by S. Y. Robins
Milly pondered the case all day, often messing up orders because she was so preoccupied. She told herself to stop being such a ditz, this was her business she was jeopardizing, but she just couldn’t stay focused. The thought of Callum being questioned, or worse, locked away in a jail cell made her heart squeeze so tight it actually hurt. Placing a hand over her heart she tried to smile as Mrs. Anderson from up the hill came into the shop with news.
“Callum’s been released, Milly. He’ll be fine. Apparently the scratches and the tear were from an argument he had with Maria last night. He broke it off and she didn’t take kindly to it. It’s about time, if you ask me, that girl was nothing but trouble for him. Callum’s far too lovely a lad to be messing about with a strumpet like that. The girl can barely keep her knickers covered most of the time!” Mrs. Anderson spoke with a combination of disgust and happiness that Callum had finally grown tired of Maria’s antics.
Milly couldn’t hold back a smile of her own but hoped that Mrs. Anderson would take it as happiness that Callum was out of jail, not that he’d broken it off with Maria. Milly put a hand to her throat, hoping it hid how her pulse jumped with excitement, and offered Mrs. Anderson a cup of tea. The older lady had two grown sons that lived with her and often came down in the afternoons to chat with Milly. Milly wondered what Mrs. Anderson would think of her if she could see the naughty cream cakes she had waiting in the kitchen, and had to smother a snort as Mrs. Anderson walked over to point out the cake she wanted with her tea.
“Thank you for letting me know, Mrs. Anderson, here’s your tea and cake. I’m so relieved Callum has been released. But who are they looking at now?” She wondered aloud.
“That Jimmie Eckols, no doubt. The man’s an absolute menace. I told Davina she needed to get rid of him but she wouldn’t listen. Now he’s done her in and no doubt he’ll get away with it.” Mrs. Anderson said with a stern shake of her head before taking a sip of her tea.
Milly had to agree and hoped she’d see Callum before the day finished, but she somehow doubted she would. She couldn’t help but smile again though, at the thought of Callum being free, in more ways than one, finally.
2
Milly walked along the hills behind her home, enjoying the way the wind tugged her loose hair around her head when she made it to the top. She thought she must look like a ghostly witch when she was up here like this, and giggled at the thought of someone seeing her. For the last week now, she’d been letting Davina’s two tiny terriers have a run before she started her own day. She’d taken the dogs in when none of the other villagers wanted to take on the task and though Edgar wasn’t happy about it, she enjoyed the many walks she’d had to take the dogs on to keep them happy. She’d have to find somewhere else for the two excitable dogs however; Edgar was showing his unhappiness in some rather distasteful ways.
Watching the dogs ramble and play ahead of her, Milly knew in her heart that Davina had to be dead. She’d never run off and leave her dogs for this long. No body had been found yet, but Milly expected there would be sooner or later. The woman simply loved her dogs far too much to abandon them like this. Milly smiled sadly as she remembered how Davina had held birthday parties for each of the dogs over the last three years, inviting guests and expecting them to bring presents for little Daisy and Mildred. Davina even decorated her house for the parties with streamers and balloons! No, she’d have never abandoned her precious companions like that, Milly was certain Davina wasn’t in the land of the living anymore.
Heading back to the shop when the dogs finally began to show signs of being tired; their idea of a sign being to flop down on Milly’s feet until she turned around, Milly looked around, hoping but dreading a sign that Davina may have been left somewhere on the hills. Milly did not want to be the one who found Davina but knew she might be. She kept her mobile with her, just in case. Lifting a foot and gently nudging Daisy away, Milly headed back to the village and her shop, hoping the sun held out and kept the fog at bay for the day.
The chime over the shop door sang out, and Milly stepped out of the kitchen and onto the shop floor to see to whoever had come in. She slowed down as she saw it was the detectives, and that they were standing behind her counter, pilfering through her paperwork back there. Anger surged through her and she may have spoken more harshly than she meant to when she finally calmed down enough to speak.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get out from there, at once!” She may have also shooed them out and glared at them. Maybe.
