by Agatha Frost
The oven beeped, signalling that the Shepherd’s Pie was ready. Julia finished lighting the candles, the flame of the match dancing up to her fingers. She shook the small stick, killing the flame.
“Alright!” she called to the oven. “I’m coming!”
She took a step back and assessed her beautifully set table. It was perfect for the relaxing evening she had planned out for her and Barker to enjoy after two weeks of madness. She dimmed the lights, then ran through to the kitchen and turned off the alarm. A quick glance at the cat clock above her fridge let her know that Barker was five minutes late.
Using her red and white polka dot oven gloves, she pulled the Shepherd’s Pie out of the oven, delighted with how beautifully golden the mashed potato had turned. She rested the dish on her cooling rack, yanked off the gloves, and grabbed the white wine from the fridge. She checked the label, unsure of what she was even looking for. Her sister, Sue, insisted it was the best wine at the supermarket, and that had to be good enough for Julia.
“Hurry up, Barker,” she mumbled to herself as she poured the wine into two glasses. “Where are you?”
Mowgli jumped up onto the counter and nudged her. She tickled under his chin, but the Shepherd’s Pie appeared to be more interesting. He padded along to it, gave it one quick sniff, before jumping off and sauntering over to his cat biscuits.
Julia took the two wine glasses through to the dining room, where the vanilla-scented candles were already infusing the air with their sweet fragrance. She heard a key rattle in the door and smiled to herself as she realigned the forks.
“Great timing,” she called through as she dusted down the front of her dress and tossed her hair over her shoulders. “The Shepherd’s Pie has just -,”
Julia’s voice trailed off as she walked through to the hallway. She was surprised to see Jessie, and doubly surprised to see Barker draped over her shoulder, blood dripping from his eyebrow, and a bunch of squashed flowers in his hand.
“I know I said I’d stay at Dot’s tonight, but I didn’t want him walking here on his own,” Jessie said apologetically as she slumped Barker onto the couch.
“What happened?” Julia asked, rushing to his side.
“Billy Matthews happened,” Barker said. “He followed me to Pretty Petals. I got you these.”
Barker held up the flowers. They were barely holding together behind their plastic wrapping, but Julia accepted them all the same. She took them through to the kitchen and put them on the counter next to the Shepherd’s Pie, which was suddenly lower down on her list of priorities. She soaked a cloth under the cold tap, grabbed a bag of frozen peas from the freezer, and hurried back into the sitting room.
“It looks worse than it is,” Barker said with a small laugh as he danced his finger around the bloody cut running through his eyebrow. “I always wanted a scar there. I’ll look quite distinguished, don’t you think?”
“He only got one punch in,” Jessie said from her position on the arm of the couch. “Barker was lucky I was coming back from the shop when I was. I scared him off.”
She flexed her knuckles and Julia gasped when she saw they were just as bloody as Barker’s eyebrow. She noticed Julia looking, so she pulled her sleeve over them and shook her head to let Julia know she was fine. When Julia had finished cleaning up Barker’s cut, she ran back into the kitchen, rinsed the cloth, then cleaned up Jessie’s knuckles. She was relieved to only see small grazes underneath the blood.
“Are you going to the police?” Julia asked, turning her attention back to Barker, who winced as he pressed the bag of peas against his brow.
“There’s no point,” Barker mumbled through the grimacing. “I can’t really blame him. Once again, it’s down to me that his father is behind bars. They officially charged Jeffrey with Jim’s murder this afternoon.”
Julia was surprised that Barker didn’t seem pleased to be saying that. Even though she had her own doubts about the strangeness of what had happened at the B&B, she couldn’t logically pin the murder on anyone else.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Jessie said, already pulling up her hood. “Dot will wonder where I am. I only went out to buy some food. She’s trying to feed me something called quinoa and I don’t trust it. See ya.”
When they were alone, Julia sat next to Barker and rested her head on his shoulder. He smiled down at her to tell her he would be fine, but it didn’t ease her concerns.
