“Lucky? Not sure that poor man would call it that. And what about Albarn?” Taylor’s head was spinning. She still couldn’t believe what had happened.
“She phoned Dennis Albarn from a payphone in Trotterdown and suggested they meet at his house. She said there was something in Stanley Green’s will for him. She had him hook, line and sinker. He opened the door and Alice whacked him with the shovel before he had a chance to react. She dragged him inside, opened up the gas and left him there. The lightning strike later on was a stroke of luck. Then she hid the shovel in Albarn’s shed.”
“I feel like I’ve been dreaming these past few weeks,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t seem real.”
“The scary part is this. She doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong. Besides Milly Lancaster, which she puts down to necessity, she’s shown no remorse about any of it.”
“But she called the police herself for Milly! What was going on there?”
“She really seems to have managed to convince herself for a while that she hadn’t killed her. I think it only came back to her later. Maybe something triggered it for her?”
“Perhaps that’s why she had that weird obsession with the honey. Remember how she kept saying there was something wrong with the honey? The bees like the bushes where she’d buried Stanley. There couldn’t have been anything really wrong with it — it’s hardly as if his body was starting to decompose so soon — but perhaps it was her way of dealing with it. Or repressing it. I feel such a fool. And I had her in my house!”
“We were all fooled. Some of us more than others.”
“What will happen to her?”
“She’ll probably spend the rest of her life in jail.” Killian sighed. “Or a psychiatric unit. She’ll give the shrinks a field day.”
“Can I see her?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. She’s not the sweet old beekeeper we thought she was. You got quite close to her, didn’t you?”
“What about Eddie Sedgwick? What was he doing in Alice’s house yesterday?”
“Eddie’s the only person who suspected something all along. He’s not as doddery as he comes across. He said he’d been watching Alice for quite some time and realised that something strange was going on. He saw your car there and decided to go and check to see if everything was all right. You were lucky. He may have saved your life.”
Taylor swung her legs out of bed and stood up.
“What are you doing?” Killian said. “They’ll want to keep you in for observation and you need to rest.”
“I’ve been resting in here for twenty-four hours,” Taylor said. “There’s a holiday I need to take.”
THE END
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Glossary of English Slang for US readers
A & E: Accident and emergency department in a hospital
AFO: Authorised Firearms Officer
Aggro: Violent behaviour, aggression
Air raid: an attack in which bombs are dropped from aircraft on ground targets
Anorak: nerd (it also means a waterproof jacket)
Artex: textured plaster finish for walls and ceilings
A Level: exams taken between 16 and 18
Auld Reekie: Edinburgh
Au pair: live-in childcare helper. Often a young woman.
Barm: bread roll
Barney: argument
Beaker: glass or cup for holding liquids
Beemer: BMW car or motorcycle
Benefits: social security
Bent: corrupt
Bin: wastebasket (noun), or throw in rubbish (verb)
Biscuit: cookie
Blackpool Lights: gaudy illuminations in seaside town
Bloke: guy
Blow: cocaine
Blower: telephone
Blues and twos: emergency vehicles
Bob: money
Bobby: policeman
Boggart: an evil spirit
Broadsheet: quality newspaper (New York Times would be
a US example)
Brown bread: rhyming slang for dead
Bun: small cake
Bunk: do a bunk means escape
Burger bar: hamburger fast-food restaurant
Buy-to-let: Buying a house/apartment to rent it out for profit
Charity Shop: thrift store
Carrier bag: plastic bag from supermarket
Care Home: an institution where old people are cared for
Car park: parking lot
CBeebies: kids TV
Chat-up: flirt, trying to pick up someone with witty banter or compliments
Chemist: pharmacy
Chinwag: conversation
Chippie: fast-food place selling chips and other fried food
Chips: French fries but thicker
CID: Criminal Investigation Department
Civvy Street: civilian life (as opposed to army)
Clock: punch
Cock-up: mess up, make a mistake
Cockney: a native of East London
Common: an area of park land/ or lower class
Comprehensive School (Comp.): High school
Cop hold of: grab
Copper: police officer
Coverall: coveralls, or boiler suit
CPS: Crown Prosecution Service, decide whether police cases go forward
Childminder: someone who looks after children for money
CID: Criminal Investigation Department
Council: local government
Dan Dare: hero from Eagle comic
DC: detective constable
Deck: one of the landings on a floor of a tower block
Deck: hit (verb)
Desperate Dan: very strong comic book character
DI: detective inspector
Digestive biscuit: plain cookie
Do a runner: disappear
Do one: go away
Doc Martens: Heavy boots with an air-cushioned sole
Donkey’s years: long time
Drum: house
DS: detective sergeant
ED: accident and emergency department of hospital
Eagle: boys’ comic
Early dart: to leave work early
Eggy soldiers: strips of toast with a boiled egg
Enforcer: police battering ram
Estate: public/social housing estate (similar to housing projects)
Estate agent: realtor (US)
Falklands War: war between Britain and Argentina in 1982
Fag: cigarette
Father Christmas: Santa Claus
Filth: police (insulting)
Forces: army, navy, and air force
FMO: force medical officer
Fried slice: fried bread
Fuzz: police
Garda: Irish police
Geordie: from Newcastle
Garden Centre: a business where plants and gardening equipment are sold
Git: nasty man
Gob: mouth/ can also mean phlegm or spit
GP: general practitioner, a doctor based in the community
Graft: hard work
Gran: grandmother
Hancock: Tony Hancock, English comedian popular in 1950s
Hard nut: tough person
HGV: heavy goods vehicle, truck
HOLMES: UK police computer system used during investigation of major incidents
Home: care home for elderly or sick people
Hoover: vacuum cleaner
I’ll be blowed: expression of surprise
Inne: isn’t he
Interpol: international police organisation
Into care: a child taken away from their family by the social services
Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, applied to any strong woman
ITU: intensive therapy unit in hospital
Jackdaw: a small type of crow
Jane Doe: a person whose identity is unknown/anonymous
JCB: a mechanical excavator
Jerry-built: badly made
Lad: young man
Lass: young woman
Lift: elevator
Lord Lucan: famous aristocrat who allegedly killed his children’s nanny and disappeared in 1974. Has never been found.
