Lovelace and Button (International Investigators) Inc.. James Hawkins
LOVELACE AND BUTTON (INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATORS) INC.
Also by James Hawkins
INSPECTOR BLISS MYSTERIES
Missing: Presumed Dead
The Fish Kisser
No Cherubs for Melanie
A Year Less a Day
The Dave Bliss Quintet
NON-FICTION
The Canadian Private Investigator's Manual
1001 Fundraising Ideas and Strategies for Charities and Not-for-Profit Groups
LOVELACE & BUTTON (INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATORS) INC.
A Chief Inspector Bliss Mystery
James Hawkins
A Castle Street Mystery
Copyright © James Hawkins, 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Editor: Barry Jowett
Copy-editor: Lloyd Davis
Design: Andrew Roberts
Printer: Webcom
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Hawkins, D. James (Derek James), 1947-
Lovelace and Button (International Investigators) Inc. / James Hawkins.
ISBN 1-55002-541-4
I. Title.
PS8565.A848L69 2004C813'.6C2004-905470-8
123450807060504
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
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For Nancy … with love
chapter one
"Samantha Anne Bliss: do you take Peter Sebastian Bryan to be your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward…"
"That's it, then," mutters David Bliss, Samantha's father, thinking that he is talking to himself. "The poor sucker hasn't got a clue what he's taking on. I just hope he doesn't blame me."
"Who's going to blame you?" whispers an enquirer, her voice barely audible above the rain hammering on the church's ancient copper roof.
"… till death ye both shall part?" continues the pastor.
Oh God! Was I talking aloud? "Sorry, Daphne," whispers Bliss.
"I do," replies Samantha, without hesitation.
No mention of honour or obey.
Did you expect there to be? She's a lawyer, not an office flunky. Anyway, when did she ever do what she was told?
There's a first time for everything.
"Peter Sebastian Bryan: do you take Samantha Anne Bliss…"
David Bliss feels a slight tug and has to bend a long way to question the giant toadstool hat on his left.
"What is it, Daphne?"
"Don't they usually ask the man first?"
"Not the one who's marrying my daughter, apparently."
An indignant "Shush!" comes from the woman on Bliss's right and he briefly cranes around as if trying to locate the talkative culprit.
"I meant you, David," says Sarah, Bliss's ex-wife, as she digs him in the ribs.
"Sorry…"
"In sickness and in health," drones the clergyman, "till death ye both shall part?"
"I do."
"I now pronounce you man and wife."
"I'm surprised Samantha didn't insist on changing that to, ‘I now pronounce you woman and husband,'" Bliss mutters to Daphne as he shields his elderly friend against the deluge while leading her to the limousine.
"Weddings always make me so happy," snivels the grandmotherly figure under the hat, but Bliss's mind is on his ex-wife as he offers Daphne a Kleenex, saying, "That's ‘cos you've never had one of your own, Daphne."
Daphne Lovelace, a lifelong spinster by sheer determination, haughtily waves off the proffered tissue with her own monogrammed silk handkerchief. "Well, it's never too late, David. ‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure,' my mother always said. And you needn't look at me like that. I may not be a spring chicken but I've had offers. Anyway, it couldn't have been too bad — aren't you planning on doing it again?"
"Whoever gave you that idea?" laughs Bliss, though he knows it would be easier to cart water in a sieve than keep a secret from Daphne.
"Samantha mentioned a certain little French hen," she replies cryptically, but Bliss refuses to play.
"Take off the umbrella, Daphne. You'll never get into the car wearing that."
"Huh. Cheek! Chief Inspector," she snorts, but complies, saying, "If Minnie had shown up you would have had someone else's hat to pick on. You should've seen the millinery creation I tarted up for her. I'm quite put out that she didn't even phone me to say she wasn't coming."
Bliss vaults into the car behind the aging woman and gazes intently through the windshield, questioning whether or not the chauffeur can see the road. "More suitable for a funeral?" he whistles, but it's an avoidance tactic immediately rumbled by Daphne as they drive off gingerly towards the Berkeley Hotel.
"I know you find Minnie a bit irritating at times, but we're going on a trip around the world together, you