Donuts and Disaster: An Abi Button Cozy Mystery Romance #5

By Lizzie Lewis

It’s late February and the area is experiencing an unexpected cold snap with snow. Liam, Steve Donovan’s eight-year-old son, is staying with Abi while Steve and Melanie are on their honeymoon.
Abi is concerned when single mum Bethany reports a man wearing a long raincoat, hanging around the local play area taking photographs. Bethany is afraid that her father and disagreeable Aunt Erica have sent him to spy on her, with a view to snatching baby Freddie. Abi thinks there are two men watching. Why two?
Young Liam is clearly upset by all the changes in his life, and Abi tries to win his confidence with jam donuts. Abi warns Liam and his friends to keep away from the deep pond in the woods, because the ice is too thin to walk on. But Liam is on the hunt for Bigfoot, convinced he lives somewhere amongst the trees.
Bethany’s friendship with Harry the builder seems to be turning into a romance, maybe even a wedding ‒ if Bethany’s father and Aunt Erica can be kept away. Pete and Hayley also wonder if this is a good opportunity to discuss marriage!
A cozy mystery romance taking place in a small English town, told by Abi Button.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Aug 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781912529742

Book preview

About the Book

It’s late February and the area is experiencing an unexpected cold snap with snow. Liam, Steve Donovan’s eight-year-old son, is staying with Abi while Steve and Melanie are on their honeymoon.

Abi is concerned when single mum Bethany reports a man wearing a long raincoat, hanging around the local play area taking photographs. Bethany is afraid that her father and disagreeable Aunt Erica have sent him to spy on her, with a view to snatching baby Freddie. Abi thinks there are two men watching. Why two?

Young Liam is clearly upset by all the changes in his life, and Abi tries to win his confidence with jam donuts. Abi warns Liam and his friends to keep away from the deep pond in the woods, because the ice is too thin to walk on. But Liam is on the hunt for Bigfoot, convinced he lives somewhere amongst the trees.

Bethany’s friendship with Harry the builder seems to be turning into a romance, maybe even a wedding ‒ if Bethany’s father and Aunt Erica can be kept away. Pete and Hayley also wonder if this is a good opportunity to discuss marriage!

A cozy mystery romance taking place in a small English town, told by Abi Button.

Donuts and Disaster

An Abi Button Cozy Mystery Romance #5

by

Lizzie Lewis ©2020

This eBook ISBN: 978-1-912529-74-2

Also available as a paperback

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-912529-75-9

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

[e-mail]

Full list of books and updates on

https://whitetreepublishing.com/

Donuts and Disaster is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, 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), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Epilogue

The Ninety and Nine

More Abi Button Books

About White Tree Publishing

Chapter 1

They say the path of true love never did run smooth. I don’t know who they are, or were, but I know they got it spot on. I have a feeling it was Shakespeare. Maybe A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Anyway, I’d only been married to Danny for five months when he left me. Just like that. Fortunately, I had Alice and Rupert Forrester living with me, because the builder had yet to finish making their house fit for human habitation.

How is a recently married bride supposed to cope when that happens? I told Danny it was very inconsiderate of law firm Branks, Davis & Waters to expect him to go away to a conference for three whole days. Old Mr Waters was of course extremely apologetic. Danny said he was devastated. I asked if he really had to go. He did.

We bought an amazing king size bed to replace the single bed I grew up with when the house belonged to my parents. The only time I had used the bed was with Danny, straight after our honeymoon in Italy. I couldn’t believe a king size bed could feel so empty with only one person in it. All I could do at night was hug Danny’s pillow and dream of his return.

Danny was due back Friday early evening, no doubt saying with the greatest sincerity how much he’d missed me. Well, at least I was hoping he would sound sincere, although I suspected he might be a bit too full of how stimulating the conference had been.

The first thing I planned to do on his return was lead him up to the bedroom to rekindle our love, but that sort of thing can be difficult with an eight-year-old boy roaming the house.

