Dye Hard (Australian Amateur Sleuth Book 3) Read online

  Eventually, he was satisfied. He sat back down at the table and smiled as though nothing had happened. Blake was wearing an expression somewhere between stunned and horrified. I brought the coffees back and sat them in front of the two newer guests.

  “Thank you Sibyl,” Cressida said, placing her glasses on the table and taking a sip. “Great as always!” she continued cheerily.

  The four of us got to talking—about recent events, events long past, and events yet to take place. The conversation was casual and easygoing, a happy contrast to recent goings on.

  “Oh, no, Sandy!” I exclaimed, shooting out of my chair. Sandy had run into the room and grabbed Cressida’s glasses from the table without so much as acknowledging us. She had then decided to run back outside and play with them in the yard. I started to give chase, but Cressida put her hand on my arm.

  “I think they’re long gone, Sibyl,” she said forlornly. “I’m not sure I really want them back now anyway. Dog saliva doesn’t do much for my vision.” As Cressida said it, she pulled out an identical pair of glasses and put them on. All the time I’d known her, Cressida still found strange new ways to be weird. Not that I really minded.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed suddenly. “I forgot to tell you all that I have a new artwork to show. I’ll just go grab it.”

  “I have to leave,” Blake said flatly before Cressida could so much as move. I glared at him as best I could, hoping he’d take the hint that I didn’t want to be left alone.

  “Actually, uh, never mind,” he said, sitting back down, defeated.

  “Sorry, Cressida, but I seem to have misplaced your painting before we visited,” Mr. Buttons said. “I just now remembered. Such a shame. I’m sorry.”

  Cressida looked a little disappointed, but I felt an immense sense of relief. Blake went so far as to sigh loudly. I wondered if it was possible to have Mr. Buttons recommended for some kind of medal.

  “Oh well,” I said. “Next time, I suppose.” I wondered how I could avoid ever having to see it, but resigned myself to the inevitability. We all chatted for a long time afterward—at least two more hours, possibly more—before Blake received a phone call.

  “I’m afraid I’ve been called into work,” he said sadly. “I’ll come over again some time soon.”

  “Yes, please do,” Cressida said happily, apparently missing the point entirely.

  “Just please wipe your shoes before you come in.” Mr. Buttons wore a stern look as he spoke, and it was entirely impossible to tell whether or not he was joking.

  “I, uh, I will,” Blake stammered. “Bye everybody. Bye Sibyl.” He gave me another smile. I said my goodbyes and turned back to Cressida and Mr. Buttons.

  “I suppose we should be going, too. We’ll come visit you later on,” Cressida said.

  “Please, do. You know you two are always welcome,” I said earnestly. Well on second thoughts, almost always, I added silently.

  Mr. Buttons and Cressida walked out the door. I waved to them as they walked away and then went back to the coffee machine for another one. As they say—or rather, as I say—five coffees a day keep the doctor away.

  I sat down and thought it was good to have friends like these, and finally, peace to share with them.

  Connect with Morgana

  Would you like to receive an email when Morgana Best releases a new book? Morgana usually reduces her new releases to 99c for the first two days, and emails her readers to let them know. Click here to enter your email! (You will be at once sent a verification email—please click it. It might be in your Spam folder. If you have Gmail, it might be in your Promotions folder. Thanks!)

  Next book in this series

  The Prawn Identity (Australian Amateur Sleuth, Book 4)

  There hasn’t been a murder in weeks, so Sibyl and her wildly eccentric friends, Cressida Upthorpe and Mr. Buttons, breathe a sigh of relief. Yet no sooner have honeymooners, a famous businessman and his wife, booked in to start their married life in bliss, when a tragic accident befalls one of them after a breakfast of prawns. The authorities move to shut down the boarding house for safety reasons.

  The media focus their attention on the husband, believing he was the target, and protesters move to town to rally against the husband’s company, which is destroying the local wilderness land.

  What with Blake’s ex-girlfriend coming back to town, and a rival boarding house opening up nearby, can Sibyl keep a cool head, solve the murder, and save the boarding house from the authorities?

  Other Books by Morgana

  Miss Spelled (The Kitchen Witch Book 1)

  Amelia Spelled has had a bad week. Her boyfriend dumps her when she inadvertently gives him food poisoning; her workplace, a telecommunications center, fires all their staff as they are outsourcing offshore, and she is evicted due to smoke damage resulting from her failed attempts at baking. Amelia thinks her luck has changed when she inherits her aunt’s store and beautiful Victorian house.

  Yet has Amelia jumped out of the frying pan into the fire? The store is a cake store, and her aunt was a witch. To add to the mix, the house has secrets all of its own.

  When a man is murdered in the cake store, will Amelia be able to cook up a way to solve the crime? Will her spells prove as bad as her baking?

  A Ghost of a Chance (Witch Woods Funeral Home Book 1)

  Nobody knows that Laurel Bay can see and talk to ghosts. When she inherits a funeral home, she is forced to return from the city to the small town of Witch Woods to breathe life into the business. It is a grave responsibility, but Laurel is determined that this will be no dead-end job.

  There she has to contend with her manipulative and overly religious mother, more than one ghost, and a secretive but handsome accountant.

  When the murder of a local woman in the funeral home strangles the finances, can Laurel solve the murder?

  Or will this be the death of her business?

  Christmas Spirit (The Middle-aged Ghost Whisperer Book 1)

  Prudence Wallflower tours the country, making live appearances. She connects people with loved ones who have passed on. However, her reputation as a psychic medium is failing, and even Prudence has begun to doubt herself. She has never seen a ghost, but receives impressions from the dead. This all changes when the ghost of a detective appears to her and demands her help to solve a murder. Prudence finds herself out of her depth, and to make matters worse, she is more attracted to this ghost than any man she has ever met.

  About the Author

  #1 Best-selling Cozy Mystery author, Morgana Best, lives in a small, historic, former gold mining town in the middle of nowhere in Australia. She is owned by one highly demanding, rescued cat who is half Chinchilla, and two less demanding dogs, a chocolate Labrador and a rescued Dingo, as well as two rescued Dorper sheep, the ram, Herbert, and his wether friend, Bertie.

  Morgana is a former college professor who now writes full time.

  In her spare time, Morgana loves to read cozy mysteries, repurpose furniture, and renovate her old house.

  A Note from the Author

  Thank you for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it.

  All my books are edited by two separate editing firms, but no one is infallible. If you happen to find a typo, please email me at morganabest (at) outlook (dot) com. Thank you!