by Issy Brooke
“Exactly, and maybe that’s why the police haven’t seen it.”
“Well,” Francine said, “there’s no point in going to the police with this information.”
“I wish Cath was here!” Penny said in frustration. “She’d listen to me. She’d understand. But… she’s away. We are stuck with Inspector Travis. No offence.”
“Yeah, none taken. Bill would be no help at all. No,” Francine said with a determined air. “We’ve got to do this by ourselves.”
“I want to confront them,” Penny said. “There is a chance I am wrong, of course.”
“But if you are correct, you don’t want to be confronting them on your own,” Francine pointed out.
“Ah, yes. So, I need to confront them in a public place. Somewhere busy.”
Francine grinned. “Somewhere that everyone will be. It’s obvious.”
“Tomorrow night, at the bonfire.”
Francine’s eyes were gleaming with excitement. “Exactly.”
“Oh, but what about Drew? This is an official date, remember. It was the deadline you guys imposed on me. This is it. Do or die, and all that.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing,” Francine said firmly. “It will all work out. Let’s plan.”
Penny felt uneasy and nervous, but Francine was oozing confidence.
* * * *
Penny stood alone in her bedroom. It was five o’clock on Saturday, and the fireworks display at the town’s bonfire celebrations was due to start at seven.
And she was to meet Drew at half past six.
She looked at her camera. She had charged the battery but she knew that she was going to leave it at home.
She was focussed on her date.
In spite of Francine’s scheming, Penny had some doubts about the plans for the grand revelation that night. It was quite likely that not everyone would turn up.
She’d been thinking about Drew all day. Now that the hour was approaching, she felt like a silly girl again. Her stomach was fluttering and she had caught herself listening to sappy love songs on the radio. Usually she would have re-tuned to another station instantly, but not today. It was strange how the body changed with age, but emotions really did not.
She stared at herself in the full length mirror. Luckily the bedroom’s main light had a dimmer switch, and with it turned down halfway to cast an atmospheric gloom, she looked almost alluring. Expensive underwear with rigid and clever construction certainly helped.
The clothes and make-up that Francine had picked out for her were scattered on the bed. Kali lay on the carpet alongside the bed, her head resting on her outstretched paws, looking up at Penny curiously.
“Tonight,” she told the dog, “I’m going to spend some time with a man that I like very much.”
Kali blinked lazily.
“And maybe,” she added, “he will walk me home.”
Kali’s eyes flickered.
“And if he comes in for a coffee, you can stay downstairs in your basket and pretend like it’s an everyday occurrence.”
Kali didn’t move.
“Of course, it will only be actual coffee that he comes in for,” she said reflectively. “Slowly, slowly. I’m too old for impulsive bed-hopping.”
She began to get dressed. “On the other hand, at my age, maybe I shouldn’t waste time.”
* * * *
It was one of those perfect, crisp late-autumn nights. The sky was clear and black. The light pollution from the street lights of Upper Glenfield was minimal, and she could see more stars than she ever had in the city of London. The clear sky meant freezing temperatures, though. There was certain to be a frost that night.
Drew had been talking excitedly about sloes when she had spoken to him earlier in the day. Apparently, the frost would “blet” them which made them ideal for picking. A vast quantity of sloe gin would soon be marinating in various bottles around his cottage, pickling ready for Christmas.
She walked quietly along River Street. Her thick, fake-fur-lined boots had rubber soles and she’d invested in some of those small hand-warmers, too. Once the square pads were pulled out of the plastic packaging, they heated up automatically, and stayed warm for hours. She had one tucked in each pocket, and two spare as well.
The chill gave the air a peaceful stillness and even the rumble of the infrequently passing cars seemed muted. She turned right and began to walk past the churchyard. The dark yew at the end of the circular wall loomed over the road and though she had not a hint of superstitious thought in daylight, everything changed at night, and she shivered as she passed the sinister tree.
Although the main event was the public bonfire, lots of individuals and families were setting off fireworks from their back gardens. After all, there weren’t many times in the year that people were allowed to buy fireworks, so it was a free-for-all when the window of opportunity opened and the small booths began appearing in supermarkets in the middle of October.
This meant that certain irresponsible types were setting off fireworks with abandon. She stopped and stared as, for a few minutes of chaos, the sky above a street a few hundred yards away turned purple and red with an absolute explosion of sparks and lights. They must have set off every firework they owned, all at once. Or a spark had dropped into the box. As the whistling and screeching noises died down, it was replaced by the anguished yowling of a cat which had witnessed the display, and was now very confused.
A car roared past, the passenger hanging out of a window holding a sparkler. Penny found herself shaking her head and tutting. She put it from her mind, and continued towards the slipe.
Other people were walking that way, too. She was pleased to see families bringing their children out to see the display. Many of the younger ones had ear-defenders on, which seemed like a sensible precaution. She hoped Wolf had rediscovered his inner child, and come along. Destiny, too, in spite of her protestations.
