by Rebecca Tope
But still, she had wandered off, and stayed undiscovered for three days or more. And still, nobody seemed to have any clear idea as to where she had been, or why. Even Rosa, with her badger-culling theories, had no actual evidence.
‘Poor Juliet,’ she sighed, yet again. ‘What a dreadful thing.’ She cut up fruit and made apple sauce, with her thoughts turning darker by the minute.
The others got back at one-forty, happy and hungry. The outing had gone even better than hoped, with Stephanie the most inspired by the weird things she had seen. ‘The house was absolutely full,’ she marvelled. ‘Things hanging from the ceiling, and on hundreds of shelves, and squashed into corners. It’s fantastic.’
‘It certainly is unusual,’ confirmed Den. ‘I’m glad to have seen it.’
‘We were first in the queue,’ Timmy boasted. ‘And we talked to lots of people.’
‘That’s good,’ said Thea. ‘Now, everybody go and wash hands or whatever, and be back here in five minutes. The meat’s waiting for you.’
They obeyed with alacrity, and from then on, seven people enjoyed a classic Sunday roast, with only minor glitches. The gravy was too thin and the apple sauce tasted burnt. The fruit salad needed cream or something, which Thea was unable to provide. Meredith extruded most of the meat, after valiantly chewing it for a long time. Everybody laughed.
Once it was all finished, and the men were washing up, Maggs and the children went out into the garden for half an hour, before the Coopers had to depart. Thea followed them. It seemed to her that there was still a lot to resolve.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she began. ‘And it seems to me it wouldn’t be such a disaster if we sold the North Staverton house, as well as the business – ideally all as a package. You’d be free of it, and we’d have a nice injection of cash.’
‘That’s what I said to Drew.’ Maggs met Thea’s eyes with an open, frank expression. ‘But I don’t think he likes the idea.’
‘It would be a wrench for him, I know. But he must know he can’t ever go back. I’m starting to think you’ve done us a favour. We needed a kick in the pants to make us realise we’ve been prevaricating.’
‘He was so happy there, when I first knew him.’ Maggs spoke in a low voice, not wanting Drew’s children to hear her. ‘So much has changed since then.’
‘Yes,’ said Thea.
‘But it won’t be easy.’ Maggs seemed keen to emphasise the point. ‘He hasn’t any friends here, and it’s not exactly his sort of place. In Somerset, people are much more on his wavelength. They don’t care about the ethics of the business here, do they?’
‘Some do.’ Thea felt defensive. ‘They’re not all rich City traders using the Cotswolds as a playground, you know.’
‘But there are enough of that type to create an atmosphere. It’s lucky he’s so easy-going. People like him, which is good. I’m not saying it’s doomed to failure, but it looks fragile to me.’
‘It’s not. We’ve been here nearly a year now, and everything’s gone pretty much as we hoped. The worst part is this house. It’s completely wrong for the business. But we’re working it out, and nobody’s complained. They’re all remarkably patient, in fact.’ She shook her head. ‘I don’t understand your point. You’ve given us almost no choice but to stay here and concentrate on building it up as our sole source of income. Why are you trying to undermine it?’
‘I’m not. I’m just having trouble letting go, I guess. It’s as hard for me as it is for Drew. You don’t really get it – how much we’ve come through together. Ten years, nearly. That Greta woman has a lot to answer for, leaving him this place.’
‘I think that every day,’ Thea agreed. ‘But I must say I’m glad it was her and not me that’s to blame. And without her, I never would have met him. She meant well.’
‘Yeah. But she changed the course of history, just by dying when she did. I can’t pretend to be glad about that.’
‘Oh, Maggs.’ Thea reached out a hand, and laid it on Maggs’s bare forearm. ‘It hasn’t run smoothly, has it? And quite a bit of that really is my fault. We abandoned you, in reality. And you’ve done fantastically well, all on your own. It just came as such a shock to think of you giving it all up.’
