‘I agree,’ Sybil said. Her hair was starting to show threads of gray but it was thick and wavy and Mary had always thought her an attractive woman, even if she did wear rather modern clothes for a vicar’s wife.
When Sybil called and asked if she could visit them, Mary had been surprised. The only previous time had been right after Reverend Ivor took over the parish.
‘You’re sure Alex won’t mind coming over?’ Sybil said. ‘I expect their late-morning business is heavy.’
‘Alex makes her own hours,’ Harriet said. ‘We can all trust Alex to bring a clear head to things and she’s more worldly than some of us. Logical, too. She and Tony have been so helpful with past troubles.’
Sybil nodded. ‘I’m very fond of her. But I don’t want anyone to think I’m being disloyal to Ivor. He just isn’t …’ She laughed a little. ‘He isn’t one of those worldly people you mentioned. Indefatigable, yes. Impossible to shock – I’d say so. But if it’s a case of finding fault with someone, he has to do a lot of thinking about that and I don’t think there’s time in this case.’ Her voice grew higher as she talked.
‘Here she comes,’ Harriet said from her post by their sitting-room window at the front of the building. She leaned out and called, ‘Helloo, come on up. The door isn’t locked.’
Mary noticed that Max and Oliver were asleep together in Max’s bed. It rather ruined her excuse for taking him to the pub with her but she’d think of a plausible cover.
Downstairs, the door slammed, followed by the sound of Alex rapidly climbing the stairs. She came into the flat with a cake box that made Mary frown. Why would Alex bring cakes?
‘I can see your mind working,’ Alex said, wagging a finger. ‘I brought some steak and onion pies for you to try at lunch. George says they’re a new experiment.’
Harriet accepted the box with a slight sniff. ‘One wonders what could be innovative about a steak and onion pie, but thank you and we shall pass along our opinions.’
Alex took in the three women in the room. Sybil definitely appeared anxious and ill at ease.
‘Thank you for inviting me to join you. This is lovely. And yes, Harriet, I’ll have some tea, please.’ She smiled and wondered if she misinterpreted Harriet’s skeptical glance at Sybil.
‘Are we celebrating something?’ She went to one of two cat beds where Oliver and Max curled together in the bliss of cat oblivion. ‘That’s so sweet,’ she said softly.
‘They never do that normally,’ Mary said quickly. ‘Oliver’s a bit under the weather or he would never allow Max near him.’
‘Yes, well, we asked you to come and hear what’s happened to Sybil,’ Harriet said, with a sour look at her sister. ‘She’s had a most unpleasant time of it with those detectives who should be ashamed of themselves.’
Alex sat in a straight-backed rocker with plum-colored corduroy cushions. She didn’t remember seeing it before but didn’t want to slow the conversation by mentioning it.
‘Oh, no. You mustn’t let them upset you. Their manner is always brusque – comes with the occupation. This morning Elyan was telling me how rude and upsetting they are. But he may be too sensitive to be logical at the moment.’
Three pairs of eyes became sharper. ‘Elyan was back at the Dog?’ Mary said. ‘I was so disappointed when he didn’t play any more last night but the poor boy must be very unsettled. Did he know who the police arrested? I know I shouldn’t ask anyone, but we’re all waiting to find out.’
‘The police will tell us when they’re ready – if we don’t read it in the papers first.’ She didn’t like being deceptive. ‘Elyan is upset. He practiced something very ominous sounding this morning. Rachmaninoff and something to do with Paganini. Doc James would know.’
‘Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,’ Sybil said. ‘Absolutely gorgeous and very difficult. I wish I’d heard it.’
‘All the customers listened,’ Alex said. ‘I think they know they’re getting something extraordinary. And it is a bit like watching the impossible made possible. He was still there when I left but he was giving them a few jazz and blues pieces. I’m sure his father would faint at that. I think Elyan’s nerves are frayed. I told him we’d talk when I get back, if he wants to and he hasn’t left.’