Penny relaxed. The murder case was to be put far from her mind. Both she and Francine knew, or were at least fairly certain, who had done it. But to orchestrate a showdown this evening was going to be too complicated. It was funny, but when someone was in Francine’s presence, it was so easy to be swept along in her energies and enthusiasms. Once you stepped away from her, common sense reasserted itself.
Penny was just debating whether to pretend to Drew that her hands were very cold, when her phone began to ring. She snatched it out of her pocket immediately.
It wasn’t Drew; but it was her sister, and Penny was glad that she had finally got back in touch.
“Hi, Ari. How are you?” She resolved not to mention their parting argument.
“Awful, it’s awful,” Ariadne said. There was a nightmare cacophony of noise around her. Penny could barely hear her sister speak at all.
“What’s going on? Where are you?” Penny stopped walking and moved to the side of the path as people carried on past her, heading for the display.
“I’m at the dogs’ home,” Ariadne explained. “Some youths have taken over a field not too far away, and they are setting off fireworks. Can’t you hear them? The dogs are going crazy.”
“Oh my goodness! Have you phoned the police?”
“It’s not illegal,” Ariadne said.
Penny thought, that means no, she has not phoned the police. She sighed. “You need to get help,” she said.
“Yes, I know, that’s why I’m calling you.”
“Do you want me to call the police?” Penny asked.
“I want you to come up and help me!”
“Are you on your own?”
“Wolf is here,” Ariadne said. “Destiny is sulking at home, as usual. And that’s it. I’ve been leaving messages with the other staff but no one is picking up. I had volunteered to be on night duty tonight so the usual guy could take his kids to the bonfire in Glenfield, you see. And now … I don’t know what to do. Please come. Just being here, I just need someone, this is awful, can’t you hear them?”
“Ari, I
’m on my way to the bonfire myself.”
“I’m on my own.”
“You have Wolf … Oh, Ari …”
She could hear her sister crying. It was infuriating and also heart-breaking. She knew that Ariadne needed support and it was as if the simple gesture of support was more important to her than the content or effectiveness of the support itself.
Penny was supposed to be helping. If this was the help that Ariadne was requesting, she ought to go to her.
The phone line went dead. All Penny could hear was the echo of her sister’s crying.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” she muttered, and turned around, walking briskly back up the road towards River Street and their cottages.
* * * *
As she grew nearer to Ariadne’s house, her phone vibrated but this time it was a text from Francine.
“Where are you? They are all here!”
Penny didn’t reply at first. She knocked on Ariadne’s front door, and within a few moments, Destiny opened it. She was surprised to see her aunt.
“There’s no time to explain,” Penny said. “Get some warm clothes on. I need your help. Go!”
Destiny did her proud. She looked startled, but she disappeared upstairs while Penny shuffled the papers and magazines on the coffee table until she found a piece of scrap paper and could scribble instructions on it.
Destiny came back down dressed in a sensible collection of layers and scarves. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“Not we. You.”
“Me?”
“I need you. I’m being torn three ways here. I’m supposed to be on a date with Drew.”
Destiny squealed. “Hooray!”
“But your mum is at the dogs’ home with Wolf and she needs me to be there.”
“Oh. Hooroo.”
“Well, quite. So I am going to her. And the final thing is that Francine is at the bonfire, and she is expecting me to be there so we can expose the murderer of Julie Rose.”
“Wow, so you know who did it?”
“We think so. We’re pretty certain. And I know that Francine is going to get carried away and she will plough ahead anyway. I haven’t told her yet that I can’t get there. So you need to go and be there for her.”
“I didn’t want to go to the stupid bonfire,” Destiny said. “It’s for kids. But if I have a mission … yeah, I can do it for that.”
“Here are all the emergency phone numbers you might need. Inspector Bill Travis is at the top. Get him there if you can, especially if you see that Francine is about to make her move.”
“So if she starts to unmask the killer, I phone him?”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. Phone him before she does anything. Just become psychic or something. Stop her, in any way that you can, until I get there. I’ll go and see your mum and then I’ll come down to the bonfire. You just hold the fort until I arrive, okay? Do whatever you need to do.”
“Do you trust me?”
Penny drew herself up tall and straight, and glared at Destiny. “With my life.”
Destiny grew taller too.
Penny pointed at the door. “I need to drive up to the dogs’ home. And you need to run.”
Chapter Eighteen
She drove as quickly as she dared, given the darkness and the potential for ice to be forming on the roads. The dogs’ home lay to the north of Upper Glenfield. It was a collection of low buildings surrounded by fields.
As she approached she could see immediately the problem that Ariadne was having. In a fallow field to one side of the home, there was a bonfire that was blazing away merrily. Against the bright flames, she could see shadowy figures moving around.
Even though she was expecting it, the sudden scream of a rocket launching into the sky made her jump. She slowed down and glared at the revellers, but they were two hundred yards away, and having too much fun to notice her.
When she pulled into the concrete yard, she heard the panicked barking of the dogs before she even opened her car door. She stepped out into a wall of sound. Barks, howls, growls and the most heart-breaking whining that she had ever heard all assailed her ears.