The eight-year-old boy was Liam Donovan. Yes, Melanie and Steve had finally tied the knot and were away on honeymoon. Liam’s mother, Sharon, had been looking after Liam full time since swapping Liam’s father, Steve Donovan, for a younger man five years ago, and recently swapping the younger man for an even younger man who insisted there was no place for the boy in the relationship. There is no doubting Liam’s paternity. Both Steve and Liam have ginger hair.

So, Steve had finally been given the chance to look after his son to whom he had become almost a stranger. Fortunately, Melanie had also welcomed the arrangement. Or so she said. At nearly forty-three, she told me she didn’t fancy the idea of producing one of her own, and since Liam was potty trained and able to feed himself at the table, it really wasn’t such a bad arrangement. Especially as he was so obviously part of Steve.

It was late February, and we were experiencing an unusually cold spell. Fortunately, my house was keeping warm. I certainly wasn’t too lonely during Danny’s absence, with three house guests. Alice and Rupert’s house, which still seemed a bit creepy to me, is at the other end of my road, with an area of woodland between our two houses.

Brian Warmley, the local builder and member of our church, was still completing a major restoration of Alice and Rupert’s house. The previous occupant, an eccentric old man, had let it fall into disrepair, including marking it with his own distinctive smell. Stink. Fetid is a very appropriate word I learnt recently.

Yuck.

Alice said some plumbing needed finishing, and also of course the decorating and floor coverings had to be done. The central heating system was installed, and running gently twenty-four seven in order to dry out the interior before some magical smell-defying paint was applied on the walls ‒ hopefully generously.

Alice is slightly smaller than me. She has unruly very dark brown curly hair, and I have long, naturally blonde hair almost to my shoulders, with a slight curl on the end. Whereas I part my hair over my right eye, Alice’s hair defies any sort of managed arrangement. As she says, It is what it is.

Liam Donovan was with me for ten days. He was extremely quiet, and I was finding it difficult to get more than single words out of him. Anyway, he would be at school in the week, which left Saturday and Sunday as a potential problem area. I still have to develop the correct approach to dealing with small children, because I can’t help seeing them as equals. That means I find it easier to be one of them than to be the adult in charge.

Danny had unfortunately missed the wedding, and had taken our little Kia runabout to his conference. Melanie had left me her rather tatty Fiat so I could take Liam to school, before going to Button Up to help cope with the regular to-go customers who collected coffee and pastries on their way to work.

Steve had decided to borrow a reliable car for the honeymoon, which was somewhere on the south coast of England. Keeping up the honeymoon tradition, Melanie hadn’t said exactly where, but of course we could get in touch by phone in emergencies. Not that there would be any.

Button Up, the name of our coffee shop, came about by putting my maiden name of Button with the first part of Melanie’s, which was Upton. Button Up. To most people, and certainly to our customers, I’m still Abi Button, although my surname is now Wells. Danny called me Happy Button the other day, my nickname from school, so he must still think of me as Button! Melanie’s surname is now Donovan, so technically the name Button Up makes no sense at all, except that’s what the coffee shop is known as ‒ and will be for ever.

Perhaps if we get an infestation of rats and are forced to close for a short time, a new name would be sensible ‒ after employing the Pied Piper to do his work. If we did use him, I think we’d miss the kids coming in. They might be messy ‒ not any might about it ‒ but most of them add to the cheerful ambiance and general background noise. The others? I think the Pied Piper would return them quickly.

After their Thursday morning wedding, Melanie and Steve Donovan departed for distant climes, with Melanie making sure I had her phone number on my own phone. She said not to bother to try phoning Steve, because he’d mislaid his phone somewhere in their apartment, and the battery was flat so they couldn’t call it.

Friday morning drop-off with Liam went well, although of course I was worrying about sending the boy to school in the wrong clothes. He didn’t seem to have a clue what he normally wore on school days.

