Cupcakes and Casualties (Peridale Cafe Cozy Mystery Book 11)

by Agatha Frost

  "What happens now?" Billy asked after the silence grew to an uncomfortable peak. "Are you staying in Peridale, or are you heading off after the build is finished? You told me you'd already booked your tickets to Mexico."

  Alfie frowned at Billy as he chewed a mouthful of chicken. He washed it down with some beer before wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  "That was before," Alfie said finally. "I don't know what’s happening now. Jessika and - I mean - Jessie and I have a lot to talk about. There are seventeen years to catch up on."

  "So, you are staying in Peridale then?" Billy pushed, his eyes narrowed suspiciously on Alfie. "It's a simple question, mate."

  "It's hardly a simple situation," Alfie fired back, dropping his fork onto his plate. "What's with the questions? I thought we were friends."

  "Like you said, things have changed," Billy said, his eyes narrowing further. "Jessie is my world. I don't want you upsetting her."

  "Why would I upset her?" Alfie said with a stifled laugh. "She's my sister."

  "Because you don't know her like I do," Billy shot back. "You don't know her like any of us do. None of us wants to see her go through any more crap."

  "Billy -" Barker started.

  "We don't know this guy!" Billy cried, his cheeks burning bright red. "He could be anyone under those tattoos."

  "Shut up, Billy," Jessie muttered through gritted teeth. "Why are you doing this?"

  "You were saying the same things earlier, babe!" Billy cried. "I'm only thinking of you. I just want to know what his intentions are. He can't have looked that hard to find you. It's not like you're not on social media now like the rest of us. I just want -"

  "Get out," Jessie snarled. "Get out right now!"

  "Babe -"

  "Go on!" Jessie suddenly jumped up. "You're not thinking about me, you're thinking about yourself."

  Billy opened and closed his mouth, but the protest did not come. He screwed up his napkin and tossed it on the table before matching Jessie in standing. He tried to meet her eyes, but she purposefully avoided looking at him.

  "Fine," Billy said before sucking in air through his teeth. "If that's what you want, I'm gone."

  After grabbing his beer bottle from the table, Billy slipped out of the dining room, the front door slamming loudly behind him. Jessie sat back down in her chair and resumed looking at her food. Julia and Barker exchanged a 'what was that about?' glance, but Julia knew deep down. She had the same fears Billy had, but without the teenage hormones coursing through her body, she was able to keep them to herself for now.

  "This is new to me too," Alfie said finally as he pushed his barely eaten food away from him. "It wasn't easy for me to come here. I've had seventeen years of wondering, and now this has landed on me. It's a lot to process."

  "Just ignore him," Jessie mumbled as she resumed pushing her broccoli around. "He's such an idiot sometimes. I don't know why I bother with him."

  The conversation soon turned back to stories of Alfie's travels, but Julia could not bring herself to stay fully engaged in listening. She had tuned into Billy's thoughts, and they were worrying her.

  Candy's house would be finished in the coming months, and when it was, Alfie would be free to go where he wanted. With tickets booked to Mexico, he could jump on a plane and vanish from Jessie's life before he had even become a part of it. Julia searched the traveller's eyes as he told his stories, and she wondered if leaving that behind to build a relationship with his teenage sister was a realistic option for him. Peridale was not his home, and when his stay at the B&B was up, he would be homeless and jobless. If it came to that situation, Julia would offer him her couch in a heartbeat, but she knew for people like Alfie, he could quickly tire of that rooted life.

  When the scraping of knives and forks ceased, Julia replaced their plates with hot apple pie and custard, which went down easier than her roast chicken and vegetables. When they were finished with dessert, they naturally drifted through to the hallway as the evening drew to a close.

  "When will I see you again?" Jessie asked as they lingered by the door. "Tomorrow?"

  "I can pick you up when I've finished at the building site?" Alfie offered as he reached for his leather jacket. "We'll go for a ride somewhere. Maybe go to the cinema or go for a meal. My treat. It will give us a chance to talk properly."

  "Awesome," Jessie said, a grin from ear to ear. "I'll see you tomorrow, bro."