Ariadne loomed out of the darkness. The yard was lit by a few low lights but they tried to keep the area as dark as possible during the night, to help the dogs sleep. The downside was the effect on security, hence the need for a night watchman.
She was holding a torch, and Wolf was at her side.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for coming,” Ariadne gabbled as she ran up to Penny.
Penny knew, in that moment, that she had done the right thing. “Of course. I said I would always be here for you.”
Ariadne flung her arms around Penny and the torch bashed Penny’s back but it didn’t matter. They hugged until Wolf coughed.
“Come on, now,” he muttered.
Penny and Ariadne broke apart with an awkward laugh.
“Right,” Penny said. “First things first…” She had to stop as another barrage of rockets split the air. The dogs increased their barking. When it was quiet, she continued. “First thing, I am going to go and talk to these idiots in that field.”
“You can’t!”
Penny took the torch from Ariadne’s hand. “Stay here with Wolf. I’m going to be calm but fair.”
She turned around and strode along the road, looking for a gap in the hedge so she could get onto the field.
Calm but fair, she thought. No. I’m actually going to be very loud, rather sweary and incredibly angry.
* * * *
“So, that went well,” Penny muttered as she stamped back into the yard around ten minutes later. Her boots were caked in mud and the torch’s battery was dying.
“But I can still hear them setting off fireworks,” Wolf said.
“Yes. I was being sarcastic.” Loud, sweary and angry had not gone very well at all.
“Oh.”
Ariadne was at the far end of the yard, under a pale lamp, talking to someone on her mobile phone.
“Mum’s got through to the centre manager,” Wolf told Penny. “We’ve put blankets and boards up over the runs that are open at the top, so that the dogs can’t see the sky, to try and cut the flashing lights down, but there’s nothing we can do about the noise. Will you come round with me to talk to the nervous dogs?”
“Of course,” Penny said.
Wolf passed her a spray that was supposed to contain pheromones to calm the dogs and they left Ariadne in the yard.
They walked up and down between the runs, talking non-stop to the dogs that were panicking the most. Some of them appreciated being stroked, but some were too terrified and simply cowered at the back.
“It makes me mad,” Wolf said. “I don’t want to go to any fireworks displays ever again, now I know what it does to the animals.”
“Don’t you feel like you’re missing out?” Penny said.
“Not at all. What’s more important?” he asked. “They should be banned.” He spoke with a young person’s fierce certainty about what the world should be like.
Penny watched the panicking dogs and felt she could agree with him.
They got to the end of the final row, and Ariadne met them there. “Lucy is coming up. She says she’ll bring some healing crystals, for what it’s worth.”
“A shotgun might be better. For the idiots setting off the fireworks, obviously,” Penny added hastily.
“Wolf, will you go and make us some hot chocolate?”
“Sure.”
Ariadne passed him the key to the office and he darted away.
“Thank you again for coming,” Ariadne said.
“Stop that. I’ll always come. Look, there’s something I need to tell you. It’s about the murder case.”
Ariadne’s eyes shone in the dim light and she looked warily at Penny. “Oh?”
“I am pretty sure I know who did it.”
Ariadne didn’t say anything.
Penny sighed. “And I know you’re innocent
, you goose.”
“You knew that from the start, didn’t you?”
“Yes, yes, of course. And I am sorry I ever made you feel like you were being doubted. In fact, it’s because of you that I’ve been able to understand why the crime was committed, and from that, I worked out who had done it. So thank you.”
“Who was it? And what are you going to do about it?”
Penny shrugged. “Leave it to the police, obviously.” On an impulse, she pulled out her mobile phone.
She had two missed calls and a text message.
The calls were from Drew and Francine.
The message was from Destiny.
“Francine going in for kill. Travis here. YOU need to be here.”
At that moment, car headlights illuminated the yard. Wolf came out clutching two mugs of hot chocolate.
“I hope Lucy likes hot chocolate,” Penny said. “Sorry, Wolf. I’ve got to go. I’ve got a murderer to catch. Oh, and a boyfriend to meet. Honestly, retirement is awfully busy.”
* * * *
“He will be fine,” Ariadne repeated.
Penny gripped the steering wheel of her car and flattened the accelerator as much as she dared. Ariadne had jumped into the passenger seat just as Penny had begun to leave the dogs’ home.
“I’m not worried about you leaving Wolf there on his own. I think he’s happier there and he needs to be useful. I’m more worried about you leaving Wolf there with Lucy. She’s a bit … well, bonkers.”
“She’s harmless,” Ariadne said. “Anyway, she has crystals. It’s you who need me, now.”
“Er, no. I think you just want to come and watch the showdown.”
“That too.” Ariadne leaned forward and peered through the windscreen as they approached the public bonfire on the slipe. Cars were parked up on either side of the road.
“I’ll go past and park down by the manor,” Penny said.
“Closer to Drew’s house, you mean.”
“Shut up.”
“Oh my goodness! I totally forgot that tonight was supposed to be your hot date with him, wasn’t it?” Ariadne exclaimed.