“We’re just looking over your diary. Where were you the night Davina disappeared?” The female detective asked.
“I was here, as usual. The shop is open six days a week. Then I go upstairs, have my tea, and prepare for the next day.” Milly spoke shortly, not wanting to leave any room for doubt.
“Then why did we find your tea mug in the shop?” The woman asked, as if she was going to shock Milly with the question.
Milly looked down her nose at the woman, though the woman was taller than she, and said, “Likely because Davina was always pilfering my mugs. Once a month or so I’d have to go over and collect them from her and bring them back. She always swore she’d bring the mugs back herself but she never did. I eventually stopped asking and would just go over and get them when my stock of mugs started to run low.”
“Oh,” the woman said and seemed to deflate. Then she perked back up again. “So that means you had access to the store?”
“No, not at all. I’d go over when Davina was in, never after hours.” Again, Milly’s responses were short and quick. The odious little woman wasn’t going to get the best of her!
“Right then. Well, do you know where we can find Jimmie Eckols by any chance? We’ve not been able to locate him.” The male detective asked Milly, with a kind smile and less attitude than the woman was giving. Milly glared at the woman, thinking that the cow must be out to prove something but Milly wasn’t going to be her proving grounds today.
“I expect you’ll find him where you find most men from the village in the evenings, down the pub. Look there. Now, if you have no other questions, I expect I’ll be having customers soon and I need to replenish my stock. Good day.” Milly held her hand out, inviting the detectives to leave with a tight smile. She’d done nothing wrong, but the woman had rubbed her wrong from the start of it and her response was to be less than helpful. The female detective should learn from that.
Two hours later, Mrs. Locke came in with her two young sons to treat them to some of Milly’s iced buns and a cup of chocolate. Milly served them their order then went back to the table she’d been occupying, going over her accounts while it was quiet. She knew if she sat there long enough quietly, that Mrs. Locke would fill the silence as the boys ate quietly. She didn’t have to wait long.
“Have you heard about Jimmie Eckols then?” The woman asked, a tone of secrecy in her voice.
Milly looked up from her work with a smile, pleased that she’d been right. “No, I haven’t, what’s happened to him then?”
“He’s been nicked! They think he did Davina in!” The other woman replied in a loud whisper, talking away from her sons, as if that would keep them from hearing her words.
“No! Why would they think that?” Milly asked leadingly. She might know all of the gossip in town but she never actually spread any of it. She simply waited and listened, people usually told her one way or another.
“Well, apparently Davina had another bloke on the side, didn’t tell anyone like. There was talk up the pub that Jimmie said he was going to make Davina pay when he found out about it. She disappeared the next day.” The expression on Mrs. Locke’s face told Milly she was supposed to take this to mean that it was a fact Jimmie had killed Davina.
Milly thought Mrs. Locke could very well be right, but something she’d spotted at the shop kept plaguing her. She couldn’t remember exactly what it was, no matter how often she went over the scene in her mind. Milly was still pondering it when Mrs. Locke’s friend Mrs
. Chesterfield came in.
“Have you heard the news?” Mrs. Chesterfield asked as she came rushing in to sit in the chair opposite Mrs. Locke.
“Yes, Jimmy Eckols has been arrested.” Mrs. Locke said with a grim face.
“No! Well, yes, but there’s more! It wasn’t him, wasn’t him at all! He told the police that yes, he’d made those threats and that he had gone home totally bladdered, but he went straight home. He didn’t see Davina at all that night or the next day. Seems she did indeed break it off with him but he didn’t kill her for it.” Mrs. Chesterfield told her friend rather smugly, pleased she’d had information Mrs. Locke hadn’t.
“How did he prove that then?” Mrs. Locke asked, a bit miffed she hadn’t gotten the information first.