‘I know. I feel as if I’ve done something violent and scary. But exciting as well. We’re lucky to have some options. We’re in the perfect place for that, at least. It might not last – thousands of new houses are being built not far away, for one thing. It’s going to be like Shaftesbury in Dorset. A very nice little town, wrecked by ghastly soulless new houses popping up on every field. That feels like a threat. Den’s settled at the airport, and the money’s reasonably good. My dad’s got an annuity thing that’s going to be better than he thought. He’s promised to give me an allowance that would let me stay at home with another baby.’
‘Wow! You never said anything about that.’
‘It’s a bit embarrassing, I suppose. Makes me feel like a dependent child. But my folks are very special people, and they’re so thrilled to have grandchildren, they’ll do anything to help.’
‘You are lucky,’ Thea agreed. ‘I hope it works out for you.’ Maggs had been adopted as a young baby by a Plymouth couple already over forty. They had made an excellent job of raising their dark-skinned daughter, and when Meredith was born, they uprooted themselves and moved to a nearby town in Somerset.
‘And you,’ said Maggs. ‘It feels like a crisis now, but you’ve got the summer ahead and, as far as I can see, life isn’t so very different for you than it was before.’
Thea bristled at that. What about all that shopping and cooking and listening to endless anecdotes about school, and having to be polite and forbearing with funeral people, and trying to get a footing in Broad Campden as permanent residents? ‘As far as I can see, the only thing that’s the same is Hepzie,’ she said stiffly.
‘What about all these murders, and that detective woman, and knowing your way around about fifty small villages? You’re still in the middle of all the big events, being used as a sort of local spy or police informer. I mean – there you were, doing just that, when we arrived on Friday. Nothing had changed. Drew thinks the same,’ she finished with a flash of triumph.
‘He doesn’t like it,’ Thea acknowledged. ‘But Den understands. He says I should try and get onto the payroll. With the police. As some sort of consultant. I am useful, if I say so myself.’
‘I’m sure you are. So who killed this poor Juliet person, then?’
‘I honestly have no idea. I still don’t know exactly how it was done – whether it had to be someone very strong, or if anybody could have done it. It feels as if it must have been a man, but that’s probably a dangerous assumption. The thing is, so many people knew her. Not that it was necessarily somebody she knew, of course. If she walked into some criminal goings-on, she might have been killed to keep her quiet. And then …’
‘Stop!’ Maggs ordered her. ‘I don’t want to hear all that. But I can see how involved you are. I bet it’s all you’ve been thinking about since yesterday morning. I bet you’re itching to go out there and ask all sorts of questions.’ Maggs narrowed her eyes. ‘What did you do this morning when we were out? You never said.’
‘I went for a walk down to the burial field.’
‘Aha! The scene of the crime, near enough. And did you talk to anybody?’
‘Okay. Point taken,’ said Thea, dodging that particular question. ‘Now it must be time for you to start loading up the car.’
Stephanie and Timmy had taken Meredith to a corner of the small garden, and the three were sitting solemnly on the grass, searching for daisies. Stephanie had created a starry tiara, which she placed on the toddler’s head. Meredith reached up and pulled at it, but Timmy restrained her. ‘Oh Lord,’ groaned Maggs. ‘They’ve made her into a princess. After all I said, from the moment she was born – no pink and no princesses. And now look.’
Thea just laughed. A minute later they were all back in the house
, Den carrying armfuls of baby equipment out to the car.
Thea was distracted by Maggs’s accusations, which she had not been able to deny. It had not quite felt like a reproach, but she wondered whether Maggs believed that Drew was suffering in some way, as a result of his new wife’s tendencies. Did Drew himself believe that?