  "You too, sis," Alfie said with a chuckle. "I don't think I'll ever get used to saying that."

  With that, Jessie retreated to her bedroom. Julia had no doubt she would immediately start texting Billy to ask him what his problem was; she just hoped she would go gently on him.

  "I'll start washing up," Barker said, backing down the hallway as though he sensed that Julia wanted to talk to Alfie alone. "Call me if you need me."

  When they were alone, they lingered silently by the door, neither of them seeming to know what to say. Julia had a thousand questions, but the last thing she wanted to do was scare Alfie off.

  "Thanks for inviting me," Alfie said. "You were right about her being special. She's a great kid. She reminds me of me at that age."

  "It's a difficult time for her," Julia said. "You know what it's like being a teenager."

  "I do," Alfie agreed. "I'm not going to hurt her, Julia. I've dreamed of this moment for years. No matter what Billy thinks, I'm not just going to run away from this."

  Julia believed that Alfie believed his words, but it was not enough for her. He had already disappeared once, even if he had returned. She thought about everything she knew of Alfie so far, and she did like the man, but there were a lot of unanswered questions, the biggest of them all relating to Shane's murder.

  "Can I ask you something?" Julia whispered, taking a step closer to him. "Something I have been wondering about for a while?"

  "Sure."

  "Why was Shane strangling you at the B&B?" Julia asked. "What did you do that made him so angry?"

  "Shane was a hot head," Alfie said. "But he wasn't all he seemed. It wasn't what I did, it was what I saw."

  "And what did you see?"

  Alfie assessed Julia with a peculiar smile; it made her feel like he thought she already knew.

  "Let's just say Shane was in bed with someone he shouldn't have been," Alfie said as he zipped up his leather jacket. "But it's not my secret to tell."

  "Candy?" Julia urged. "I already know about that."

  "Well, I didn't," Alfie said as he reached for the door. "If he was sleeping with Candy, that's not what I'm talking about. I should go. I have an early start tomorrow. Thanks again for inviting me."

  With that, Alfie opened the door and walked off into the night. Julia watched as he secured his helmet over his head before climbing onto his motorbike. After revving the engine, he turned the bike around in the tight lane and sped off out of sight.

  "That was a weird evening," Barker whispered, appearing behind her with a glass of wine. "At least they get on. They're like two peas in a pod."

  "Yeah," Julia said absentmindedly as she accepted the wine. "He just told me Shane was having an affair with someone else."

  "Who?"

  "He wouldn't say." Julia paused to sip her wine. "Said it's not his secret to tell. He's giving me a weird feeling. I can't help but feel like he's connected to the Shane case."

  Barker pulled Julia through to the kitchen where he unlocked his briefcase. He pulled out the piece of paper he had almost showed her before Alfie arrived.

  "I'm glad he mentioned his criminal past because this won't come as a shock," Barker said as he handed over the paper. "I got one of the boys to do a search on him when you told me his real name. There's a little more than accidental tourism crime."

  13

  The next day in Julia's café, the list of Alfie's criminal convictions dominated her thoughts. Along with his arrests in other countries that he had touched on, his past was littered with criminal activity dating back to his early teens.<
br />
  From shoplifting, breaking and entering, car theft, and everything in between, it seemed Alfie had been involved in petty crime for most of his life, even if Julia would not have suspected such a life for someone who came across as so kind. As Barker had tried to reassure her, none of the charges had been serious enough to send him to prison, but his most recent conviction was a year-old assault charge. She was trying her best to not judge Alfie based on the information she had read, but as the day passed, it was becoming more and more difficult to ignore the facts.

  "He's here!" Jessie cried, running out of the kitchen when Alfie pulled up outside on his motorbike. "See you later. I don't know what time I'll be home."

  "Keep your phone on," Julia called to her. "And stay safe!"

  Jessie waved that she would before opening the café door. She took in Alfie's motorbike before accepting a spare helmet and jumping on the back. Alfie waved into the café at Julia before riding off.

