Cherringham--Murder under the Sun

by Matthew Costello

  Though Jack had an arm around Hooke’s neck, the killer was still able to hiss, “Pick up the damn gun, Tigz!”

  If Tigz does that, aims carefully, well, all this will have been for nothing, Jack thought.

  As with more spins, and banging against the wall, he saw Tigz with the gun recovered, aiming.

  Then heard hurried steps outside.

  Lots of them.

  And in just a few blessed moments, he heard a deep voice, whatever English accent it was — thick as pea soup.

  But, boy — was it ever good to hear.

  “Armed police! Put that gun down. The two of yers, now.”

  And though Hooke’s own arm cut off some of what Jack could see, he definitely noticed …officers in uniform.

  Three of them. Cheltenham’s finest.

  Then another voice, as Jack felt Hooke’s muscles relax, like a python giving up the grip on its prey.

  A woman’s voice, so familiar, and someone beside him.

  “Jack! Jack — you okay?”

  Finally, able to see Sarah.

  Two of the cops were pulling Hooke away, cuffs out fast, the clicks of the two gunmen being handcuffed … another pretty wonderful sound.

  “Sarah! Decided to drop in?”

  “I was worried, Jack. About you. Got here, saw Tigz go in. Assumed the other guy had to be—”

  “Hooke?”

  “Yeah. And I had already called, told the police about you, coming here, the cops racing over. Waited a few minutes for them, then up here fast. God, Jack, if we had been a few minutes later …”

  And Jack laughed. “Tell me about it.” Jack looked at the cops, as the ranking officer walked over.

  “Going to need a statement from you, Mr Brennan.”

  “Great. And those guys — what they said — it’s all on the phone there. Pretty much an admission to murder.”

  “We’ll notify Banbury.”

  “Good. There’s an innocent man sitting in jail there.”

  The officer nodded. “Not for long.”

  Jack looked from the cop to Sarah.

  Then the three cops took Hooke and Tigz stumbling down the stairs.

  But before Jack was ready to leave — already feeling the ache from his battle in the room, he turned to Pam.

  “Pam, they may need you to talk. If they do, don’t worry. You’ll come out okay.”

  He saw Sarah look down, seeing the mystery woman, once so young and beautiful, as she produced a nod. “And I’ll keep my promise. Get you the help you need.”

  Pammy was barely able to mouth the words “thank you”.

  Jack made his way to the door, finding he needed to lean on Sarah a bit.

  “Nice and easy, Jack.”

  He laughed. “I’d forgotten how much this action stuff hurts.”

  *

  Outside, as more police cars arrived, and Hooke and Tigz were bundled into a van, Jack leaned against his MG and watched as Sarah phoned Lizzie to tell her the good news.

  “She couldn’t believe it,” said Sarah, finally putting her phone away and joining Jack.

  “Not sure I can, either,” said Jack. “Tell you — we sure ran it close.”

  “Maybe not close enough,” said Sarah. “One of the officers there said we’ll be lucky getting the paperwork done in time to get Len to the wedding tomorrow.”

  “Right. I’ll head over to Tony right away, see if between us we can knock some heads together,” said Jack. “What about Grace? You told her?”

  “No answer,” said Sarah, shaking her head. “I left a message. I hope she’ll listen to it.”

  “Nothing more you can do now, ’cept head back to Cherringham and tell Maria that Len didn’t do it.”

  “That’s the easy part,” said Sarah. “Do I also tell her that we think Len might be her dad?”

  “One thing at a time,” said Jack. “You get home, get the smell of this place out of your hair, put an arm round that daughter of yours.”

  He saw Sarah nod, then he opened the door of the car and gingerly climbed in, his body creaking and complaining.

  “You okay driving, Jack? I can give you a lift?”

  “Be fine. I got in, didn’t I? Whether I can get out at the other end, well, I’ll figure something.”

  Sarah laughed, and he watched her head back to her car, trying not to think what would have happened if she hadn’t turned up.

  *

  Sarah pulled up outside her house, turned the engine off and sat for a few seconds in the stillness and quiet.

  Thinking about that moment she decided to follow Jack to Cheltenham.

  And then she remembered that Grace had always planned to stay here with her tonight, the night before the wedding. Her dress was here, the bridesmaid’s dresses too, the bouquet was coming here.

  All this was going to have to be rearranged. Would Grace even want her at the church?

  Her mind full of practical things, lists already forming, she got out of the car and hurried to the front door.

  There, she stopped. She could hear laughter from inside the house — and voices.

  Female voices.

  Friends of Chloe’s maybe? But no cars or bikes parked out front.

  She went in, then down the hallway, opened the door to the big open plan kitchen, to see, at the old pine table—

  Maria. Chloe.

  And Grace.

  The three of them looked up at her like guilty kids caught with a hand in the biscuit jar — then they all laughed together.

  “Well, hey — that’s quite a welcome,” said Sarah, not quite sure what was going on.

  “I’d better explain,” said Grace, as Sarah pulled up a chair, sat opposite them, again marvelling how Grace and Maria were just so … alike.

  “I got your text,” said Grace. “Came round to see you. To tell you that I, well, understood. And to really thank you, Sarah. I was just going to drop off my overnight bag—”

  “But then she saw me,” said Maria. And all three of them laughed again.

  “And when you did, Grace? Your face—” said Maria.

  “Your face, too Maria,” said Chloe. “Like twins!”

  And they collapsed laughing again, their arms around each other.

  Sarah thinking — the laughter so joyful after this fraught, dangerous day.

  And feeling such relief that Grace’s big day tomorrow was going to go as planned.

  She looked at Grace, then back at Maria. Had these two young women figured out what was so obvious to her and Jack and Tony?