“Well, my Larry, who works over at the cop shop you know, heard they’d released him when they found his security camera footage. He got sick of those hoodies breaking his windows and stealing his post; you remember when they started that last summer? Well, Jimmie got sick of that and put a stop to it when he put those cameras up. He’s been running them every night since, and they recorded him going in but not coming out until late the next morning, well after Callum had Milly phone emergency services.” Mrs. Chesterfield said, preening as if she’d solved the case.
Milly tried to control the urge to roll her eyes and listened quietly, head down in her accounts, even pretending to write a few things as she listened. Hmmm, the new boyfriend then, she thought to herself. But who was he? She wondered. Milly had no idea who the other boyfriend could possibly be. She’d gone through the list of men she knew Davina knew and couldn’t come up with one Davina would have wasted any time on. Then there was that question forming at the back of her mind, what had she forgotten?
3
Two weeks later and Milly was no closer to remembering, or to finding out who had killed Davina. Milly made herself step back from it all finally because she was getting too worked up about the situation. Davina had been a good friend, someone to have a chat and a laugh with, but she hadn’t known all of the woman’s secrets. The fact that the murder had happened next door to Milly’s shop and home plagued her and did not help her to sleep at night either. She was becoming far too wrapped up in the event, however, and it was starting to impact the shop. She’d put four rather obscenely decorated cream cakes out this morning, all in a row, and the vicar had glared at her sternly before storming out of the shop. Her morning routine had not stopped, but her careful inspection of the cakes was becoming faulty. She had to step back and take a break from the case.
The shop was closed on Sundays and she’d planned to spend this one combing the hills, seeing if she could find Davina’s remains. Alright, it wasn’t really taking a step back but it was getting her out of the shop and her apartment, at least, and getting her exercise and fresh air. That’s all she needed, a momentary break with the dogs and Edgar.
Looking over at the black cat as she put her boots on, she saw Edgar perk up and run towards the dogs. Edgar had grown used to the dogs, under protest, and had slowly come to enjoy going out to walk with them. Milly wasn’t sure if Edgar had noted their excitement when she put her boots on and copied it for attention or if he’d simply figured out going for walks was nice, but she was now often seen with two dogs and a cat trailing along behind her. Everyone in the village that saw the spectacle thought it was an endearing sight and they’d watch as Milly walked by, head in the air, pudgy little arms pumping, with two dogs and a black cat, all with tails up, following along behind her happily. Some of the villagers even noticed that Milly wasn’t as pudgy as she used to be, so maybe the dogs and the exercise wasn’t so bad for her. They all secretly decided amongst themselves that she needed to keep the dogs; they were doing her some good.
Milly had always been a quiet person and shy around men. She never gossiped, they noted, but she always seemed to know what was going on. She kept a pleasant shop, caused no problems, and was never out of line. None of them had ever seen her take a drink, though she’d never spoken out about alcohol, so they assumed if she drank she did it secretly. She could be seen at functions and at pubs so that wasn’t the problem either, they supposed. No, Milly wasn’t a stodgy person; she just seemed to have something lacking in the younger generations now, a self-respect and sense of purpose that so many were missing now. Milly gained a lot of respect for that from the older villagers, even if it meant the younger ones called her an old maid because she still had never had a boyfriend. Some of the younger ones even whispered she might like her own kind more than the male kind, but nobody knew for sure. Milly was far too private and talk usually didn’t last long anyway. Milly was respected in her community and that was usually enough to put a stop to most talk.
Walking up to the hills now, Milly decided to head over towards the stone circle first, then head in the direction of the barn Mr. Carpenter usually met his conquest at. She’d noticed he hadn’t been going out for his morning routine lately and wondered if he’d perhaps lost his ladylove to a younger man. Going up the hill soon took her mind off of Mr. Carpenter, as the slope of the hill made her body work harder, but she kept her eyes in constant movement, searching for anything that might have signalled Davina was near.
