Final Act : The Ninth Murray Barber P.I. Case

By Julie Burns-Sweeney

Final Act
Case story nine
Murray Barber is a private investigator with a difference. He can hear the dead speak. Along with his 'late' friends, Alistair and Rita, and Jeff, his friend from C.I.D., Murray solves a variety of cases.
Something’s going bump at the Pantomime rehearsals. Can Murray get to the bottom
of a family suicide and discover what started a fire over a hundred years before?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471622311

Book preview

Final Act : The Ninth Murray Barber P.I. Case

FINAL ACT

The Ninth Murray Barber P.I.

Case

By

Julie Burns-Sweeney

Published by

Lulu.com

CHAPTER ONE

His head pounded like the church bells were ringing inside it as Murray glanced around the old hotel function room. 'Ok, today is not a good day for this.' he thought to himself but he had promised his Mother he would pop in and have a look, and besides, he had self-inflicted the pain on himself the night before while having a perfectly sane heart-to-heart with Ali in the Fishermans Arms.

It had been some weeks since Jenny had turned down his proposal of marriage. She hadn't actually laughed at him but she had asked quite seriously where he had got the idea that she was the 'marrying sort'? Somewhat awkwardly she had explained that one of the things she loved about him the most was the way he rebuffed his Mother's constant attempts to get them to 'settle down'. She liked the 'freedom they had to be individuals within their couple-dom'. And she loved her job which took her all over the globe and wasn't practical for even considering children. He had felt stupid. She had disappeared to Paris for a couple of days with work and upon her return she had sat him down for a 'serious chat about their future'. She had tentatively asked whether marriage and children were his priority as neither fitted into her life or schedule at that moment in time. They had, but he hadn't admitted any such thing to her. Instead he had put it all down to the knock on his head and the arrival of Jeff and Kate's daughter Jessica. He had got swept away with the moment. She had been so relieved! The last thing she had wanted was for their paths to drift apart until the point where they found themselves resenting, or maybe even hating each other. The status quo had been resumed.

So here he was, occasionally having one too many and talking to a ghost that no-one else in the pub could see or hear, until he reached the point where the barman called his Dad to come and take him home. He locked the embarrassment away and concentrated on his surroundings. The Ocean View Hotel. One of the older hotels in town, it stood proudly up on the cliffside over looking the sea. Why was he here? His Mother had asked him to have a snoop around, it was Emma Walker again, her friend from the museum. The season was over and the pantomime rehearsals were in full swing. The story and auditions had all been sorted back in June, Cinderella, and now the locals were meeting twice a week to get the show together. Emma, who had bagged the part of the Fairy Godmother, was getting concerned about the number of accidents which were occurring. Nothing major just curtains falling down, loose bannisters and props falling over. But sooner or later someone was going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and get hurt. It was leaving Emma with an uncomfortable feeling.

The Ocean View was an old building. This was the 'over-fill' function room which was rarely used. Murray stared around him once more as Tony, the owner, chatted away in his ear. They had entered from the corner of the hundred-foot long room. Beside them on the right was the raised bar area with bannisters and wooden steps, the lighting and director were to be positioned there. Infront of them stretched the floor space ready for the seating and at the far end the stage and more curtains. To the right large windows looked out over the harbour and ocean. And in the far left corner stood the doors to the kitchen, only used to finish dishes brought through from the main kitchen, now to be used as 'back stage' and as the changing area. A corridor ran along the left side of the room with toilet facilities. All seemed safe and secure now.

"I check everything in here regularly. I don't know why things keep falling apart, they shouldn't! I guess it's just one of those things? Emma did say she felt uncomfortable, that maybe someone was up to something. But to be honest I don't see any reason why? Yes, it's the first time we've held the pantomime here, and no, not everyone wanted it up here but the Guild Hall is having all that re-plastering and stuff done. We had to move it this year. Don't know why we agreed to have it here really, not with my Dad