  “Anyway,” said Grace. “It was just so amazing to get your news.”

  “Unbelievable,” said Maria. “After all these years — the truth. Thank you from me as well.”

  “Still … I think my dad has a lot of explaining to do,” said Grace.

  And then, after a pause …

  “Mine too,” said Maria.

  16. Get Me to the Church on Time

  Sarah stood outside the gate to St James’s church, the bridesmaids — Chloe included — gathered around her, all looking so wonderful in the soft pink that she and Grace had chosen. The flowers in the church porch … just perfect. The chatter from inside the church mingled with the sound of organ music, and the late spring sky was a deep blue.

  The only negatives on this perfect afternoon were the slight hangover she was nursing from staying up late with Grace and Maria the night before, and the more worrisome fact that nobody had heard a word from Jack all day. Nobody knew if Len was going to be released in time for the wedding service.

  Sarah had seen the groom go in, and the last of the wedding guests were now filling the church.

  Grace and her mother were due in their limousine in just five minutes. Lizzie was planning to walk Grace down the aisle if Len didn’t make it.

  “And, let’s be clear,” Grace had said the previous night as Sarah led her to bed, “Nobody’s ‘giving me away’, right? I’m being ‘accompanied’. That’s the word.”

  �
�Held upright, more like,” Sarah had answered.

  Sarah smiled at the memory, then checked her watch — two o’clock exactly — and right on cue, the car pulled up in front of them.

  She stepped forward, opened the rear doors as Lizzie, looking amazing in peach, stepped out on the other side.

  Maria too, in a borrowed outfit from Sarah.

  If Len does make it, he’s going to get one hell of a surprise when he sees her, Sarah thought.

  Together with the other bridesmaids, she helped Grace out of the car, her white dress so natural, so simple and elegant. So graceful.

  “Oh God,” said Grace, as Sarah and the others straightened her dress and arranged the bouquet. “Sarah, why did you let me drink so much champagne?”

  “Takes the nerves away,” said Sarah.

  “Does that all right,” said Grace. Then Sarah saw her look around.

  “Is he here?” said Lizzie.

  Sarah shook her head. “We’ve still got a few more minutes.”

  She looked over at the church where one of the groom’s ushers — in fact a friend of Chloe’s going back years — gave her a wave, to indicate …

  Time’s up.

  Was Jack, even now, on the way? Had they sorted the paperwork, done the release, made the change into wedding clothes?

  Perhaps it’s too much to hope, thought Sarah.

  “I think we ought to start walking, don’t you?” she said.

  And with one final despairing look around, Grace turned and nodded.

  Then she took her mum’s arm, and with Sarah organising the train, the bouquet, and the bridesmaids, they started to walk up the little path to the church, past flowers in early bloom, the whole setting looking so perfect, yet — all things considered, Len still not here — not perfect.

  Sarah stopped.

  Because in the far distance she had heard that oh-so-familiar sound.

  Jack Brennan, going through the gears coming up Cherringham Bridge Road, the MG’s growl like no other local car.

  “It’s Jack!” she said.

  And the procession stopped, all of them turning slowly towards the road, craning their necks to see the car which must surely appear any second, the engine noise urgent, closer, until –

  There it was! Jack at the wheel in full morning coat, and next to him in the passenger seat of the little open top sports car …

  Len Taylor, in a borrowed suit that looked a lot to Sarah like Jack’s usual best.

  And as the car pulled up, they all rushed, ran towards it, all ritual forgotten, the procession abandoned. Len jumped out and into, first, Lizzie’s arms, and then Grace’s — her veil going flying in the joyous tearful reunion.

  Len lifted her off the ground, at the same time giving a disbelieving glance at Maria, who stood to one side, her smile so deep; and none of this chaos mattering one bit because Len Taylor was finally free.

  *

  “Quite the day,” said Jack, hours later, as he and Sarah stood in the gardens of the Bell in the late evening light, waiting for Grace and Nick to appear and say farewell to their guests.

  “Pretty amazing. Len’s got a new daughter as well as a son-in-law” said Sarah.

  “And all of them, it would seem, getting on like a house on fire.”

  “You think Len’s got more to answer to with the Spanish authorities?”

  “Thirty years on? I think not. Not looking good for Micky and Tigz, mind you.”

  “Good riddance to those two.”

  He glanced at her, standing next to him, the two of them so rarely dressed up together like this.

  Almost as if they were different people.

  There was a big cheer and lots of whooping from the crowd around them. Jack turned to see Grace and Nick, now in their honeymoon outfits, at the doors of the hotel, their car drawn up and waiting.

  “I am so going to miss her,” said Sarah.

  Jack could see tears running down her cheeks.

  “I don’t think they’ll be gone for long,” said Jack. “All this — what happened — has brought that family together in a very special way.”

  “I hope you’re right,” said Sarah.

  Another great cheer from the crowd. Jack looked up to see the bride’s bouquet flying, spinning in the air, almost in slow motion, over people’s raised hands, even over some people jumping to try and catch it, before it fell …

  …into Sarah’s hands.

  Another great cheer, and a rush of laughing friends swarming around her.

  “What?” she said. “But that isn’t fair! I wasn’t even trying to catch it! Really!”

  Jack laughed.

  “You know,” he said, “if they did one of those for the groom too, and I’d caught it? Well — you and me? — we’d be in big trouble.”

  “Tell me about it,” said Sarah.

  But before Jack could say anything more, the crowd rushed forward, taking them both along too, to bid farewell to the young couple, the honeymoon car toot-tooting its way down the drive of the Bell and off into Cherringham and beyond.

  Cherringham — A Cosy Crime Series

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