Melanie had booked Liam in for school breakfast club, and Pete Wilders, our twenty-year-old coffee shop assistant was now sufficiently experienced to open up at seven and start things going before I arrived. Fortunately, I could park Melanie’s Fiat at the back of the coffee shop, which saved me a few minutes.

Melanie said it would be fine to take Liam into work for the whole day on Saturday, and he would sit quietly in the coffee shop stockroom with his Nintendo Switch, playing games on it and not be any trouble. How’s that for optimism!

We close Button Up on the dot of six, but on Friday I had to slip away early to collect Liam from after-school club at five. It certainly was a long day for the poor kid. The ordinary day at school had been more than long enough for me, but then I had never been keen to go. At least Liam seemed to have friends there ‒ as far as I could tell from single word sentences.

Saturday would be taken care of at the coffee shop, and Sunday should be fine because we never open. And next week would be school again, so I decided perhaps I’d been worrying unnecessarily.

Danny came back on Friday evening as planned, and I’d been right. It seemed that the conference had been extremely stimulating. He said he had some bad news to share with me. He had to go to work on Saturday to sort out some urgent work that had arisen in his short absence.

Okay, these things crop up when you’re a young lawyer with a highflying job. I wasn’t going to be around on Saturday anyway, as I would be needed at Button Up.

Liam joined the four of us at the table and tucked into pizza without saying a word. I got the impression he was enjoying it, and I had no problem with him using his hands. I often do the same with pizza. Then I worried, because I couldn’t remember sending him to wash before we sat down.

Alice told Liam that she and Rupert could take him somewhere for the day in the morning, but that didn’t seem to go down particularly well as an offer. Liam looked at me appealingly, but without saying a word. His facial expression told me everything. I could understand his reticence. He’d only met Alice and Rupert a couple of times.

It’s okay, Liam, I said reassuringly, you’re coming to Button Up with me. Pete and Hayley will be there, and we’ll find time to go shopping together. Saturday at the coffee shop is usually quiet without the office workers. How’s that?

He stared at me without saying a word.

Right, I said brightly, that’s settled. Good. You can decide what we do.

I was struggling to get any sort of conversation going. Liam had returned to tackling his pizza.

How’s the house coming along, Alice? Danny asked. His pizza was long gone. Has Brian given you a moving date yet? He thought for a moment. Not that we’re trying to get rid of you. He laughed, and I could tell it was a genuine laugh. We really enjoyed having our new friends living with us. I knew we’d miss them when they’d gone, even though they would only be at the other end of the road.

Definitely by the end of March, if not sooner, Alice said. Rupert and I are going to give a hand with the painting and decorating, as we agreed with Brian earlier. She laughed. And don’t forget you both offered to lend a hand in the evenings. We’ve already chosen and ordered the carpets and the furniture. Most of the furniture is flatpack, and I’m going to help Rupert screw it together.

Rupert works in the local garage, so is used to handling various tools of the trade. I remembered struggling to put my own flatpack stuff together. The furniture I had grown up with, my parents’ furniture, had somehow seemed inappropriate for a young, single girl in her late twenties when they left.

I knew Rupert had been renovating a classic car in the town where he lived before coming here. He assured us that even when it was roadworthy, he and Alice were still going to ride their bikes to work for the exercise. I wondered how keen they would be on wet days. Well, at least the intention was there.

Alice had already told me the car needed various essential parts to complete the restoration, which Rupert had now managed to find on eBay. Annoyingly, they wouldn’t tell us the make and model, but said it was a soft-top.

I remembered going out with a boyfriend called Jack – a very short-term boyfriend – who had a classic E-type Jaguar that had an open top. I wondered if this car would be something similar. All Alice would say was that she was excited at the thought of going out in it as soon as the weather warmed up.

My parents moved to Spain more than five years ago, and were living in comfortable retirement. My mother shipped her favourite pieces of furniture out to the villa that my father had renovated, and said she was happy for me