by Adele Abbott
“Do you really think it will work?”
“It’s worth a try. What do you have to lose?”
“Okay then. Go for it.”
“I’ll take him the next time it’s drum day.”
***
I hadn’t been back at my flat for more than a few minutes when there was a frantic knocking on the door.
“Jill, help! Jill!” I could hear Betty screaming.
What on earth was going on? I opened the door, and she practically fell inside.
“You have to help me, please.”
“What is it? Calm down, tell me what’s wrong.”
“I was in town, shopping. Well, not shopping exactly.”
“Please tell me you weren’t shoplifting again.”
“It was only a handbag.”
“It’s a crime.”
“It was such a lovely blue.”
“What happened?”
“Someone saw me and grabbed my arm. I managed to pull away and made a run for it, but I dropped my purse. It has my credit card and driving license in it.”
“Oh, Betty.”
“The police will be here any minute. They’ll arrest me and throw me in prison forever.”
“I don’t think they’ll do that.”
“But I’ll lose my job if they find out I’ve been stealing.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“You have to help me, please!”
I could hardly throw poor Betty to the lions even if she had attacked me with a jellyfish. I had to do something.
“If I help you, you must promise that you’ll never shoplift again—ever.”
“I promise, Jill. I’ll never take anything ever again. Don’t let them arrest me. I don’t want to lose my job. I don’t want to go to jail.”
“There’s something else you have to promise, too.”
“Anything. You can have my seashell collection if you want.”
“Nothing as drastic as that. I need you to promise that you’ll return all the items you have stolen.”
“But there’s hundreds of them!”
“I know, and you have to return every single one.”
“But it will take ages!”
“Do you promise? Or shall I let the police take you?”
“I promise. I’ll take it all back. I promise.”
“Okay. Go to the main entrance, and wait there until the police arrive.”
“But they’ll arrest me.”
“No they won’t. They’ll want to see your flat to check for stolen goods.”
“But they’ll find all that stuff, and then they’ll lock me up forever and throw away the key.”
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
“But Jill, I’m scared.”
“Betty, do you trust me?”
“I don’t have any choice, do I?”
“All right, off you go.”
She walked slowly towards the main entrance. I turned and hurried to her flat. There were so many things in the spare bedroom, and no possible way I could hide each one of them individually. There had to be something else I could do.
Think, Jill! Think! You don’t have very long.
Then I had a brilliant idea.
The door of the flat opened, and Betty came in followed by two police officers.
“Who are you, madam?” The first officer looked me up and down.
“I’m a friend of Betty’s.”
“Would you step aside, please? We need to take a look around.”
They began to search the flat. They checked the kitchen, the dining room, and then made their way along the corridor and into the first bedroom. But then, where the second bedroom door should have been, there was only a blank wall. Betty stared at it, then stared at me with a puzzled expression. After a while, the police asked me to leave, so I went back to my flat and waited. Half an hour later, there was a knock at the door. It was Betty.
“How did it go?”
“They said because it was my first offence, they would just give me a caution. It won’t go on my record, and I won’t lose my job. Thank you so much, Jill. If they’d found all those things, they’d have thrown the book at me. How did you do it? The room seemed to disappear.”
“You must be imagining things. As far as I could see, they just walked straight past it. They must have decided not to go in the spare bedroom for some reason. You were very lucky.”
Betty looked confused. She was probably beginning to doubt her own sanity.
“No, I’m sure the door disappeared.”
“Let’s go and take a look.”
By the time we both got back to her flat, I’d reversed the ‘hide’ spell. The door was back where it should have been.
“I don’t understand it.” Betty looked thoroughly confused.
“Like I said, Betty, you were very lucky. But now you have to keep your promise. No more shoplifting.”
“Definitely not,” she said.
“And you must return everything you stole.”
“Of course. Everything. I promise.”
Chapter 17
It was quite fitting that it should rain on the day that the colonel’s Will was to be read. We’d attended his funeral only a couple of days earlier; it had rained then too. The reading of the Will was to take place at his house. Kathy was there with Peter. The kids were at school. Mrs Burnbridge greeted everyone at the door, and then busied herself serving tea and coffee.
After a few minutes, we were called into the large dining room. The table had been removed and in its place were rows of seats. The solicitor, a tall, balding man with a bit of a squint, took a seat at the front of the room. After the opening formalities, he proceeded to the main section of the Will.
“The house and grounds are to be sold. Eighty percent of the proceeds will go to Washbridge Dog Rescue. The remaining twenty percent is to be split between Mrs Burnbridge, my faithful housekeeper, and Peter Brooks, my gardener, who although he only recently joined me, has become a good friend.”
I glanced at Peter; he looked shocked. So did Kathy.
“What will we do with the money?” Kathy said, after the proceedings had drawn to a close.
