Read A Trifle Dead: Cafe La Femme, Book 1 for Free Online

posters. If I get bored with them, I can change them. I was not getting roped into feeding stray Scotsmen in exchange for wall art.
    ‘Your new bloke?’ Lara asked as I carried the last of the bikky jars into the café.
    ‘No,’ I said, more emphatic than I had intended.
    ‘Good,’ she said with a smirk. ‘Nice arse.’
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    B etween three and four in the afternoon, it gets almost as hectic as lunchtime. The whole city’s blood sugar and caffeine levels plummet at the same time, and the workers and shoppers cram into the cafés with wild eyes and handfuls of money.
    The meringue kitty cats were a hit as usual, and sold out long before the Coffee & Cake rush eased off. I had Nin and Lara working flat out at the counter and espresso machine, and I still had to let the phone ring about twelve times before I could get to it. ‘Café La Femme, can I help you?’
    ‘Have you googled him?’ Bishop said, without even a hello.
    ‘Bishop, I’m up to my eyeballs in customers right now. Crazy people need cake. Must cake the crazy people.’
    ‘Your new little friend. McTavish. Google him before you get into a car with him again.’
    ‘Google this.’ I hung up, and loaded a tray with lattés.
    ‘Hi, Tabby,’ said a fresh voice.
    Constable Gary, bright as a button in his zip-up police jacket, smiled at me with his usual mix of desperation and hope.
    ‘Hey, Gary. With you in a minute.’ I circulated, dropping off the coffees and clearing two tables before I made it back. Nin relinquished the counter to me, and went out back to fetch another cheesecake or four. Gary was at the front of the queue by then, beaming at me.
    He’s a sweetheart, really—all sandy hair and freckles, and he’ll probably look eighteen right up to his fiftieth birthday. ‘What can I do for you, sweetie?’
    I love to make him blush. He turns into one whole freckle. ‘Um, a vegan quiche, please, Tabby. With extra side salad.’
    I lost a little bit of respect for him. ‘So Bishop sent you.’
    ‘No,’ he protested. ‘It’s what I fancy. And I haven’t had lunch yet.’
    If ever a bloke needed a special someone to feed him up, it was Gary. ‘Sit down, and I’ll get you some lasagne. Don’t tell Inspector Bobby I made one today, I promised Cheryl he gets no more béchamel from me.’
    An hour later, the café had quietened down to a dull moan, and Gary was still sitting at his corner table.
    ‘I’ve never seen anyone take so long over a plate of lasagne,’ Lara said in an undertone to Nin.
    Nin’s eyebrows arched a little. ‘Hoping Tabitha will honour him with another smile.’
    I gave them both my bitchy boss expression, which they ignored. Apparently, I am not an authority figure. ‘He does not have a crush on me. He’s hoping I’ll go over there so he can talk about that girl he fancies who works at the newsagency.’
    Okay, he had a teeny crush on me, but pretending I didn’t know was the best possible way to deal with it.
    Lara handed me a flat white mocha, sprinkled with cinnamon the way I like it, and a latté for Gary. ‘Well? You’ve made greater sacrifices to rid the café of uniforms.’
    Too true. I put a couple of brownies on a plate, to give me strength. ‘Gary,’ I said brightly, joining him at his table. ‘Don’t mind if I sit here do you? Have a brownie. What’s on your mind?’
    ‘Hi, Tabby,’ he said again, with a little happy sigh.
    I gave him his coffee and passed over three sugar packets. If I’d asked, he would say he only took two. People are odd like that. ‘Have you asked Veronica out yet?’
    ‘Nah,’ he said, looking embarrassed. ‘We’re really busy in the Crime Management Unit this month. And, you know, she wouldn’t be interested in me.’
    ‘We talked about this, Gary. Stop selling yourself short.’
    ‘We really are busy. Bishop’s had me running around all day, following up leads on the new murder case.’ He looked impressed with himself.
    ‘He should let you break for lunch