  Now that she was alone, Julia flipped the sign from 'OPEN' to 'CLOSED' before pulling up a chair. With a slice of leftover cheesecake and a cup of peppermint and liquorice tea, she opened her laptop and started a search for 'Alfred Rice'.

  Nearly an hour later, the sun had set, and she had a folder on her laptop filled with news articles detailing Alfie's different arrests. As Barker had said, none of them seemed all that serious, but the sheer volume of them worried her, even if the main concentration had happened during his teenage years. She looked down at her list of suspects in her ingredients notepad and drew a circle around his name.

  "What are you still doing here?" Dot cried as she hurried into the café in a flurry of wind. "I saw your light from across the village green and thought you might be being burgled."

  "Curtain twitching again, Gran?" Julia replied with a chuckle as she closed the laptop. "I was just looking at something. It's a long story. Oh, you won't even know about Jessie's brother, will you?"

  "Jessie's what?" Dot cried, pulling up the chair across from Julia. "Tell me everything!"

  Julia spent the next thirty minutes telling Dot as much as she knew. She gasped and asked questions in the right places, but for the most part, she let Julia talk her through the story, right up to what she had just spent the past hour doing.

  "Never trust a man with that many tattoos!" Dot exclaimed finally. "Makes me wonder about what they are trying to cover up!"

  "The most confusing part is that I really liked him," Julia said as she circled his name once more in her notepad. "I still do like him. He's sweet and considerate, and he's been through a lot, just like Jessie, but -"

  "He gives you a bad feeling?" Dot jumped in with a knowing nod as she pushed her curls up at the back. "Say no more. Us South girls have always had strong women's intuition, and yours is especially powerful. You could put Evelyn out of business if you switched gears. When has your gut ever led you wrong, dear? In all of these cases, when has it ever been wrong?"

  Julia could think of many times she had got things wrong or misunderstood situations, but this felt different. There was so much clouding her judgement that she did not know what her gut was saying. Worst of all, she had a small voice in the back of her head telling her that she was only suspicious because Jessie had instantly bonded with Alfie, and she hated to think she was that kind of person.

  "She's out with him now," Julia said as she pulled her phone from her apron pocket. "They've ridden off on a motorbike somewhere, and I have no idea where they've gone, and as usual, she hasn't texted me."

  Julia scrolled through her notifications, a text message from six minutes ago catching her attention. She checked her volume settings, and once again her phone was on silent without her knowing.

  "Katie has just texted me."

  "Probably some pointless drivel," Dot replied with a waft of her hand. "That woman has a brain like soup. I don't know what your father -"

  "It says 'It's all kicking off here! Come quick!'," Julia read aloud. "Candy Bennett is staying at the manor. I think something’s happening."

  Dot sprang up from her seat, almost knocking the chair over in the process. She stared expectantly at Julia as she read the message again.

  "Well?" Dot cried, hands planted on her hips. "What are you waiting for? Let's go! We've missed six minutes of the drama already!"

  Despite Dot's encouragement, Julia managed to stick to the speed limit on their drive up to Peridale Manor. The manor came into view, lights in every window banishing the darkness. When Julia noticed Candy hanging out of one of the upstairs windows, throwing clothes down to the ground, she realised what was going on.

  "And I never liked the way you dressed!" she screeched down at Harold, who was standing on the gravel in front of the house picking up his things. "You're forty-five, not fifteen! Start dressing your age!"

  Julia's father and Katie were in the doorway with baby Vinnie, looking up at Candy, neither of them saying anything.

  "After all these years, you do this?" Harold cried up as more of his clothes tumbled to the ground. "After everything I've put up with, now is when you call things off? After everything I’ve ignored, and all the horrible things you've done that I've forgiven, you're the one to turn on me? How does that work, Candice?"

  "It's Candy!" she cried as she sent a shoe zooming towards him. "And I've wanted to do this for years. You're weak, Harold! You've never been a match for a woman like me!"

