by Ruby Loren
I shot a resigned look at Auryn before we both followed them inside. We’d made a mistake coming here, of that I was certain, but there wasn’t a lot we could do about it now.
“At least they’re only having one drink. Then they’ll be gone and we can disappear,” I muttered to Auryn. He nodded but didn’t look convinced that it would be so easy.
“I think I rented my house from you,” I said to Sophia Blanky when we walked into the pub together.
“Really? Gosh! I had no idea. Imagine my agency renting property to the Madigan Amos. I should put that in the brochure,” she said, nudging me to show she was joking.
Another woman dressed for the hunt strode up and looked Auryn and I up and down before Sophia introduced us.
“This is one of my colleagues, Helen Greer and this is Drew James,” she said, gesturing to the man who’d been following the staring woman.
“Delighted to meet you. I know you by reputation of course,” Drew said, stepping forwards and sparkling at me.
I shot a desperate look at Auryn, who looked just as taken aback as I was by the obvious charm this stranger was exuding towards me.
“Auryn Avery,” My fiancé said, very deliberately offering his hand. The two men regarded one another carefully. Just for a second, amusement flashed across Drew James’ handsome face. I wondered if he often found himself stood up to in this way and decided he probably didn’t. I only hoped he didn’t see it as some sort of ridiculous challenge.
“Did you see the dogs, Sophia? They’re a good lot, aren’t they?” Helen said in a conspiring tone.
“So they should be. I know the breeder,” Sophia replied with an easy smile. “We used to swap studs back when I was in the business.”
“You were the best,” Helen said with a sigh that hinted of wistfulness. “I don’t know how I’ll ever compete. But I’ll sure as heck try!”
I felt my eyebrows rise up at this strange comment, but Sophia seemed to take it all in her stride.
“Your dogs are lovely, Helen. I’ve seen your new bitch, and she has the perfect form and markings for her breed. You should be on to a winner.”
Helen blushed with pleasure and said something about it all being luck, really.
“Drew, how are your most recent pups?” Sophia asked, deflecting the conversation away from her try-hard employee.
“Good. They’ve been snapped up already. All apart from one. I need a new assistant for my duck hunts,” he confided with a smile. “My old boy, Bonzo is on his way to retirement, the poor lad. It’s time to train up some new blood.” Drew’s expression grew affectionate. I reflected that although I might not agree with breeding dogs for profit, there were definitely blurred lines. I could tell that Drew loved his dogs… although I still needed some convincing that Helen felt the same. I couldn’t help noticing that she kept glancing across at Drew as if seeking his approval. I wondered if Blanky Country Houses was caught up in some kind of strange love triangle.
“I hope you’ve both invested in the proper security measures. You can’t be too careful in these times…” Sophia continued, her expression growing grave. “I think my stable has more security around it than The Bank of England!”
The mutters of agreement were cut short when our little group was joined by some more familiar faces. Esme and Tristan walked over and said their hellos to everyone present.
“Terrible business this, isn’t it?” Tristan said, drawing from the manual of phrases to utter at funeral-type events.
We all nodded mutely, turning to look at the portrait of Harry that had been made into a sort of shrine on one of the battered old pub tables. Fake tea lights further added to the slight air of tackiness. I wondered if Harry would have approved. From the little I knew of him, I thought he would have loved the attention - tacky or not.
“Interesting guy. He couldn’t sell a house to save his life, but he had… qualities,” Helen said with a smile, managing to make a slight dig sound almost like a compliment.
“You’ve got that right! Felicity and I kept the agency going. Believe me - it was tough. I’m not actually sure what will happen to us now,” Esme confessed, looking concerned.
“You mean Harry might not have left it all to his wife?” Drew asked, raising his eyebrows in a look of surprise that fooled no one.
Esme shot him a knowing look in return. “Who knows? I suppose we’ll find that out later.”
“There’ll always be a place for you at Herriot’s houses,” Tristan assured her, fondly.
