.

  So here they were, freezing their butts off, at six in the morning.

  ‘I hear Martyna Manderley is a right bitch,’ said Lindsey. ‘Not really a good choice to play Jane Austen. Did you know that Jane Austen didn’t really like Bath very much?’

  Honey shivered. ‘She must have visited it first in February.’

  Lindsey said that she didn’t know and continued beating herself with her arms.

  The elegant houses fringing the Circus looked dormant, the sky was unstirred by dawn and the air was cold and nipping at noses.

  Honey’s mother was busy keeping her eyes peeled for any good-looking young man in tight britches.

  Enticed by the smell of sizzling bacon, the shivering extras were hanging around the catering truck. A girl with untidy hair emerged from the costume trailer. A candy cigarette hung from the corner of her mouth. No chance of her getting cancer from that, Honey decided.

  Small, deep-set eyes scanned the extras.

  Now, that’s a girl who looks as though she has X-ray vision, Honey thought. How else could she define what sizes and shapes lurked beneath the thick coats, sweaters, scarves and mufflers everyone was wearing?

  ‘You, you, and you.’

  ‘Me?’ said Honey, pointing at her chest.

  ‘Not you. You!’ said the girl. She pointed to Honey’s mother and a small figure standing next to her.

  Gloria was all smiles. ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ she murmured, her breath puffing from her mouth like a steam kettle.

  ‘She’s seen the film,’ Lindsey said out of the corner of her mouth.<
br />
  ‘You too,’ snapped the girl, pointing at Lindsey.

  Honey was left all alone with her stomach rumbling.

  ‘I didn’t get picked either,’ said the tall gaunt man standing beside her.

  He was sipping coffee from a polystyrene cup.

  ‘I had a good Christmas season,’ he added. ‘Back half of a pantomime horse. Not exactly a starring role, but at least I was on stage. That’s what matters, eh?’

  ‘No,’ said Honey. ‘I wouldn’t want to be the back half of anything.’

  He looked down at her blankly as though he couldn’t possibly understand her point of view. Being on stage was everything as far as he was concerned. He said, ‘Oh!’ and moved off, looking deflated.

  ‘Well, I certainly gave a moving performance there,’ Honey muttered, regretting it. Early mornings were not her best time. Cold mornings were even worse. At least when she got up early in the hotel she was warm.

  The cold was unremitting. Like everyone else she stamped her feet and beat her arms around her.

  ‘There is a bus you can sit on,’ said someone next to her.

  She smiled and nodded. ‘I know.’

  Of course she knew, but her fingers and toes could last out a little longer. She wanted to see what costumes her mother and daughter had ended up with.

  After ten minutes the door of the wardrobe trailer opened and out they came wearing bonnets and muslin dresses beneath their winter coats.

  ‘I insisted on keeping my vest on,’ her mother informed her. ‘And I asked for a shawl.’

  ‘And got one,’ muttered Lindsey, who had asked, been refused, and was turning sapphire blue. She burrowed her face into the hood and collar of her padded coat like a tortoise settling down for hibernation. ‘Muslin lets the draught in,’ she grumbled.

  Gloria Cross peered past her daughter. ‘Is that Martyna Manderley over there?’

  They all looked in the direction indicated. A very attractive young woman was holding up her pale mauve skirt while someone from wardrobe adjusted her leg warmers.

  ‘She’s a bit tall for Jane Austen,’ said Lindsey, always a stickler for historical accuracy.

  ‘She’s very pretty,’ said Gloria. ‘And slim. Did you know that she got paid a million for photos and stuff in Hello! magazine?’

  ‘Nobody’s worth that,’ sniffed Honey.

  ‘You’re biased,’ said her mother. ‘And jealous.’

  ‘Why would I be?’ Honey said indignantly.

  ‘Because she’s got good looks, money, and style.’

  ‘Ah, but does she have a brain?’ Honey asked.

  Lindsey shrugged. ‘Someone must think she’s worth it.’

  ‘Hmm,’ muttered Honey. ‘To the tune of one million at least!’

  More extras were pointed at and told to advance.

  Honey watched. It was quite fascinating to see people enter the trailer in jeans and jumpers and come out wearing poke bonnets and floaty dresses. Competition as to who had the best costume was rife.

  ‘Mine’s pure silk. I’m supposed to be a young woman about town.’

  ‘I’m supposed to be a child’s governess.’

  ‘I’m supposed to be a costermonger – whatever that is,’ said a short man with a bulbous nose and a patch over one eye.

  Resigned to the fact that she might be sitting on the sidelines, Honey snuggled more deeply into her fleece-lined jacket.

  What did she care if she didn’t get to wear a floaty, fairy-thin outfit? It was February for goodness’ sake!

  Sizzling and smoke suddenly filled the air. A flock of noses turned yet again in the direction of the catering truck.

  ‘Breakfast,’ Honey said suddenly.

  ‘Smudger,’ said Lindsey before she was herded off with the others in costume.

  ‘Right.’

  Retrieving her phone from her toasty pocket reminded her of how cold it was here and how warm it was back at the Green River.

  ‘Now come along. Where’s the consummate actress in you?’ First things first. She had to get Smudger, the chef, out of bed. They had guests at the Green River Hotel who would be expecting bacon, sausages, and all the trimmings. They weren’t likely to get it unless Smudger got cracking eggs and frying rashers.