There’d been talk in the beginning of doing a search for the poor woman but, as the detectives reminded them, there was no guarantee she’d be found, or that she was even dead. The reports on the evidence found at the scene suggested Davina had been injured but not that she was dead. The detectives had even pointed out that this may be a case of insurance fraud because they’d not been able to track down the other man in Davina’s life and now suspected he may have been a figment of Davina’s imagination. Milly doubted this and had finally determined that if nobody else was going to look on the hills for the woman then she was.
The day was overcast and grey, but Milly didn’t mind. A bit of chill to the air made the walk more enjoyable for her, and knowing she wasn’t going to get sunburned was an added bonus. The atmosphere also matched her mood, she thought, as she made it to the top of the hill. She could see from here that there was nothing at the stone circle and carried on in the direction of the barn. She started to talk to her pets as she ambled, directing them to follow her or to stop gnawing at rocks.
“Mildred, do put that stick down and stop smacking Edgar in the head with it. He will claw you, you know?” She warned the playful dog. Edgar may have enjoyed the walks but he still took exception to Mildred’s habit of hitting him with sticks. Mildred thought it was a game but Edgar did not. As she walked, Milly considered whether Davina had named Mildred after her. Her name was actually Millicena but Davina did not know that, so perhaps Davina hadn’t named a dog after her?
Milly called Edgar as he ran off towards the barn, circling in front of a door barely clinging to rusty old hinges. She knew something must be important there but couldn’t see anything out of the way as she looked in through the door. The barn was entirely empty, nothing jumped out at her as a clue, and she turned away, wanting to know where the dogs were. She saw that Daisy now had Mildred’s stick and was running away with it, straight towards the edge of a rock face where the ground simply disappeared. She dismissed the barn and carried on after Daisy, calling to the hyper creature to come back to her. These dogs were going to give her a heart attack!
Three days later, Milly knew she wasn’t going to find Davina on foot. Her feet were now soaking in a hot bowl of salt water and she had a warm blanket wrapped around her shoulders. All three of the animals were asleep on the couch beside the rocking chair she occupied, snoring away in peace. She’d crossed the entire village in her spare time before opening and after closing the shop and had even crossed into other villages. She’d been to the quarry, through forests, looked in abandoned houses, and had come up empty handed. There was nothing out there to find unless you counted the evidence of teenage parties in some of the abandoned houses.
Milly now sat in her house with sore muscles, blistere
d feet, and an aching head. She had nowhere else to look. Milly perked up a bit when she heard noises coming from the rooms across from her own. The walls weren’t exactly thin in the apartment next to hers, Davina’s apartment, but she knew moving furniture around could produce a lot of noise. Fright made her heartbeat increase and her blood pound, but she dried her feet off to hobble over to the wall and put her ear to it.
Milly had to smother a yelp as something knocked against the wall on the other side and she stood back, away from it. Even Edgar, Daisy, and Mildred reacted with Mildred going so far as to give a half-hearted bark. Milly looked down at Mildred and asked her what she’d do if the person next door responded. Mildred responded with a comical growl and a twist of her head.
Milly didn’t believe in ghosts but something was happening over there. Either Davina had come home or someone was in her apartment. Excitement warred with fear in Milly’s brain and she had to control the urge to run over and greet her friend. Milly reminded herself to act rationally and remember that Davina couldn’t possibly be alive; if she was and had just abandoned these puppies like this she was going to be so cross. She decided to sneak out to the patio that ran along the back of the two apartments and see if she could see who was inside. If it was Davina she’d knock, if it wasn’t, she decided she’d make up her mind about what to do when she got to that point. Bracing herself, taking several deep breaths, Milly reached for the door handle, meaning to push the sliding door across. She couldn’t make herself do it, however, and ran back to the couch and hugged Edgar close as the dogs stretched up to lick her face. What if it was a ghost?