“He’s just angry that he’s lost his dad,” Barker said, almost apologetically for Billy. “That, or -,”
Barker didn’t finish his sentence. He pulled the bag away and tossed it onto the table. The cut looked deep, and it looked like it needed stitches. Julia ran into her bathroom and grabbed her first aid kit from under the sink. She pulled out a small row of butterfly stitches and antiseptic spray.
“Or what?” Julia asked as she sprayed Barker’s brow.
“Ow!” he cried out. “What was that?”
“Or what?” Julia asked again, a small grin forming on her lips as she carefully applied the stitches around Barker’s brow. “Do you need some painkillers?”
“I’ll be okay,” he said with a shake of his head. “What would I do without you, eh?”
“You’d cope.”
“That’s just the thing,” he said, a soft smile on his lips. “I don’t think I would. You’ve been my rock this last month, Julia. I really mean that.”
Julia was touched. She sat next to him, her fingers dancing up into the back of his hair.
“Or what?” she repeated for a third time.
“I just can’t help thinking that Jeffrey is going along with all of this too easily,” Barker said. “What if he’s covering for somebody?”
“Billy?”
“It’s the most obvious choice.”
“It is,” Julia agreed. “It’s crossed my mind too.”
“Or, he really did do it, and he’s just accepting that he’s going back to prison.”
“Did you believe Evelyn’s story about him being innocent?”
“Not one word,” Barker exclaimed, shaking his head heavily. “Did you?”
Julia didn’t answer immediately. She thought about her response for a moment. Evelyn had sounded pretty convinced, and she had put across a strong argument for his innocence. The fact somebody else had confessed to Jeffrey’s original crimes was a major sticking point for her.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Mistakes do happen.”
“Let me tell you something about Jeffrey Taylor. He’s manipulative. He’s got Evelyn wrapped around his little finger. Whoever this new person charged with those murders is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeffrey had someone stitch them up from inside. That little story Evelyn told about Jeffrey being those women’s ‘drug provider’ was a load of nonsense. He singlehandedly ruled the underground drug scene in Hull. Getting him off the streets was one of the best things I ever did.”
“Even if it wasn’t for the right crime?”
“He did it, Julia,” Barker said stubbornly. “I know he did. Just like he killed Jim Austen. I slept better than I had in weeks last night knowing that monster was behind bars again. I just don’t want the charges to be dropped on another technicality. I want the evidence to be so concrete that he can’t wriggle out of it. Bradley is rushing ahead, all excited that he’s caught Jim’s killer, but if this is going to stick, they’re going to need more than a wreath and a tiny clip of CCTV footage putting him in the vague area at the time of the murder. If he gets away with this and he stays in Peridale, he’s going to be a ghost from my past that I would rather live without.”
Julia walked through to the kitchen and plated up the Shepherd’s Pie. On her way back to the sitting room, she blew out the candles in the dining room. Leaving the wine behind, she put a pillow on Barker’s knee and balanced the plate on top of it.
“So much for a romantic night,” Barker said sarcastically. “This looks delicious.”
“It’s just something I
tossed together.”
“Certainly looks better than something I would toss together.”
As they tucked into their food, Mowgli strolled into the sitting room and jumped up onto the armchair next to them. He circled the same spot for a couple of seconds before curling into a tight ball and falling straight to sleep.
“Wouldn’t you just love to be a cat?” Barker remarked as he cleared his plate. “Napping whenever you please, and only worrying about when the next meal is going to be put down. It’s an easier life, isn’t it?”
“Who wants an easy life?” Julia asked, pushing her food around her plate. “It’s the struggles that make us stronger.”
“I’m going to end this year stronger than ever then.”
“You’ve clearly been through struggles before,” Julia said as she put her plate on top of Barker’s and pushed it onto the coffee table. “You mentioned there was a story you were saving for another time, and I was wondering when that time was going to come.”
“Ah,” Barker said firmly, dropping his head. “You don’t forget a thing, do you Julia?”
