by Agatha Frost
Julia almost felt bad for always viewing Amy Clark as the old lady who liked to wear colours associated with newborn babies. She had seemed like an old lady for as long as Julia had known her, and Julia had never even considered that she had lived a life before that.
“Did Gertrude have any other children after William?”
“Gertrude?” Amy laughed. “Impossible! By the time Frank left, she was already too old. Why do you think that?”
“I don’t, I was just checking to make sure my theory was correct,” Julia said, glancing over to Barker, who was sitting on the edge of his seat staring curiously at her. “What about Frank? Is there any way he got one of the women he was having an affair with pregnant?”
“One of the women?” Amy said with an amused smile. “There was only ever one. Martha Tyler. She was Gertrude’s only friend, but Gertrude treated her as badly as she treated Frank. She was younger and prettier than Gertrude. She must have noticed her husband had an eye for another woman. Martha and Frank fell madly in love. Martha confided in me that she was going to run away with Frank and start a new life. I encouraged it. I saw how Gertrude treated Frank. Their marriage had been dead for years before the divorce. Separate bedrooms, you know what I’m saying. Gertrude couldn’t handle being left for another woman, even if she had caused it herself, so she spread the rumour that Frank had been cheating on her with multiple women. That became the truth. It was easier to admit that he had been unfaithful, rather than admit that he had fallen in love with somebody who appreciated him.”
“So Frank and Martha married?” Julia asked.
“That’s the strange thing,” Amy said, tapping her finger against her chin. “They never made it down the aisle. Before they ran away with each other, Martha called things off and vanished. Frank was devastated but he didn't stay with Gertrude. He left Peridale and he eventually met somebody else. I never met Frank’s new wife, but he seemed happy. He would fill me in on details of his new life with his annual Christmas cards, but they trailed off eventually. I didn’t see him again until his open casket at his funeral. I feel like I’m the only one left from the old gang.”
“And Martha?” Julia urged. “What happened to her?”
“That’s another strange thing,” Amy said, looking off wistfully into the corner of the room. “About a month ago, Martha turned up in Peridale. She visited me at my cottage and it was as though no time had passed. She even looked the same, just older. Her hair was as black as it had always been. I was always so jealous of it. She told me she was dying, and she wanted to make peace with the village before she left. She died a week later and I went to the funeral, but I didn’t recognise anybody there. I asked Gertrude if she wanted to come, but she refused to even say Martha’s name, so I went alone. The blackmail started the day after the funeral.”
Julia’s mind was buzzing, and the theory her dreams had pushed forward had only been strengthened with Amy’s new information.
“Well that was useless,” Barker said as he walked her back through the station. “Just an old lady reminiscing about the good old days.”
“Yes,” Julia agreed, biting her tongue. “Will she be released?”
“We’ve got twenty-four hours to charge her, but with that alibi, it doesn’t look like we can. Is there anything else I can do for you, or can I get back to my job?”
“There’s one thing, actually,” Julia said. “If I wanted to see if a person had been reported missing, how would I go about that?”
“You want to report a missing person?” Barker asked.
“No, I want to see if somebody else has,” Julia said as she reached into her handbag to pull out her notepad. “A girl in her late teens.”
She ripped off the page where she had written down everything she knew about Jessie.
“Is this connected to the case?” Barker asked as he skim read the information.
“No, but it’s important to me,” Julia said. “Is there anything you can do?”
Barker folded the small piece of paper and pocketed it, giving Julia his word that he would check the missing persons database and get back to her with what he found.
“By the way, William Smith’s car is parked in my space next to the café,” Julia said as she left. “You might want to get somebody to move it.”
Julia quickly drove home, leaving her car outside her cottage. She hurried down to her café, which had been closed an hour after opening time. A small crowd had gathered outside, and they cheered when Julia pushed through them to unlock the door. She told them a lie about waking up late and quickly fastened her apron around her waist, and got to work.
When her sister appeared during a quiet period after the lunchtime rush to pick up a vanilla slice and a cappuccino, Julia pulled her into the kitchen.
“I need three blank invitations for your birthday party tomorrow night,” Julia whispered quickly. “I’m going to need them to figure out who killed Gertrude and William Smith.”
After work on Thursday, Julia put a box of cakes, along with a blanket and a note for Jessie in the stone yard behind her café. On Friday morning, she was happy to see that her café hadn’t been broken into and the box, blanket and note were gone.
A little after opening, her first customer of the day was Barker Brown. He ordered a shot of espresso and two slices of toast and sat at the table nearest the counter.
“Amy Clark was released last night,” Barker said as he tucked into his golden buttery toast. “Back to square one.”
“Not quite square one,” Julia said, hovering behind the counter and focusing on wiping away something that wasn’t there. “Did you find anything about the missing girl?”