“I know exactly what I’m going to do with it.” Peter sounded so much brighter now. “It seems that whoever I work for, I end up losing my job. I think it’s about time I worked for myself. I’m going to start my own landscaping business.”
Kathy gave him a hug.
“You know the saddest part of all this?” I said. “Ben killed his father because he was worried the colonel was going to change his Will. In fact, by the time of the murder, the colonel had already written Ben out of his Will, and left the majority of his estate to Washbridge Dog Rescue. Even if he’d got away with the murder, Ben still wouldn’t have got a penny.”
***
“It’s her! I’m sure it is!” Amber was adamant.
“Yeah, it’s definitely her.” Pearl agreed.
“It can’t be,” I said.
The three of us were staring at a young woman who was sitting alone in Cuppy C. According to the twins, it was Jethro’s female apprentice. I wasn’t so sure. The woman we’d seen at Aunt Lucy’s, had been wearing overalls and no makeup. This young woman was wearing make-up and was smartly dressed. It was hard for me to believe it was the same person who I’d seen working alongside Jethro, but the twins were adamant.
“Go and ask her, Jill.”
“Why me?”
“We’re busy. We’re needed behind the counter. Go on, please, go and speak to her.”
“Okay, if I must.”
The twins weren’t really working. They were too busy watching me.
“Excuse me,” I said. “Would you mind if I joined you for a moment?”
The young woman shrugged.
“I’m sorry if I’ve mistaken you for someone else, but do you work for Jethro, the gardener?”
“I used to.”
“We saw you the other day. You were a
t my Aunt Lucy’s.”
“Oh, yes. I remember. I’m Maureen.”
“I’m Jill. Look, I’m not asking this for myself. It’s for my cousins over there.” I gestured towards the counter.
Maureen looked over at the twins, who suddenly remembered something they had to do with cakes.
“They were just wondering, are you dating Jethro?”
“Oh gosh, no!” She laughed. “Jethro’s a great guy, but he’s not my type at all.”
“Really?” I would have thought he was anyone’s type. He was certainly my type, given a chance.
“I’m actually waiting for my boyfriend right now,” she said.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise.”
“And anyway, like I said, I don’t actually work for Jethro any more. I quit”
“Why? Was there a problem?”
“Well—yes and no. I mean—it was fine—mostly. I’m interested in gardening, but he wanted me to help him with a calendar he’s producing.”
“What kind of calendar?”
“You know, those horrible ones. The ones with bare chested men on them. It’s not really my thing.”
“Jethro is having his own calendar printed? With photos of himself?”
“Yes, that’s the general idea.”
“And he asked you to help?
“Yes.”
“And you said no?” Was this girl crazy?
“I didn’t want anything to do with it. I told him I just wanted to stick to the gardening. Anyway, we had a bit of an argument, and I quit.” She glanced over to the door. “Tyrone is here.”
I looked around and saw a skinny, spotty young man. He came over and joined Maureen at the table. I thanked her, and made my way back to the counter. The girl was obviously insane. She’d chosen skinny, spotty Tyrone over Jethro. And, what was even worse, she’d turned down the chance to help with his calendar.
I was about to update the twins when it occurred to me that maybe Jethro still needed someone to help him with his calendar? If I remembered correctly, he was due at Aunt Lucy’s today. Maybe, just maybe, I could help him.
The twins were obviously expecting me to tell them what I’d found out from the young woman.
“Sorry,” I said, on my way to the door. “I’ve just remembered something urgent I have to do. I’ll catch up with you two later.”
I was almost at Aunt Lucy’s when I heard footsteps pounding on the pavement behind me. I turned around, and there were the twins.
“Why are you two following me?”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Amber said.
“Tell you what?” I said, all innocent like.
“You know what,” Pearl said. “About Jethro’s calendar.”
“Oh, that. Yeah, I kind of forgot.”
“Kind of forgot?” Amber was still trying to catch her breath. “You mean kind of ran out the shop without telling us.”
“Yeah, that too. How did you find out?”
“We knew you were up to something,” Pearl said. “So we had a quick word with Maureen ourselves, and she told us why she’d quit. It wasn’t difficult to figure out where you were going. We’re not going to miss out on this one.”
“All right then, come on. We’ll all go and see if he needs a hand.”
We’d just arrived at Aunt Lucy’s front door when it burst open, and Lester came charging out. He was red faced, and had a suitcase in his hand.
“Lester? Are you okay?” I said. But he was already half-way down the street. “What’s that all about?”
The twins both shrugged.
Aunt Lucy was in the living room. When she saw us, her face flushed.
“What’s going on, Aunt Lucy?”
“I’d rather not say.”
“Come on, Mum,” Amber said. “We’ve just seen Lester leaving in a huff. And why has he got a suitcase with him?”
“He’s been staying here for a couple of days.”
“So where is he going? And why does he look so angry?”
“Back to his own place, I think. He’s annoyed with me.”
“Why?” Amber pressed.
“I don’t know. You know what men are like.”
