by Agatha Frost
“She must have known something,” Jessie spoke up as she traced her finger across the grooves in one of the gold-framed oil paintings hung on the wall. “It’s obvious. She must have figured it out and confronted the strangler.”
“Makes sense,” Dot echoed. “The girl is right. But how did she figure it out?”
“Maybe she knew something we haven’t found out yet?” Jessie added, her finger tracing the indentations of a large oak tree. “She must see a lot of stuff.”
“Maybe,” Julia wondered aloud, suddenly contemplating that Hilary might have held something back during their cookie confessional.
“One of you is keeping a secret,” Barker cried, slapping his hands against the side of his head. “One of you lied in your interview!”
Julia looked at Theo and Dawn, who were keeping their affair secret, Casper and Heather, who were keeping their money woes secret, and Bella and Conrad, whose entire relationship was a sham. She landed on Ethan, wondering if he was the one Brown who had been honest.
“None of you?” Barker cried, looking at each of them. “You’ve got nothing to say? C’mon, guys. I usually can’t get a word in edgeways when you’re all in the same bloody room!”
A vein in Barker’s neck popped out, his breathing deepening as his skin turned purple. Julia rested a hand on his shoulder, hoping it would calm him.
“Boss,” DS Christie called from the archway, his phone clenched against his shoulder. “Chief is on the phone. He seems to have the impression we’re keeping hostages up here. Dozens of calls have been coming in.”
Conrad and Bella’s eyes darted down to the coffee table, and they edged in closer to each other.
“Hostages?” Barker muttered, his face twisting up. “What hostages?”
“It’s them!” Jessie cried, pointing at the young couple. “They’ve been blasting the whole thing on social media. Thousands have seen it!”
“We were scared,” Bella mumbled. “We thought you were going to frame us.”
“Why would I frame you?” Barker cried, his hands on his hips. “Jesus, Bella! You are so stupid sometimes, do you realise that?”
Bella’s jaw dropped, as did Dawn’s and Heather’s. It only took a couple of seconds for Bella to burst into tears and run out of the room. Conrad stood up to leave, but Jessie pushed him back into his seat with a shake of her head.
“Leave her,” she said. “I’ll go.”
It was Dot’s turn to drop her jaw. She looked at Julia for an explanation, but all Julia could offer was a shrug. How could she explain that Jessie was turning from a girl into a woman before their very eyes?
“I can’t do this anymore,” Barker said, staring blankly off into the corner of the room. “I’m done. Kill each other for all I care.”
Barker walked out of the room, his heavy head dropped low. Julia wanted to rush after him, but it was Dot’s turn to shake her head.
“Leave him,” Dot said with a calm smile. “He might say something he regrets. Give the man some space.”
Julia forced herself to stay exactly where she was, despite every fibre of her being telling her to run after the man she loved.
“Are none of you going to be honest?” she asked, taking Barker’s place. “You all know you’re lying to him about something.”
Once again, all eyes drifted to the floor, including Ethan’s. Julia almost pushed it, a big part of her wanting to call out each of them on their deceptions. For the sake of not starting World War Three and stacking up more bodies, she bit hard on her tongue, inhaled calmly, and turned to her gran.
“Can you keep checking in with Dad to see how Hilary is doing?” Julia asked. “I want to know the second she wakes up. She might have seen something.”
“If she wakes up,” Conrad whispered, his eyes vacant and teary. “Why did I come here?”
Just like Bella before him, Conrad ran out of the room in tears.
“Unbelievable,” Theo muttered, stepping forward for the first time since entering the room. “The sooner they break up, the better.”
Theo followed Conrad out of the room while shaking his head. Heather and Casper also took it as their invitation to flee without being ordered to sit. The couple hobbled out arm in arm faster than Julia had seen them move before. Ethan also wasted no time leaving his wife’s side, his face ghostly pale.
“I think another cup of tea is in order,” Dot announced. “Or maybe coffee? I need some matchsticks to hold open my eyes.”