She had said nothing about Adam Rogers or Lawrence Biddulph over lunch, and was unsure about telling Drew, even when the visitors had gone. He had enough to contend with, processing Maggs’s announcement, and coming to the inevitable conclusion that Thea and Maggs had already reached. And Thea herself had some thinking to do, also thanks to their visitors. Maggs had put into stark words the essential facts as to where Thea’s priorities lay. The truth could not be denied – she was at her happiest when helping Gladwin in a murder investigation. She understood that she had frequently acted as a link in a tenuous chain between the individuals centred on the crime and the forces of the law intent on unearthing the facts. Often it happened by accident, or coincidence, but it happened all the same. Everything Maggs had said was right – it was in Thea Slocombe’s nature to be nosy, intrusive and sometimes outrageous. She said things you were not supposed to say, and thereby provoked a cascade of events that quite often helped the police identify their killer.
Drew had known this from the first. He had witnessed it at close quarters, when he himself was the object of police attention. But he had not willingly shared in it on subsequent occasions. Even when he was at Thea’s side during the discovery of a victim, he had kept a large part of himself separate. Now he had his children here under the same roof, in the same part of the country, with no prospect of escape back to Somerset, even if only for a weekend. Because he was going to have to sell Peaceful Repose. And that might wreak some unwelcome changes.
Chapter Fifteen
The house seemed quiet and empty without the Coopers. ‘Meredith is so sweet,’ sighed Stephanie, more than once.
‘I think Den’s great,’ enthused Timmy.
‘They’re good friends,’ Drew agreed. ‘Our best friends.’
Our only friends, thought Thea glumly. And that was likely to change, with the distance separating them, and Maggs’s abandonment of the funeral business. ‘We ought to make more effort to find friends here,’ she said.
‘That’s right,’ said Drew, far too heartily. ‘Now, have you two got any homework that hasn’t been done yet?’
He spent the next hour going through reading books; listening to Stephanie explain the latest system for dividing one large figure by another large figure; and congratulating Timmy on his amazing ability to list all the kings and queens of England, like any Victorian schoolboy. ‘Where did you learn that?’ Drew asked.
‘Horrible Histories,’ was the unexpected reply. ‘They made a song of it, ages ago. Everybody knows it.’
‘I’m impressed,’ said Drew. ‘The telly still has something to offer, then. Do you want to watch something now for a bit?’
They shrugged compliantly, so he left them to it, and joined Thea in the kitchen, where she was vaguely trying to restore some order.
‘Hello,’ she said, without really looking at him. ‘All quiet in there?’
‘Homework accomplished, and television on. Nobody’s going to want much supper after that magnificent lunch.’
‘Especially as it was so much later than usual.’ She did look at him then, and was startled at the weariness on his face. ‘Gosh, Drew! You look exhausted. I suppose it has been quite a long day.’ She herself felt oddly fired up and energetic, restlessly wishing she could get out of the house for a while. It was still broad daylight, not much past five and pleasantly warm. ‘Do you think we could go for a quick stroll down to the field with the dog, and leave the kids for ten minutes?’
‘And risk having them taken into care?’ He grinned to indicate a lack of seriousness. ‘Why not?’
‘We’d still have Hepzie. And we could probably visit them at weekends.’
‘Come on, then. I’ll go and tell them.’
‘Great.’ She heard him saying, with deliberate carelessness, ‘Thea and I are popping out for a few minutes. Don’t burn the house down, okay?’ He came back to Thea. ‘I’m not sure they even heard me. Timmy looks half-asleep.’
They turned right at the gate and were soon in the field at the end of the lane, where she had walked with Den the day before. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked. ‘You’ve had a lot to deal with since Friday.’
‘I don’t know. I feel numb. And a bit scared. It’s as if I accidentally climbed onto a rollercoaster that’s much too adult for me, and now I can only cling on to the sides and hope for the best. I don’t feel very grown-up, that’s the trouble.’ He gave her a shy little smile. ‘I’ve always thought Maggs was infinitely more mature than me.’
‘You’re wrong. You’re completely mature. Look how you deal with people so calmly and capably. If anybody’s immature, it’s me.’