“Come on, Mum,” Pearl said. “Something’s happened. You may as well tell us because we’ll find out sooner or later.”
“Okay. I don’t know if you know or not, but Jethro is putting together a calendar.”
“Is he?” I tried to sound surprised.
“We hadn’t heard anything about that,” Amber said.
“He asked if he could pose next to the rose bushes, and I said he could. But then, he said he needed someone to spray water on his chest so it would look as though he was sweating. I said I wouldn’t mind doing it.”
The three of us stared open-mouthed. How come we hadn’t been asked to spray water on Jethro’s gorgeous six-pack? Life was so unfair.
“So anyway,” Aunt Lucy continued. “I didn’t like to let the young man down. It’s obviously a new source of income for him, so—”
“You did it to help him out?” Amber snorted. “Not because you fancied him then?”
“Of course not. Nothing like that.”
“Hmm, likely story.”
“So what happened?”
“That’s when Lester came back from the shops.”
Amber laughed. “Oh dear. Did he catch you spraying water on Jethro’s bare chest?”
“Yes, I’m afraid he did.”
“I shouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “Lester will get over it. He knows that you love him.”
“I hope you’re right.” Aunt Lucy sighed.
“That’s very sad and all,” Pearl said. “But, more importantly, where’s Jethro now, and does he need any more water spraying on him?”
***
When I arrived at the dance studio for the first of my ballroom dancing lessons, I thought I recognised the voice of the man taking the class before mine. He had a sort of French accent. Where did I know that voice from? It was only when the class finished, that I got a proper look at him. It was Maurice Montage!
The last time I’d seen him was when he’d come to my office at Winky’s request, to offer an interior design service. He’d wanted to ‘re-imagine the space’ as he put it. What on earth was he doing giving dancing lessons?
He caught my eye. “Aren’t you the private investigator?”
“That’s right. What are you doing here? Have you given up interior design?”
“Not at all. That’s still my main business, but dancing is a passion of mine. It’s a hobby which provides me with additional income. What brings you here?”
“I’ve booked the crash course.”
“I see. Well I should warn you that it will be very intensive.”
“That’s okay. I’m sure I’ll be able to cope.”
“Have you done much dancing before? It’s Jill, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Err—a little.” None really. “But it was a long time ago. I’m sure I’ll pick it up. I have a great sense of rhythm, and fantastic coordination.”
“That’s good. By the way, did you give any more thought to having your office re-imagined?”
“It’s not really feasible at the moment. Money’s a little tight and business is slow. You know how it is.”
“I do indeed.”
The crash course was one-to-one. Maurice suggested that we start with a waltz, which was apparently the easiest of the dances to learn.
“Left, right, right—no not like that. Don’t put—Ouch! No! Left—follow my—Ouch.”
Thirty minutes later, Maurice was hobbling around.
“How did I do?” I asked, more in hope than expectation.
He rubbed his shin. “I thought you said you’d danced before?”
“It was a long time ago.”
“It must have been. When exactly do you need to get up to speed for?”
“I’ve got plenty of time. It’s—a few days away.”
“Days?”
“You do realise that you only have one more session with me?”
“Will that be enough?
Chapter 18
The next morning, I’d only just eaten breakfast when there was a knock at the door.
“Kathy? Lizzie?”
“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you, Jill?” Kathy frowned.
“Forgotten? Err—no, I haven’t forgotten.”
“Okay then, what haven’t you forgotten?”
“Err—I haven’t forgotten—” And then it came back to me. “That Lizzie is coming to work with me today.”
“Ten out of ten.” Kathy passed me Lizzie’s lunchbox. “I know you said you were going to pick her up, but I thought it might be better if I brought her here. Just in case you forgot.”
“Look, I’ve brought some beanies with me,” Lizzie said. “Mummy said you wouldn’t mind.”
She’d got the zebodile and the donguin with her.
“Great. I’ll really enjoy looking at those all day long.”
“So, you know the plan?” Kathy said.
“The plan?”
“You’ve forgotten already, haven’t you?”
“No. But just remind me anyway.”
“Lizzie’s going to stay with you this morning, and then I’ll pick her up this afternoon when I finish at Ever.”
“Okay, yeah, that’s the plan. I totally remember.”
“Off you go, Lizzie. Mummy’s going to work now.” She gave Lizzie a big sloppy kiss.
“Bye, Mummy! Wave to the beanies.”
Kathy waved to the two Frankensteinesque beanies, and then went on her way.
***
Mrs V’s face lit up when she saw my niece.
“Who’s this little lady?”
“This is my niece. Lizzie, this is Mrs V.”
“That’s a funny name.” Lizzie laughed.
“Well, Lizzie,” Mrs V crouched down to Lizzie’s height. “My name is actually Annabel Versailles.”
“Bear Size? That’s a funny name too.”
“It’s French.”
“Are you French?”
“No.”