Esme looked like she was sucking on a lemon.
Fortunately, before things could get any more awkward, we were joined by Ashley and Yolanda from Tristan’s company and then, less fortunately, the husband of Harry’s sister.
“Who are you lot then? You can’t seriously tell me any of you actually liked my wife’s ridiculous brother?” He chortled as he said it.
I winced at the embarrassingly loud volume with which he’d said it. He was still laughing when Felicity stalked over and punched him in the ear - landing an impressive shot, given her inebriated state. Whilst Charlie swore, Felicity darted forwards, intent on having another swing at her brother-in-law.
“Get her away from me. Crazy woman! You’ve only got yourself to blame for marrying him. Look what he got himself into,” Charlie growled at her, whilst Felicity screamed all sorts of obscenities back at him. Tristan was the first to react, moving to gently steer Felicity Farley away from her tormentor. I’d like to think that his intentions were purely honourable when he did so, but I knew Tristan Herriot was nothing if not an opportunist. It was the same characteristic that I was betting made him pretty darn good at selling houses.
“Has anyone heard anything more about who did it?” Esme asked us as soon as Tristan had removed Felicity, and Charlie had drifted off to bother another group of well-wishers.
We all shook our heads. The police were remaining quiet on the topic for now.
“Hunt assemble!” The cry went up.
Sophia and Helen excused themselves and left with the rest of the rabble, many of whom I recognised from The Lords of the Downs.
“Someone should report this. It’s not legal,” I said to him, and none too quietly.
My fiancé looked torn between embarrassment and agreement. “It wouldn’t do anything. You don’t know these people,” he said, a lot more quietly than I had. It wasn't the first time that I wondered what kind of a hold they had on him. “They’ll claim it’s ‘trail hunting’ if they’re caught. It’s a legal loophole. I believe that they’re supposed to be chasing after an animal-scent laid prior to the hunt - but the hunts take place in areas inhabited by live prey , and as you can imagine… ‘accidents’ happen frequently.”
“I still can’t believe all of those ropes that Harry was tied with,” Drew cut in, not-so tactfully changing the subject. “I heard he was trussed up like a Christmas ham! What kind of man lets someone do that to them? Unless… do you think he liked that sort of stuff?” Drew looked equally horrified and fascinated when he said it.
“Who knows?” Esme said with a shrug, but she looked intrigued as well. “Oh…” she finished, looking mortified.
We all turned to discover that Felicity Farley was standing right behind our group. There was a look of shock on her face. For the first time, I realised that the police must have kept some things to themselves. Harry Farley’s wife had clearly not known the exact circumstances in which her husband had been found. I silently wished she’d found out in a better manner, but the truth was out now.
Auryn’s failure to agree when I’d suggested that when the hunt left we could leave proved to be correct. Even though many of his friends were out trampling over the countryside on their horses, there were still a great deal of them left behind. Andy Wright came over to say hello, and I found myself in conversation with Georgina Farley, Harry Farley’s ex-wife - whom I assumed was probably here out of curiosity rather than sorrow. There had been no love lost between them.
&n
bsp; “He finally got his comeuppance for messing around,” she said to me in a low voice.
“But surely you don’t think anyone deserves what happened to him,” I protested. I liked Georgina, but on the subject of her ex-husband, she was quite a brute.
She shrugged. “I always say that loyalty is rewarded. He wasn’t loyal and he paid for it. I’m not saying that whoever did it to him shouldn’t be brought to justice, I’m just saying that he made a big mistake… and he took that risk every time he ran around town.”
“Oh, hush! Just because you couldn’t keep a hold of him,” Felicity Farley said, sidling up to us with a strange smile on her face. “He married me, you know,” she added.
Georgina rolled her eyes. “That’s no great feat - I can tell you that firsthand. From what I’ve heard over the years, you had even worse luck than I did bringing him to heel. Only, for some reason, you were dumb enough to stick with him instead of getting out when you could - like I did.”