‘He should be practicing on his own piano,’ Sybil said. ‘No offense, but I wonder the one at the pub doesn’t just collapse under the onslaught. That’s why I wanted to tell him to use the piano in the church. It’s a good instrument and kept in tune. He could be alone there.’
‘I don’t think he minds the audience, odd as it may be for him,’ Alex said. ‘But I agree with you. Tell me what’s happened with the detectives.’
Sybil’s eyes shone too bright. ‘They wanted to see Ivor but he’s out visiting the sick. So they talked to me and they began to sound really angry. Detective O’Reilly said that even someone like me – as if I were some species other than human – should know what crime scene tape means. I said I did and he told me he knew I had talked to Elyan and that I probably encouraged Ivor to move the piano so Elyan could play on the far side from where dear Laura died.’
‘Why was he so angry? They haven’t found any evidence – or nothing that seems to have helped them. Why didn’t the wretched thermos turn up?’
Harriet made the rounds with her teapot, bringing a little china tray with sugar and milk. ‘I think he’s off his stride,’ she said. ‘He hasn’t had any breaks, or apparently not. I thought better of him than that he should lash out, especially at a lady like Sybil. It sounds as if they’re desperate.’ She stood very straight. ‘I wonder if there’s a real danger of another murder.’
Sybil gave a little cry and covered her mouth.
‘I know,’ Mary said. ‘This is all frightening but we have to stay strong. We hear things the police would never hear. It’s our responsibility to listen closely and see if we hear anything helpful that should be passed on.’
Alex felt an unexpected flash of anger. Shame on Dan for being nasty to Sybil. She would have expected better of him. ‘I’m going to see Dan O’Reilly myself,’ she announced. ‘He doesn’t have license to slam his plod-sized feet on the necks of the gentle people in this town. Whatever has, and is happening, came here with incomers. Anyway, we’re not mind readers who know everything he wants of us. No, he’s going to get a piece of my mind.’
‘I don’t think that’s such a good idea,’ Sybil said. ‘Ivor wouldn’t like it.’
‘It isn’t Ivor I intend to take apart into little pieces. Don’t worry, I will protect you. I’m as good at unnamed sources as any newspaper. I’ve had it.’
‘Is that someone going to the rectory?’ Harriet said from a spot by the window that overlooked the churchyard.
Alex looked, but only saw someone walk into the shadow of the church building, just as she had before. ‘Did you see what he looked like?’ she asked Harriet.
‘No, I was listening to what you were saying and I didn’t even really take in there was someone there until he was too far away.’
‘Could be anyone. That lane back there branches out and goes all over the place. Sybil, did the police tell you anything I should know?’
‘Oh, dear.’ Sybil laced her fingers tightly together.
‘Men,’ Mary said. ‘They really don’t understand the finer nuances of communication. Stop worrying, Sybil, and trust Alex to do whatever is for the best.’
‘I’ll get back to you,’ Alex said, already dialing Dan O’Reilly’s contact number as she went downstairs and opened the front door.
THIRTY-THREE
On a bench near the pond on the village green, Alex regarded bobbing ducks and a single autocratic swan sweeping slowly up and down in their midst as the ducks cried out to one another.
She’d left several messages for Dan and spoken with Tony who had a heavy day at some local farms. She assured him she’d keep him up to date, without mentioning her planned chat with their favorite detective.
When she�
�d got back to the pub she’d been disappointed to find that Annie had arrived and Elyan had left with her.
Dan wouldn’t have made what sounded like a nuclear attack on Sybil if he were himself. A nagging conviction that things were shifting within the case intensified her need to know what was going on.
‘So, popular, am I?’ said a voice approaching from behind. ‘Must be nice to be able to hang out on a bench and twiddle your thumbs.’
Her irritation climbed a notch higher but she didn’t argue with his assessment. ‘It is. And I get to do it so often. Try a little relaxation sometimes, Dan – makes you sharper.’
He sat beside her in shirtsleeves and jeans. She had never seen him casually dressed before. Not for the first time she wondered if he really was completely unattached. For an instant she could imagine him helping a child sail a boat on the pond.