“Jessie?” Barker mumbled through a mouthful of toast as he pulled a folded sheet of paper from his pocket. “Or should I say, Jessika Rice. Sixteen years old, been in the care system her whole life. She has a criminal record longer than my arm. Breaking and entering, theft, resisting arrest, breaching the peace, you name it, this girl has done it. She was reported missing after disappearing from her thirteenth foster home, taking two hundred quid with her on the way. She sounds like a piece of work.”
Julia took the paper from Barker and scanned over it. She wasn’t too bothered about the long list of crimes, but she was happy to see that Jessie had been honest about her name. That told Julia more about the girl, who she couldn’t believe was only sixteen, than any files on a computer would.
“Thank you, Detective Inspector,” Julia said, slipping the paper into the pocket of her pale yellow dress. “I really appreciate it.”
“Friend of yours?”
“Not yet.”
Barker tossed back his espresso, licked the butter from his fingers and left. He gave Julia another vague warning of staying out of trouble, to which she waved her hand. Julia wasn’t alone for long before Roxy Carter walked into the café, looking much better than the last time Julia had seen her.
“On the house,” Julia said as she set a latte and a chocolate brownie in front of her.
Roxy smiled appreciatively and took a bite of the brownie. She closed her eyes and licked the chocolate from her lips, as what looked like intense pleasure washed across her face.
“I thought I would never taste your brownies again,” Roxy said. “I don’t know what I was thinking running away.”
“Have you spoken to the police?”
“The new DI came around this morning,” Roxy said. “Brown, or something. Quite handsome. Have you met him?”
“I have,” Julia said, wondering if there was anybody in the village who didn’t find Barker handsome. “Have you spoken to Violet yet?”
“Only on the phone. I’m going to see her next, but I needed some caffeine for courage. I don’t even know where to begin apologising to her, for dragging her into this, and then running away. All it took was a good night’s sleep to see how foolish I was.”
Julia pulled two of the three envelopes from her pocket and placed them next to Roxy’s plate.
/> “Invitations to Sue’s birthday party tonight,” Julia said. “One for you, and one for Violet.”
“I’m not sure I’m up to it,” Roxy said, assessing the invitations with caution. “Rachel told me about it, but I don’t know if I can show my face.”
“The sooner you do, the sooner people will get the gossiping out of their systems and move on,” Julia said. “Besides, it’s a good place to debut your new relationship. It’s better to do it now while there’s plenty of other gossip floating around. People will hardly notice.”
Roxy thanked her and pocketed the invitations. Julia hurried back into her kitchen, exhaling a huge sigh of relief that her plan was working. She pulled out her notepad and flipped to the list of notes she had made last night. She crossed off Roxy and Violet’s names and circled Imogen’s, having already decided she wanted to drop that invitation off herself.
Julia spent the rest of the day rushed off her feet struggling to keep up with the amount of customers coming through the door. News of Sue’s party had spread, and the people with invitations were expressing their excitement, and the people without were either asking Julia for permission, or inviting themselves. Julia knew the gallery could hold as many people that were going to turn up, and if her plan worked, the more people in the village to witness things, the better. She didn’t want there to be any wiggle room on the facts when it was all over.
Julia pulled up outside of Imogen’s white and glass house, and peered through the windows. She could see Imogen sitting in her silk robe, watching television. Julia wondered if word of the party had spread this far out into the village yet.
With her invitation in hand, Julia walked up to the house and pressed the doorbell. When Imogen answered the door, she looked less pleased to see Julia than the last time she had been there.
“I hope this won’t take long,” Imogen said. “My show is about to start.”
“I just wanted to drop this by,” Julia said, passing Imogen the envelope. “An invitation to Sue’s birthday party tonight. I know it’s short notice, but I know she would love to see you there.”
“Tonight?” Imogen said with a wrinkle of her nose as she brushed her fading red hair out of her face. “I’m not sure I’m very much up to it, Julia. I heard Roxy was back, but she hasn’t been in touch. Sometimes I wonder if those girls know the truth about where they came from. They’ve been growing further and further away from me recently.”
“I’m sure they’re just busy with everything else that has been going on,” Julia said reassuringly. “Roxy told me herself she wanted to see you at the party.”
Julia felt bad telling a white lie, but Imogen’s face lit up. She looked down at her robe and sighed heavily, before tossing her head back and nodding.
“Fine!” Imogen cried, waving her hands. “But I need to start getting ready right this minute if I’m going to be anywhere near presentable for the party!”
Julia left Imogen to pamper herself, and she went back to her own cottage and did the same. She changed out of her pale yellow dress, which was full of coffee stains and flour, and she slipped into a simple black dress, in her usual flared 1940s style. She spent more time than usual sorting her hair out, creating a victory roll in the front and pinning the curls up in the back. Berry red lipstick, black mascara and rose-tinted blusher completed the look, along with her mother’s understated diamond earrings and necklace; the only things Julia had inherited, aside from her baking skills.