Lorry: a truck
Lovely jubbly: said when someone is pleased
Luftwaffe: German air force
M&S: Marks and Spencer, a food and clothes shop
Mispers: missing persons
Miss Marple: detective in a series of books by Agatha Christie
MOD: ministry of defence
Mobile phone: cell phone
MP: Member of Parliament, politician representing an area
MRSA: A strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Myra Hindley: famous British serial killer
Naff: lame, not good
Naff all: none
National Service: compulsory UK military service, ended in 60s
Net curtains: a type of semi-transparent curtain
Newsagent: shop selling newspapers and other goods
NHS: National Health Service, public health service of UK
Nick: police station (as verb: to arrest)
Nowt: nothing
Nutter: insane person
Nursery: a place which grows plants, shrubs and trees for sale (often wholesale)
Old bag: old woman (insulting)
Old Bill: police
OTT: over the top
Owt: anything
PACE: Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Pan as in flushed down: flushed down the toilet
Pants: noun: underwear adjective: bad/rubbish/terrible
Para: paratrooper
Pay-as-you-go: a cell phone you pay for calls in advance
PC: police constable
Pear-shaped: go wrong
Petrol: gasoline
Pictures: movie
Pillock: fool
Pips: police insignia indicating rank
Piss off: as exclamation, go away (rude). Also can mean annoy.
Pissing down: raining
Plaster: Band-Aid
Playing field: sports field
Pleb: ordinary person (often insulting)
Portakabin: portable building used as temporary office etc.
Post: mail
Planning Department: the local authority department which issues licences to build and develop property
PNC: Police National Computer
PSNI: police service of Northern Ireland
Prat: silly idiot
Premier League: top English soccer division
Public Analyst: scientists who perform chemical analysis for public protection purposes
RAF: Royal Air Force
Rag: newspaper
Ram-raiding: robbery where a vehicle is rammed through a shop window
Randy: horny
Recce: reconnaissance
Red Adair: famous oil well firefighter
Resus: resuscitation room
Right state: messy
Ring: telephone (verb)
Roadworks: repairs done to roads
Rozzers: police
RSPB: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
RTC: road traffic collision
RV: rendezvous point
Royal Engineers: British army corps dealing with military engineering etc.
Rugger: rugby (posh American football)
Sarge: sergeant
SCO19: Specialist Crime and Operations Specialist Firearms Command
Scrote: low life
Section: to have someone committed to a mental hospital under UK mental health laws
Semi: Semi-detached house, house with another house joined to it on one side only
Shedload: a large amount
Shop: store
Shout the odds: talk in a loud bossy way
Sickie: day off work pretending to be ill
Sixth-form college: school for high school students in final two years.
SIO: senior investigating officer
Sk
ip: a large open container used for building waste
Slapper: slag
Smackhead: heroin addict
Snout: police informer
SOCO: scene-of-crime officer
Sod: an annoying person
Sort: to do or make
Solicitor: lawyer
Sparky: electrician
Spook: spy
Spuds: potatoes
Squaddie: a soldier of low rank
Stunner: beautiful woman
Super: superintendent (police rank)
Surveyor: someone who examines land and buildings professionally
Tabloid: newspaper
Tea: Dinner (Northern English)
Tea towel: drying cloth
Till: cash register
Tip: a mess
Tipsy: a bit drunk
Top himself: commit suicide
Torch: flashlight
Tutor: university teacher
Tower block: tall building containing apartments (usually social housing)
Upmarket: affluent or fancy
Wacky baccy: cannabis
WAG: abbreviation for wife and girlfriend, especially of a well-known sportsman.
Wally: silly person
War Cry: Salvation Army magazine
Wash: the washing machine
Water board: company supplying water to an area
Web-foot: Native of Lincolnshire Fens
White van man: typical working-class man who drives a small truck
WI: Women’s Institute, organisation of women in UK for social/cultural activity
Widow’s weeds: black clothes worn by a widow in mourning
Wilco: will comply i.e. yes
Wreckers: someone who tried to bring about shipwrecks to plunder the wreckage (historical)
Wrinklies: old people
Yob: a rude or aggressive youth or person
THE BEEKEEPER a gripping crime mystery with a dark twist Page 19