  Julia killed the engine and carefully climbed out of her car, not wanting to disrupt things too much. Candy vanished from the window before returning with a handful of underwear. She tossed it into the air, and the garments fluttered down to the ground like confetti, covering the pink and black Range Rovers in the process. Harold hurried to gather them, embarrassment evident on his face.

  "You!" Candy screeched, pointing at Julia. "Why are you always popping up? You're like a bad smell!"

  "Excuse me?" Julia's father, Brian, called, stepping out to look up at Candy. "Julia is my daughter, and she's welcome here. You, young lady, are not! I want you to leave my house this instant!"

  "Brian!" Katie called, stepping out to pull him back. "Let's just stay out of it."

  "This is really big of you, Candice," Harold cried as he gathered up the last of his clothes. "I should have left you years ago. I was clinging on to a tiny shred of you that I thought was still in there, but Candice has been gone for years. Candy has well and truly taken over. Enjoy your next fling with the next poor builder who comes your way."

  "Oh, get over yourself, Harold!" Candy cried as she lobbed another shoe at him. "I married you because you were safe, but I realised I didn't want safe. I wanted exciting, and your idea of exciting is watching an old sci-fi movie you've seen a hundred times. They're for kids, Harold! Grow up!"

  "You grow up!" he called back. "I can't believe I've put up with your rubbish for all these years. It's a shame Shane is dead because you'd make a great couple."

  "So what?" Candy shrieked as she clung to the edge of the window. "I slept with the builder! Why don't you remind me again? Who cares? He excited me! He knew how to make me feel good, Harold. That's more than I can ever say about you. You're a pathetic little man, and I should have done this a long time ago!"

  Julia heard a clicking noise coming from the bushes next to the cars, and it seemed Harold did at the same time. He marched over and pulled out a man with a long-lens camera. He looked to be as old as Julia's father and shocked to have been dragged out of his hiding spot.

  "Really classy, Candice!" Harold called up as he held the back of the man's jacket. "Hiring a leech to capture the breakdown of our marriage? Are you that desperate for the media attention? They don't care about you anymore. The soaps don't want you, the movies don't want you, and the theatre companies don't want you, and I'm not surprised! You're a diva, and nobody likes a diva! The most you're going to get from now on are reality TV shows and Christmas pantomimes, and it's what you deserve!"

  The photographer snapped a close-up shot of Harold's face
before Harold threw the man to the ground. Candy squeaked, and Julia expected another barrage of insults to come, but she slammed the window shut instead. Brian tossed Harold a roll of black bags before retreating into the house with Katie and Vinnie. Dot, who had been watching everything unfold from the car, looked disappointed that the fight was over.

  Without asking if her help was needed, Julia began helping Harold stuff his clothes into the bags.

  "Thank you," he said as he looked up at the window where Candy had been. "I guess all women aren't so bad."

  "Not even half of us," Julia replied with a friendly smile. "Can I drive you anywhere? The B&B in town should have a room free if you want somewhere to lay your head for the night. Evelyn is lovely."

  Without replying, Harold nodded and carried his bags towards Julia's car. The photographer continued to snap pictures, but Harold was either used to it or did not care about his private life being captured so brutally.

  After squashing the bags into the boot of the car, Harold climbed into the backseat. He took his glasses off and rubbed them on the edge of his t-shirt before letting out an exhausted sigh.

  "What happened tonight?" Julia asked, looking at him in the rear-view mirror. "Do you think it's over for good?"

  "There's no going back after that," Harold said as he slid his glasses back on. "We started arguing about the house again. I told her I was going to pull my money out of it because I was tired of being pushed around. I don't even know why I agreed to build it in the first place. Candy’s always had a way of getting what she wanted, but I knew this build was cursed from the moment she thought of it. I think she convinced herself that moving to the countryside was the right thing for her career. Maybe she thought she'd be the star of the village and rebuild from here, but the shine always wears off when people see the real her. She's finished in the business, and she knows it. She's burned most of her bridges with her attitude. I've overheard the conversations she's been having with her agent recently. She's being offered bit-parts in adverts and low rent reality gigs. Without me propping her up, her life will crumble within weeks. Her money is drying up faster than she realises."