“It’s a blessing and a curse,” she said, tucking her legs underneath her and hugging a pillow as she turned to Barker. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
“It’s not about wanting to tell you,” Barker said quietly, turning his head and resting it on the back of the couch so that he was looking into her eyes in the low light. “Some things just aren’t easy to talk about.”
Julia nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. It hadn’t gone unnoticed to her that she still hadn’t told Barker about her recent divorce. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell him, she just didn’t want the shadow of her past staining their still very fresh relationship. She enjoyed being Julia without the baggage of being a divorcee at thirty-seven.
“I was engaged,” Barker said, his eyes suddenly darting down. “Eight years ago. It was around the same time I was working on the Jeffrey Taylor case.”
“Oh,” Julia said, unsure of what she was expecting to hear. “Did it not work out?”
“She died,” Barker said, looking back up into her eyes. “When the trial finished, I was being hailed a hero for putting Jeffrey behind bars. I was on cloud nine. I had always dreamed of being a Detective Inspector, and there I was, living that dream. Do you know how many people crack a serial murder case when they’re fresh out of their inspector exams? It rarely happens. The night Jeffrey was sentenced, we all went out to celebrate. Everybody was buying me drinks, and even though I had Jeffrey’s threat from earlier that day rattling around my brain, I felt like we had done good work. I’ve already told you about the doubts I had during the trial, but they all vanished that night. It was over, and I was glad of it. I met Vanessa when I first moved to Hull. She was a constable and we worked together a lot. They warned me about mixing business and pleasure, but we fell in love. It all happened pretty quickly, but it was love. I proposed to her that night and she said yes. I didn’t even have a ring. I was drunk, if I’m honest with you, but I didn’t regret it in the morning.
“We were only engaged for three days when she died. She was shot. It was a random attack. Some lunatic called the police to his house telling them he wanted to report a burglary, and when he invited them in, he shot them both in cold blood. He had been arrested for drunk driving the month before and they had taken his licence off him. That was his little revenge plan. Pathetic, wasn’t it? Just like that, she was gone. The other officer pulled through. I went from a career high to the lowest point of my life.
“I tried to get back to normal, but it was impossible. I couldn’t walk around the station, or the town, without seeing her everywhere. I transferred to London, and that’s where I stayed until I transferred to Peridale.”
Julia wiped the tears from her cheek as quickly as they appeared. She tried to speak, to offer Barker her condolences, but she couldn’t say anything. With her tear-soaked hand, she grabbed his and squeezed. He smiled his appreciation, the pain of that time alive in eyes.
“Jeffrey being here brought my past crashing into the present. It was a shock. It brought everything about the trial, and Vanessa flooding back. I felt like I had put enough distance between then and now, but it was like no time had passed.”
“A broken heart never fully heals.”
“But the place it breaks can sometimes be the strongest part,” Barker said, smiling through his sadness. “You’re the first woman I’ve loved since Vanessa. I dated, but nobody ever stuck. You, however, are my silver lining.”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?” she asked.
“I didn’t want you to think I was weak,” he whispered. “I didn’t want you to think my love for you was any less real because of my past.”
Warmth radiated from Julia’s chest and flooded through her body. She thought about telling Barker about her divorce, but it felt so insignificant compared to what had just been shared. Clutching his hand and staring deep into his eyes, she felt like she was starting to see the real Barker, and it only made her love him more.
She tried to think of a way she could put those feelings into words, but she knew she could never do them justice. Instead, she cupped his face in her hands and pulled him into a kiss. He fell on top of her, their foreheads banging together. They giggled through their pressed lips, and Julia knew that Barker’s heart was singing just as loudly as hers.
Chapter 13
The next day in Julia’s café, things started to feel more normal again. Every customer talked about the strange newcomer being charged with Jim’s murder, thanks to the ‘RELEASED MURDERER STRIKES PERIDALE!’ headline on the front page of The Peridale Post. After the chaos of the last two weeks, hearing the villagers gossiping again reminded her that she was home.