‘You don’t think I’m sharp enough?’ He was grinning. ‘Probably not, so I just have to do the best possible with what meager skills I have. But you didn’t search me out to make small talk.’
‘You made a big mistake this morning, Dan, and it got back to me. I’m disappointed in you.’
That got her a frown. ‘Too much talk goes on in this village, Alex. It’s annoying. It borders on obstructionism for us.’
‘I haven’t seen anyone obstructing you. You ask questions and people answer. Too bad the same can’t be said for you.’
He seemed to relax a little as if stoking her ire satisfied him. ‘Could we get to your point quickly? I must get back to Gloucester.’
‘To carry on grilling Wells Giglio?’
‘Yes,’ Dan said, staring straight ahead. ‘We’re making considerable progress and should have a break in the case shortly. By the way, he’s being held for questioning. Not under arrest.’
‘Really?’ Alex stared at him. ‘It’s not like you to make announcements like that. Sneaking up at the crucial moment is more your style. Was it this new and exciting break that made you behave like a bear to inoffensive little Sybil Davis? Bad show, Dan, really bad.’
He turned slowly toward her. ‘I’d rather get along with you,’ he said, oddly distant. ‘But you make my life difficult. Your name, and Harrison’s, come up at every meeting. I don’t like the implication that without you I’d never get anything around here solved.’
‘Oh, come on! You’re exaggerating.’
He leaned to dig a stone out of the grass and shied it into the pond. ‘I don’t exaggerate.’
‘If you throw stones in the pond you’ll hit the birds.’
‘Hmm. Sitting ducks,’ he muttered.
‘Feeble,’ Alex retorted. ‘So, do you still think Wells Giglio killed Laura and Mrs Meeker?’
‘I didn’t say that.’ He found another stone and tossed it far away from the ducks. ‘And, of course, we didn’t have a conversation last night, remember?’
She swiveled on the bench, leaned toward him. ‘Don’t treat me like that. No one would believe we’ve been through some of the things we have – not when you treat me like a snotty-nosed kid who can’t be trusted to hold her tongue.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Dan, I am not the enemy. Tony isn’t the enemy. In general, you don’t have an enemy in this town. We’ve had some really awful things happen around us but you know as well as I do that Tony and I have only tried to help.’
He stood and faced her, blocking out the sun. ‘You were never asked to interfere. And from now on I’m warning you not to get in our way.’
‘Warn away.’ Her heart thumped. Alex hated the way he’d taken the advantage of standing over her, making her feel even smaller in comparison to him than she already was. ‘You’re afraid someone will think you need help from me. Enough of this. Just try to be a bit careful with the Sybils of this world. They aren’t tough enough to take hounding from bullies.’
‘Oh, my god. You don’t get it at all. No one bullied Sybil Davis. She’s very gentle and felt hounded. I’m sorry for that. I’ll be more careful. But the piano was moved in what is still an active crime scene. That sort of thing would drive any copper berserk.’
‘Right.’ This was pointless.
‘Would you like to know what we found today?’
Her legs shook and she clasped her hands to stop them from trembling visibly.
When she didn’t answer, he sat beside her again. ‘The thermos, Alex. We found the … we found it.’
Her palms were wet. ‘Wells had it?’
‘It was inside that piano. Lodged down in a corner. The cap we all thought would be there had been screwed back on. We’re hoping for prints.’
‘But, Dan – did Wells tell you it was there?’
‘No. But we’re going to find out if he put it there.’
‘It should have been found during the search,’ she pointed out. Now there was hope of getting to the bottom of all this horror.
‘If it was there then. But it wasn’t easy to see, not where it was. I think it got jostled and moved about inside the piano.’
Alex studied the backs of her hands. She didn’t care anymore if he saw them shaking. ‘I wonder if Ivor and whoever helped him caused the thermos to shift so it could be seen while it was hidden before?’
‘Maybe they did,’ he said mildly. ‘You are the master of getting the last word.’