  Smudger had promised to sleep with his phone pressed against his ear.

  She sidled over to a fairly clear spot between extras land and the hallowed ground where the director was speaking to the leading lady. The light wasn’t good and although the phone’s screen was lit, she needed a bit more light in order to press the right buttons.

  She didn’t realize that her small action had caused a problem – not until she heard a shrill voice split the morning air.

  ‘Get her out of here!’

  Honey noticed that the figure in gossamer lilac with the shriek of a harpy was pointing at her.

  She carried on regardless. A groggy Smudger answered.

  ‘Breakfast!’ She shouted it as loud as she dared and got a muffled ‘OK’ in response.

  ‘Are you up?’

  ‘Just getting up.’

  He sounded very groggy.

  ‘Take one foot out from beneath the bedclothes. Right? Now put it on to the floor.’

  She heard him groan. ‘Christ!’

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘This floor’s cold.’

  Her task complete, Honey flicked the phone shut. Smudger had one foot on the floor. Where the right foot led, the left foot would follow.

  Martyna Manderley, her of the million-pound photographs, flounced over with her skirts held high. She was wearing black leggings as well as leg warmers beneath her muslin dress.

  Honey eyed the polished talon pointing like a dagger at her heart. ‘Sorry. I must be on the wrong set. I’m supposed to be in a Jane Austen flick, not Dracula’s daughter.’ She said it jokingly.

  Martyna did not see the funny side of it.

  ‘Give me that phone!’

  Honey hid it behind her back. ‘No. It’s mine.’

  A middle-aged man wearing a velvet beret and a Barbour jacket came over too. He had a three-foot-long ponytail and a trio of earrings in his right ear. He held out his hand. ‘I’m sorry, but we do not permit the use of mobile phones on set.’

  ‘Excuse me, but it’s my phone, and if I wish to make a call I most certainly will do so.’

  A snarling Martyna Manderley wagged a lace-mittened finger. Ladylike she was definitely not. ‘Making a call, my arse! You were taking a photograph for some shitty little tabloid, you sneaky bitch.’

  Honey tutted disapprovingly. ‘Now, how are you going to get into character with any conviction using language like that?’

  Martyna’s beautiful face froze into a chilly mask. Like bad news she bounced back. ‘Get her off this set or I quit!’

  The director squirmed. ‘Now, don’t be unreasonable, Martyna darling …’

  ‘You need to cool down,’ said Honey. ‘How about you take off all that underwear you’re wearing? Did you know that chicks back then didn’t wear any underwear? No knickers anyway. My daughter told me. She’s into that kind of thing – history that is. Not knickers. I’m into them. In fact I have a pair once worn by Queen Victoria …’

  ‘Get her off this bloody set!’

  The director’s face went from surprise to resignation in two swift moves.

  Stressed out, thought Honey, and made the effort to explain.

  ‘Just for the record, I was phoning my chef to get him out of bed so that the guests at my hotel get their breakfast.’ She spotted the sound technician. ‘Derek will vouch for that. He’s staying at my hotel.’

  The director looked at him. Like many others on the production team, Derek had hung back, unwilling to speak to the big man unless spoken to.

  ‘It’s true,’ said Derek. ‘I heard Mrs Driver ask him to cover for breakfast and that she’d ring him from the set because he’d be dead to the world on account of the booze he’d sunk.’

  The
explanation seemed to satisfy the director. ‘I see. But we do require you turn it off while on set.’

  Martyna Manderley was of a different mind. The corkscrew curls peeping out from her bonnet sprang up and down like small bed springs.

  ‘Well, it’s not fucking OK with me!’

  Film crew and extras fell to silence, their attention drawn to the raucous voice and bad language.

  Martyna Manderley reminded Honey of all the worst guests she’d ever had stay at the Green River Hotel. Bad-mannered guests always brought out the worst in her.

  ‘Miss Manderley, you are stuck-up and too rude to mention!’

  ‘Why, you …!’ Martyna attempted to strike out. The guy with the ponytail leapt to the rescue.

  ‘Now, now, Martyna. Calm down, calm down. You know getting angry makes it difficult to get into character.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Honey, determined to have the last word. ‘Jane Austen was a professional busybody, not a professional tart!’

  Martyna screamed and lunged. It took a whole host of minions to encircle her, mouthing platitudes of how wonderful she was and how she must think of her public.

  Honey felt a dig in her ribs. Derek, the sound technician, was grinning, his moustache spreading like a ginger caterpillar across a face made ruddier by the early-morning nip.

  ‘I enjoyed that.’

  ‘So did I,’ said Honey. ‘Is she always so touchy?’

  He nodded and whispered, ‘The best kind of bitch has four legs. The worst only has two – and her name’s Martyna Manderley.’

  The superstar’s colourful language soared anew.

  ‘Fuck off, all of you. I’m going for a lie-down.’

  The director scuttled along behind her, doing his best to soothe the ruffled feathers. ‘Martyna, darling.’

  ‘You heard. I’ll be in my trailer! And I’m not coming out until that woman is gone!’

  Silently they all watched her march off, her skirts bundled around her waist.

  The director sighed. ‘Look, I’ve got enough on my plate without this. How about you just get lost for the time being? Hide yourself among the other extras?’

  ‘I can do that.’

  He went off, still looking harassed. She wondered if the reason he had long grey hair was because he couldn’t find time to visit the hairdresser.