Murder at the Old Vicarage

by Jill McGown

‘That’s just how he copes,’ said Judy. She patted the sofa. ‘Come here,’ she said.

  Lloyd sat beside her on the sofa, as she gingerly removed her foot from the coffee table, and moved closer to him.

  ‘We have to sort ourselves out,’ she said.

  ‘Yes,’ Lloyd agreed. ‘But I don’t really think this is the ideal place,’ he added, with an uncomfortable glance at the door. ‘She’ll be back any minute.’

  ‘Oh, but it is the ideal place,’ said Judy. She looked down for a moment, then her head came up resolutely. ‘I’m not very proud of what I’ve been doing,’ she said. ‘To you or Michael.’

  Lloyd took her hand.

  ‘I should have left him when it started,’ she went on, then shook her head. ‘I should never have married him in the first place.’ She looked away again. ‘For a moment tonight,’ she said, ‘I honestly thought I was dead. And I’ve wasted too much of everyone’s time. Michael deserves more than this, and so do you.’ She smiled sadly. ‘So I’m leaving him,’ she said.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Lloyd gently touched her bandaged leg. ‘You’ll never have a better piece of magic chalk.’

  ‘I’m sure.’

  Her lips touched his, gently at first, then with an urgency that took him by surprise. They broke away as the normally silent Eleanor positively banged her way down the corridor, rattling cups.

  Lloyd frowned. ‘You set this up,’ he said, incredulously.

  Judy grinned. ‘They don’t call you a detective for nothing,’ she said.

  ‘You told her? About us?’

  ‘She told me,’ said Judy.

  ‘I told you she was a witch,’ said Lloyd, as Eleanor just happened inadvertently to bump into the door with her noisy cargo.

  ‘Sorry I was so long,’ she said. ‘I made a couple of sandwiches.’

  A sandwich and a cup of coffee later, Lloyd went to bring his car round from the gatehouse. He stood for a moment looking down at the moonlit village. It was exactly like the Christmas card he’d got from the Woodfords.

  And this place had made him shiver, he thought, touching the rough surface of the wall. Perhaps his Welsh superstition had been right.

  Mrs Anthony could have told them. She hadn’t been hinting about George at all. She had been telling them, in words of one syllable, about Marian. And hadn’t he said that they would find an old lady who would solve it all for them? Pity they hadn’t been listening.

  Murder at the Vicarage, he thought, as he got into the car. He must read it again some time.

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  PRAISE FOR JILL McGOWN

  ‘First rate’

  Sunday Times

  ‘Impeccable and accomplished’

  Mail on Sunday

  ‘Jill McGown is a crisp writer and a

  spellbinding storyteller’

  Financial Times

  ‘Superior crafting, careful plotting

  and unexpected turns’

  The Times

  ‘Superior mystery fiction’

  Publishers Weekly

  Murder at the Old Vicarage

  JILL MCGOWN lived in Northamptonshire and

  was best known for her mystery series featuring

  Chief Inspector Lloyd and Sergeant Judy Hill.

  The first novel, A Perfect Match, was published

  in 1983 and A Shred of Evidence was made into a

  television drama starring Philip Glenister and

  Michelle Collins. Jill McGown died in 2007.

  By Jill McGown

  A Perfect Match

  Redemption

  Death of a Dancer

  The Murders of Mrs Austin and Mrs Beale

  The Other Woman

  Murder . . . Now and Then

  A Shred of Evidence

  Verdict Unsafe

  Picture of Innocence

  Plots And Errors

  Scene of Crime

  Births, Deaths and Marriages

  Unlucky for Some