THIRTY-FOUR
It was a good thing Alex had returned to the Dog. They were having a busy lunch trade. And there was no doubt that talk about the arrest announcement the day before was as much a reason for the business as hunger and thirst.
Big, bluff Kev Winslet, gamekeeper at the Derwinters, held court near the bar. He had the usual group clustered in close, including Major Stroud who had taken to giving Alex poisonous glances from time to time. When there was a chance, she’d have to sort it out with him.
She caught his eye and smiled.
He looked into his glass, but slowly a tight smile appeared and she took it as a good sign.
Her mum came and leaned across the bar. ‘Can you come into the restaurant, Alex? Have you got enough help here?’
‘Be right there.’ She took Hugh aside and he said he, Liz and Juste, who was in for an extra day, would manage just fine.
When she walked through the room, she felt watched. Most of them really thought she had an inside track to information from the police.
In the restaurant, near the stairs, stood Doc James. ‘Is Tony around? I couldn’t reach him.’
Lily indicated a corner table well away from the smattering of lunch guests, and left when they were seated.
‘Tony’s delivering a sheep baby today – I mean a lamb.’ She giggled. ‘I’m a basket case.’
‘Ah,’ Doc said, unsmiling. ‘That’ll be why he’s switched off his phone. I’m in an awkward position, Alex. I don’t think Molly Lewis – the police surgeon – knows Tony is my son, or that you and I are old friends. She’s coming to me for any pointers I can give on the Meeker case. It’s a baffling one and I’m the only medical link she has between the two deaths. She’s trying to get some backup for something she’s going to suggest to O’Reilly.’
Alex waited while a server passed by. ‘I don’t understand why it’s awkward for you. You can only say what you know and you never saw Mrs Meeker after she died.’
‘True. But I saw her before she died.’
For an instant, Alex didn’t understand. ‘Yes, but … you mean as a patient?’
Doc hesitated, but said, ‘Yes.’
‘We would never expect you to break patient confidentiality, Doc.’
‘I know. But I see you two getting sucked in – as you usually do – and I don’t like it. Someone’s playing deadly games with drugs – at least they did with Laura. Or so it looks. The perfect place to do that would be right here, in a bar, particularly when it’s really busy and you can’t watch everyone at once. Drinks are easy enough to spike. Please separate yourselves from this one. Don’t be seen talking to the police, or holding chit-chats w
ith Mary and Harriet and anyone who gives them information.’
The server passed again.
Alex laced her hands on the table. ‘Are you talking about Sybil being with me at the Burke sisters’ place?’
He nodded, yes.
‘Who told you? Who’s watching me? It’s maddening.’
‘I’m not telling you who. All I’m asking is for you to carry on as if nothing different has happened. Spend more time here and be careful who you’re seen with. People carry grudges and look for ways to satisfy them. Keep that in mind.’
Triplet lambs were rare and Tony was glad the delivery was over. Before the three live and healthy lambs were safely in the world, he’d resorted to tying pieces of colored thread on feet to make sure nothing got muddled up on the way out.
He had sluiced off at the farm but wanted a shower. However it would have to be at the clinic. He’d left Alex without wheels, something he only remembered while admiring the three wet newborns, and their mother’s efforts to care for the overload.
Arms waving overhead on the last bend in the hill brought him a grin. Alex, toiling uphill, didn’t try to hide her relief that she wouldn’t have to climb all the way up on foot.
‘Where are you going?’ he called through the window when he was beside her.
‘To find you.’ She looked cross. She wore a red tank top that must belong to Lily, but still had on jeans and boots and must be hot. ‘Turn your phone on when you aren’t in the middle of a procedure.’
‘Sorry about that.’ There was no point in raising her already bubbling ire by pointing out that as the queen of self-sufficiency, she hated being told what to do.
She climbed into the Range Rover but stopped him from driving off again. ‘We’re well enough off the road. We need to talk.’
Sun through the windshield was heating up the interior of the vehicle but she didn’t seem to notice as she poured out what had been said at the visit from his father.
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