‘Oh, well, it’s not a competition.’ He sighed.
‘There you are!’ she said. ‘That’s a very grown-up thing to say.’
He was silent, as they walked to the corner and turned back. They could see part of the house from where they were. ‘No sign of any smoke,’ she reported.
‘What?’
‘The kids. They haven’t set the house on fire yet.’
‘Oh. Listen, Thea—’ he burst out. ‘We’re going to have to get serious, you know. This business with Maggs isn’t going to go away. We’ve got to make some real decisions.’
‘I know we have. But it doesn’t have to be instant. And it might not be as hard as you think.’ She bit back the blithe announcement as to the obvious solution that was on her tongue. She understood that it had to come from Drew himself, that he was the one it most affected. ‘You haven’t had time to think about it properly. But the fact is, we’re here now, and it’s going well enough, and everything’s settled. You like it here, don’t you?’
He stopped walking and turned to face her. ‘Not as much as you do,’ he said in a low voice. ‘You like being on the rollercoaster. For me, it’s mostly just scary.’
‘Oh, Drew,’ she said. Fear rose from the pit of her stomach to her throat. Fear that she had got everything wrong, that the future was dark and difficult, that nobody liked her and nothing at all was settled. ‘Don’t say that,’ she pleaded. ‘You didn’t feel like this before Friday, did you? Not until Maggs threw a bomb at you. You’re just shocked, that’s all.’
‘I don’t know.’ He sighed again. ‘And it doesn’t much matter, does it? I can’t go back to before Friday, now everything’s changed. I can’t just sit back and let events take their course. I have to decide things. And that’s what scares me.’
‘And now you’ve got me scared as well.’ She couldn’t hide the hint of reproach. Somewhere she felt he was deliberately spoiling things, less than a year after they’d thought they’d got everything organised for the best.
‘Sorry.’ He took her hand. ‘We’ll be all right, though. Just so long as we can talk to each other properly, and say what we’re really feeling and thinking. We’re a team, my love, whatever happens.’
Guiltily, she remembered Clovis Biddulph and her wanton reaction to him. Would she ever succeed in telling Drew about that? And would it even be a good idea? ‘That’s right,’ she agreed, with all the emphasis she could muster. ‘You and me against the world. It’s all going to turn out fine.’
They smiled into each other’s eyes, and remembered the heady days of a year ago.
Two hours later, after a minimal evening meal, Thea supervised bath time and all the Sunday evening preparations for a new school week. She read stories and gave fond goodnight kisses, leaving Drew with a rare bottle of beer downstairs. When she joined him on the sofa, it was with flutters of anxiety still in her midriff.
‘We ought to be thankful, you know,’ she began. ‘I met a man this morning who has far more reason to be gloomy than we have.’
He
looked up, his head appearing almost too heavy for his neck. Every movement seemed imbued with effort. ‘Did you?’
‘His name is Adam Rogers, and he was Juliet Wilson’s boyfriend. Or so he said. I don’t know how serious it was. He’s obviously got some of the same learning difficulties as she had. He’s big and soft.’
‘And sad, presumably.’
‘Sort of. I imagine it hadn’t really hit him yet. He was in the burial field.’
Drew stiffened. ‘What?’
‘He’d gone to see the place where she died. He’s got a kind of electronic tag so his house parents can keep track of him. He seemed to like it.’ Her eyes grew wide. ‘Isn’t that awful!’
‘I don’t know. Is it?’
‘It’s demeaning. Treating him like a dog.’
‘It sounds to me as if it gives him more freedom than he might have otherwise. Gives him an alibi as well,’ he added casually. ‘They’d know if he was the murderer, wouldn’t they?’
She stared at him. ‘That never even crossed my mind. At least—’
‘I expect it did. You think more about Gladwin and her murders than anything else, after all.’
The fact that there was no hint of accusation in his tone made it all the harder to hear. ‘I do not,’ she protested. ‘What a thing to say!’