“I’m honestly surprised it took them so long,” Emily Burns exclaimed, barely pausing after taking a sip of tea. “He mowed my lawn four days ago! He could have killed me!”
“And me!” Amy Clark chipped in, mumbling through a mouthful of angel cake. “He pruned my roses. Do you know how sharp those sheers are? I’m surprised he didn’t cut my head clean off!”
“He only killed Jim because he thought it was Barker,” Jessie mumbled under her breath as she cleared away the tables.
Jessie’s tolerance for idle village gossip was a lot lower than Julia’s, but she wasn’t surprised. It seemed that only Peridale natives really understood how things worked. They would talk about the topic until they had discussed and speculated every minuscule detail, and then something new would come along and the cycle would begin again. Luckily for Julia, her customers didn’t know her involvement in the solving of the case so her name was left completely out of the story. It was information she was more than happy to keep to herself because she knew if she corrected anybody on their facts, she would become part of the story, and by the time it worked its way around the village, it would have been changed and chopped so much, it would be a completely fictional version of events by the time it made its way back to her.
When the lunchtime rush was over, Dot marched into the café, in her usual new uniform of neon workout clothes. Today she was wearing luminous pink Lycra leggings, a toxic shade of green tracksuit jacket zipped up to her chin, with a matching sweatband covering her forehead. Today, however, she didn’t have the usual steely glare of determination she usually had when she was wearing her uniform. She looked completely rundown.
“Cup of tea when you’re ready,” Dot mumbled as she collapsed into the chair nearest the counter, sweat dripping down her red face. “What’s that brown cake in the display?”
“My latest chocolate cake creation,” Julia said. “Want a slice?”
“Contaminants,” Dot mumbled like a parrot that had swallowed a fitness dictionary. “Calories.”
Julia dropped a teabag into a small teapot. As she filled it up with hot water, she looked at her gran, who was staring at the cake display case like a zombie staring at fr
esh brains. Her tongue poked out of her mouth and ran along her thin lips. Julia glanced to Jessie, who was also watching. Jessie rolled her eyes and opened the display case, pulling out the large cake.
“Are you sure you don’t want some, Dot?” Jessie asked, waving the cake under her nose. “It’s Julia’s best work yet. A milk chocolate sponge with chocolate fudge buttercream, topped off with flaked chocolate that just melts in your mouth.”
“Get it away from me!” she cried, fear rushing across her face.
Jessie rolled her eyes and placed the cake onto the counter. She grabbed the teapot Julia had just made up and positioned it in front of Dot, along with a teacup, a pot of milk, and sugar. Dot added the milk, but ignored her usual three sugar cubes.
“Why won’t this thing stop vibrating?” Dot cried, shaking her wrist against her ear. “All night and all day. Beeping and booping at me! Telling me to breathe, and stand, and walk, and measuring my heart rate like a demonic doctor obsessed with my blood pressure.”
“Just take it off,” Julia offered.
“I can’t!” Dot said with a shake of her head. “Do you know how much this thing cost? A whole month’s pension, that’s how much!”
“You’re crazy,” Jessie whispered. “Absolutely nuts.”
Dot lifted the cup of tea to her lips with shaking fingers, but her eyes were firmly honed in on the chocolate cake. Julia had made the new version that morning to surprise Barker with, but she had decided to put it up for sale in the café first, and she was only taking home the leftovers so that Barker couldn’t complain that she was trying to fatten him up.
“Here it goes again!” Dot cried as her watch beeped. “It’s telling me to breathe! I am breathing! Does it think I’m dead? Tell it to stop, Julia!”
“Leave my gran alone,” Julia teased, pointing a finger at the watch. “Or else.”
“Do you think this is a joke?” Dot yelled, scratching at her skin under the watch. “It’s taken over!”
“Isn’t the whole point of a club that you spend time with people you like and do something fun?” Julia asked. “This doesn’t look much fun, Gran. You’re sitting here on your own shouting at a watch.”