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

when it’s actually lunchtime,’ I said firmly. ‘There is still a canteen at the station, isn’t there?’
    Gary munched happily on his brownie. ‘Yeah, but everyone says it hasn’t been as good since your mum left. Wow, these brownies are really great. You’re so talented.’
    I didn’t bother explaining that I hadn’t done the day’s baking—why break the illusion? ‘It’s been five years, Gary. You boys are going to have to learn to live without Mum some day.’ I paused, sensing that this moment of total chocolate overload was my best chance to pump Gary for information. ‘So, what’s Bishop’s problem? He seems more shouty than usual. Or is it the effect that I have on him?’
    Gary was the best gossip in the district, apart from Constable Marie who went off to have babies but still posts Twitter updates about who’s shagging whom (she’s usually wrong, which is half the fun of it, and the codenames she uses are hilarious). ‘Oh, that’d be Inspector Clayton. He’s down from the mainland, and he’s in charge of our unit—but even though it’s supposed to be CIB and uniform working together, he keeps dismissing Bishop’s opinions, because he’s not a detective.’
    Trust Bishop to end up working under the one inspector in the district who didn’t think the sun shone out of his arse.
    ‘Yeah,’ Gary continued. ‘Inspector Clayton has been giving him heaps for ignoring the other traps earlier, but that’s really not fair because no one took them seriously.’
    When grilling people for gossip, I find it’s best to nod and smile a lot, as if you know exactly what they’re talking about. So I nodded and smiled. ‘Wait—what traps?’
    Gary finished his last bite of brownie, and I waved at Lara to fill us up. She gave me the finger, and went back to cleaning the cappuccino machine. Fair enough, really.
    ‘It looked like stupid pranks,’ Gary went on, without the extra lubrication of a second brownie. I pushed mine in his direction, just in case. ‘The cat stuck up the tree, then the postman who fell into a cage. No one thought it actually meant anything. But then there’s this net with a dead body in it, and no one knows how it got up there. Those rock band blokes turned out to have some Super-lawyer, and we can’t prove they were involved, so who could it be? The body was some junkie busker, but still … Inspector Clayton reckons that finding the Trapper could be really important now. Pivotal to the case.’
    ‘The Trapper,’ I said encouragingly.
    ‘I came up with the name,’ said Gary, puffing up a little. ‘And everyone around the station picked it up—he’s sort of sneaky and cunning. And he sets traps.’
    ‘Clayton,’ I said, thoughtfully. ‘Is that Des Clayton? I think my dad knew him, years ago.’ Big surprise there. There aren’t many senior officers in the country who don’t know Dad, one way or another. ‘Ran the training college in Adelaide?’
    ‘On active duty now,’ said Gary. ‘Anyway, that’s why Bishop’s all cranky. So don’t take it personally.’ He smiled at me. ‘That was really good lasagne, Tabby.’
    There was a firm cough from Lara, and I glanced at the clock. Quarter to five—that’s time to start looking inhospitable and wave chairs around, so we don’t get any customers sneaking in at two minutes to closing. ‘Great seeing you, Gary. Pop in again soon.’ I cleared the plates briskly, leaving him to give a little wave on his way out.
    No sooner had he left than the bell jangled as he stuck his head back in. ‘Hey, Tabby. If you’re interested, there’s stuff about the traps up on your friend’s blog.’
    ‘What friend?’ I said. ‘Wait, what blog?’

6
    S andstone City . I’d contributed a few stories to the blog over the last few months, mainly due to the fact that Simon, Head Geek, spent a lot of time hanging hopefully around our coffee machine until he figured out that Nin really isn’t into blokes. Also, I talk a lot.