Felicity’s face coloured. “I was the one who made him see sense and get away from you. He told me what you were like. Don’t go acting as if butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth! I know the truth.”
Georgina shrugged. I reflected that this whole conversation was like watching a lioness play with an incredibly angry bunny rabbit. At any given moment, Georgina could crush Felicity, but she was enjoying the game. “I can’t imagine what it would be like putting up with Harry’s ways for such a long time. It would be enough to drive me to murder!”
She left the bait dangling.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? It would finally be your chance to get even with me for stealing your man,” Felicity spluttered. “If I’d wanted him dead, I would have killed him a long time ago,” she said, not exactly making herself look guiltless. “Unlike you, I believe in second chances.”
Georgina looked underwhelmed. “More like sixty-eighth chances in Harry’s case. You may as well have just proclaimed you believe in the existence of fairies. I think I’d respect that more.”
I noticed Felicity’s hands start to ball up again by her sides - the sure sign of someone who knows they’re losing an argument they can’t hope to win with words.
Georgina had a lot of experience with pushing people’s buttons and knew when to quit. “I do hope they find his killer,” she said, completely disarmingly.
Felicity blinked in confusion. “So do I! But it’s not me,” she added, obviously wondering if Georgina was mid-way through another trap of words.
As I beheld the drunk woman in front of me, I found I actually agreed with her. Harry Farley’s murder had been a skilfully executed maze of diversions, designed to cover up the killer’s identity and cast doubt over the likeliest suspects. Felicity Farley just didn’t have the brains.
6
Liar, Liar
Auryn returned from a late afternoon and evening spent at Avery Zoo in a sulk. Apparently, when he’d gone in after the regrettable farewell gathering, he’d been informed by the fowl zookeeper that another flamingo was gone - and this time there was some very strong evidence to suggest that it hadn’t been stolen. Auryn hadn’t told me the specifics, but he’d said that the photos the keeper had taken of the scene of the crime only made him respect her much more for the excellent cleanup job she’d managed to do before the zoo had opened. Now Auryn was at his wit’s end and I knew he was only a hair’s breadth away from getting in his hunting buddy.
To my horror, he revealed he’d already talked to him seriously about the prospect of coming in. The acquaintance had suggested setting tripwires around the zoo for a couple of nights in order to work out what time the intruder was coming in. Then it would apparently be a simple matter of turning up a bit before that time and putting an end to the killings once and for all.
“Couldn’t you use the same method in order to catch the fox?” After seeing the fox hunt, it definitely upset me that they should be killed unnecessarily.
“Madi, it’s being a pest! You don’t have a problem with the feral cats, and they kill the rats at the zoo. They’re hardly humane about it either, I know you’ve seen them playing with their prey…”
“Yes… but, that’s natural behaviour!” I whined, knowing deep down that I was being ridiculous.
“This fox is only behaving in the same manner. It’s not down to us to pick who lives or dies when it comes to wild animals. The feral cats are fed because they contribute by killing small vermin that bother the zoo. The rats and mice cause problems, which is why they have to go. Foxes are wonderful animals - I don’t deny that - but this one has evaded all of our traps. There’s nothing more to be done to stop it, other than what I’m suggesting.
I bit my lip and then sighed. “I suppose,” I said, putting myself in Auryn’s shoes and realising I would behave much the same way. I’d probably do my best to scare the fox off first with the help of a dog, or even Lucky. Foxes were actually intimidated by cats for the most part, and he was a big lad. The only problem with Lucky was that he’d probably buddy up with a fox and join the hunt.
But if that failed, where would I be? In exactly the same place Auryn was.
“I’m still not sure if it’s a fox,” Auryn confessed.
My ears pricked up. “You said it definitely wasn’t a human taking animals to sell?”
“No, I don’t think it’s that… but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be a human with some sick compulsion.