After slipping into some uncomfortable black heels that Sue had bought her two years ago, she stepped in front of the floor length mirror, which she usually rushed by in the mornings, her appearance being the least of her worries.
Julia caught herself off guard. She barely recognised the woman staring back at her. Gone was the café owner who loved to bake, and in walked a striking woman. Everybody always said Julia looked like her mother’s twin. She had never seen it much herself, until she was looking at herself done up in the mirror. The last time she had put this much effort in to her appearance had been Sue’s wedding, almost ten years ago.
Pleased with her efforts, Julia hurried downstairs, fed Mowgli, and headed for the door. On her drive down the winding lane towards the village, she spotted Detective Inspector Brown sitting on a rusty, wrought iron bench under his living room window reading some papers. To her surprise, he looked up when he heard her car’s old rattling engine, and he stood up. Julia slowed down and pulled up next to his car.
“Julia, you look -,” Barker mumbled as she got out of the car. “New dress?”
“Just something I had in the back of the wardrobe,” she said. “Nice tuxedo.”
“Your sister invited me to her birthday party tonight, so I thought I would make an effort.”
“She did?” Julia said through almost gritted teeth.
“She was quite insistent.”
“That’s my sister, alright,” Julia said, wondering why she hadn’t seen her sister’s meddling coming. “Reading anything interesting?”
“Case notes,” he said regretfully. “Trying to see if there’s anything I’ve missed, but it’s all just a blur. Half of me wants to stay in tonight and go over everything, but I know the break will give my brain a chance to recharge, and it will be a good chance to meet some more of the locals.”
Julia thought back to the man who had arrived in Peridale almost a week ago, and she couldn’t imagine that same man having any interest in meeting the local residents. It seemed more than just Julia’s double chocolate fudge cake that had softened his edges. Even with the double homicide case to contest with, she knew not many could resist being sucked into village life.
“Well, I’ll see you there,” Julia said, turning back to her car. “I promised Sue I would help put the finishing touches to the party.”
“Want to go together?” Barker asked suddenly. “If I stay here, I’ll only keep reading the same sentence I’ve been reading for the past twenty minutes, plus, knotting balloons is a special talent. We’ll take my car. I don’t trust the look of yours.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my Ford Anglia!” Julia said, stroking the bonnet. “She’s vintage.”
“She’s something.”
Barker pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his car. Julia picked up a pile of paperwork on top of the seat and tossed it into the back. As she did, the file flipped open, and her eyes honed in on the police report made by Rachel Carter yesterday at the station. Something in the first sentence caught her eye, so she grabbed it and screwed it up into her fist before Barker saw.
With the paper clenched tightly in her fist, they drove to the gallery, and Barker’s side-glances to her didn’t go unnoticed. She was glad she was wearing makeup, or he might have noticed her face burning up as she concealed a smile.
It turned out Julia and Barker weren’t needed at all to help get things ready for the party. When they walked into the gallery, everything was as it should be. Sue and her husband, Neil, were sipping champagne, along with Dot. They all turned and spotted Julia at the same time, and she detected their eyes widening when they noticed who she was accompanied by.
“This place looks amazing,” Julia said as she looked around at the bunting and balloons decorating the white spaces between the art. “You’ve done a really lovely job.”
“I took the day off work,” Sue said as she leaned in for a kiss. “You look amazing, Julia.”
“Doesn’t Julia look beautiful, Detective Inspector?” Dot asked, casting her champagne flute in Julia’s direction.
Julia wanted the ground to swallow her up, and she could feel Barker wishing the same. Her Gran was many things, but subtle wasn’t one of them.
“She does,” Barker agreed, scratching at the side of his head. “Any more of that champagne?”
“This way, mate,” Neil said, wrapping his arm around Barker’s shoulders. “You like football?”
Neil and Barker walked off towards the food and drink table, leaving Julia with her s
ister and Gran. She fixed her attention on an abstract painting of what she thought was St. Peter’s Church from the village, hoping they wouldn’t interrogate her.
“Tell me everything!” Sue squealed. “I knew you two would hit it off! I knew it!”
“Thanks for the heads up on his invite,” Julia whispered. “And there’s nothing to tell. I was driving past his cottage and he suggested we take the same car. I thought you would need an extra pair of hands to help with the decorations.”
Sue rolled her eyes, clearly not believing Julia. Even Julia wasn’t sure if she believed herself. She glanced over to Barker, and the flutter in her stomach was too strong to be ignored.
“I never thought he could look more handsome, but that tuxedo has proved me wrong,” Dot whispered, before sipping her champagne.
“I hadn’t noticed,” Julia said, hearing the lie in her voice. “How long before people arrive?”
“About fifteen minutes?” Sue said. “Gran, why don’t you go and grab Julia some champagne?”