I paled. I hadn’t even considered that. Was the world really such a bad place? I remembered everything Joe Harvey had told me and thought it could be.
On Sunday, Tiff picked me up and we went off for some coffee together before starting our house-hunting mission of the day. I wasn’t entirely surprised when Tiff’s idea of a coffee place turned out to be The Wild Spot.
“Free hot chocolate for life,” she reminded me with a smug grin.
I sighed loudly, wondering if Tiff would yet drink me out of house and home. Even though our joint consumption of some of the tastiest and priciest treats on the menu was surely damaging my profit margins, the restaurant was still doing very well. Joe had messaged me late on Friday to let me know that he’d got a basic website up and running and, in true don’t-ask-don’t-tell style, it was somehow already ranking number one for the search term ‘Sussex Wedding Venue’. I was willing to bet that other webmasters were fuming over that. I only hoped that it wasn’t too illegal.
The first calls had started to come in to the restaurant on Saturday and since then, my restaurant manager, Sam, had taken two last-minute late summer bookings and had five more couples who wanted to visit the place and try some of the food offerings before making their minds up. Joe Harvey had done it again.
“How’s Alex doing? He must be really stressed,” I said, sympathetically. I knew that no one had immediately been collared for the Harry Farley murder, and I found it hard enough to deal with estate agents when they were trying to be nice to Tiff and me. I didn’t want to imagine how annoying some of them could be if you wanted to question them over a murder.
“He’s doing all right. I try not to talk to him about any work stuff. We’ve just been chatting about the wedding and where we might go on our honeymoon. Have you got anything nice planned?” she asked me.
I shook my head. “The last holiday Auryn and I took together didn’t go so brilliantly. I think the furthest afield we’ll be going together again will be Brighton.”
Tiff pulled a sad face. “But what about your consulting work? I know you’ve got the zoo now, but…”
I nodded, feeling a flash of frustration. “I really want to get back to that,” I confessed. Ever since things had been running fairly smoothly at The Lucky Zoo I’d started to feel an itch, an itch that said I could do the same good work at other zoos. I loved being a zoo owner and having the power to make positive changes to animals’ lives, but I knew from experience that other zoos needed help to get to that level of care and happiness for the animals they looked after. I wanted my old job
back.
“Won’t Auryn mind?”
Sometimes I wished Tiff wouldn’t just go straight to the heart of the matter.
“He said he understands how I feel. I told him I wasn’t going to take on any new cases until after our wedding.” I’d thought it was a good compromise.
“You’re counting the days, I can tell,” Tiff informed me.
I winced, knowing that if she could tell, so could Auryn. “I’m so torn up about it. I don’t want to leave Auryn behind while I go off galavanting, but I feel it’s what I’m supposed to do. He knew that before we got together,” I said, knowing that I sounded whiny.
“Bringing logic into it won’t help in this case. You know he’ll be feeling equally torn. He’ll miss you, I know, but he also wants you to do what makes you happy. Anyway, things are going great at both zoos, aren’t they? He could take some time off and maybe even work one of your jobs with you.”
“That would be quite good,” I said, wondering if Auryn would ever go for something like that. I’d always seen him as being tied to Avery Zoo, come hell or high water, but he, too, had talents that other zoos could benefit from. “We’ve already sort of done a job together,” I said, remembering back to The Big Blue Marine Park. Auryn had advised the board of directors at the park on their events schedule and ways they could improve attendance. He was an expert on that kind of thing and he had the track record to prove it.
“You should ask him,” Tiff said in such a way that told me the matter was settled.
“How are things coming along? Is Alex being nice to you?” I asked, doing my best to be subtle when I enquired about Tiff’s current state.
For an instant she looked worried before she covered it with a smile. “Things are fine. As well as you’d expect, I suppose. He’s just very busy, but I’m fine.”
I tilted my head at her, sensing that she was holding back. “You did tell him, didn’t you?”