Julia turned and looked at the clock on the mantelpiece. She could not believe it was only just approaching two in the morning. She turned back to Dawn, surprised she was the only one not to flee. She attempted to smile at Julia, but her wobbling bottom lip took over; she could not hold back her tears.
Murder investigation or not, Julia was still human. She swooped to Dawn’s side, wrapped her arm around her, and pulled the grieving woman against her chest.
“My son,” she cried, tears flooding from her clenched eyes. “My only child.”
Julia let Dawn cry until she could not cry anymore. She watched the clock strike two, and then pass it. By quarter past, Dawn could finally sit up straight, tear-streaked and nose runny.
“He was a troubled boy,” she choked out as she wiped her nose with her sleeve before tucking her strawberry blonde hair behind her ears. “He was always the same way. Manipulative, even as a child. He could run rings around anyone to get what he wanted. I always told him he would cross someone the wrong way one day, I just never expected it to end up like this.”
“Do you have any idea who could have done it?” Julia asked carefully, not wanting to push Dawn over the edge again.
“If I did, you’d have another body on your hands.”
Dawn’s expression suddenly soured, her eyes turning steely for a brief moment. Julia was wise enough to believe her threat.
“That letter,” Julia said, resting a hand on Dawn’s knee as her foot tapped impulsively on the floor. “What was it about?”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Dawn said, looking up at the ceiling as though trying not to cry again. “It has nothing to do with this.”
“It might.”
“You’re suddenly an expert about my family?” she scoffed, turning to Julia with an even sourer expression. “Who are you, Julia? You’ve known Barker for five minutes, and you’re trying to push your way into this family when you’re not wanted.”
“Believe me when I say I’m not trying to push myself into your family,” Julia said, her bitter tone matching Dawn’s. “From what you’ve all shown me, I’m sorry I invited any of you to this party.”
Julia regretted the words the moment they left her mouth. The dead silence that followed told her Dawn was just as surprised to hear them as Julia had been to say them. Both women joined each other in looking sheepishly down at the floor, as fragile as one another.
“I’m sorry,” Dawn said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“Neither should I.”
“Shouldn’t you?” Dawn forced a dry laugh. “You’re right. We are a mess. We have been for years. Dysfunctional isn’t even the word. I could try and explain everything to you, but we’d still be here long after sunrise.”
“Why don’t you start with the letter?”
“I told you, it’s not connected,” Dawn said, her words harsh for a moment before her expression softened. “It’s sensitive. I shouldn’t be telling you. Nobody knows.”
“If it’s not connected, I won’t breathe a word,” Julia promised, resisting the urge to cross her fingers. “You can trust me.”
Dawn reached into her pocket, pulling out the letter. She had taped it back together from when Jessie had ripped it in half. Julia thought she was going to hand it over for her to read, but she clung to it, keeping it closed. The inky pen had bled through the paper, but Julia could not make out any of the backwards words.
“It’s a suicide note,” she croaked, swallowing hard. “Left by my husband, Ethan.”
<
br /> Julia looked down at the note, and then up at Dawn. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She shook her head, letting Dawn know she did not understand.
“I found him two weeks ago in our bathroom with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bottle of pills in the other,” she whispered, glancing at the archway. “He’d left this on his pillow in the middle of the night. I usually sleep right through, but I woke up needing the bathroom. I read the note, and I realised what he was going to do, and then I heard him crying. He couldn’t go through with it.”
Julia thought back to the attractive couple in the designer clothes she had seen step off the train only days previously; it felt like a lifetime ago somehow. She was finding it difficult to comprehend that Ethan would want to do such a thing.
“I never would have known,” Julia whispered, her eyes trained on the letter as her heart pumped. “I’m so sorry.”
“How would you?” Dawn asked. “He’s good at hiding it. He’s always suffered badly with his mental health, but he refuses help at every turn. I’ve tried over the years, but it’s like putting a blanket on someone constantly on fire. It’s an illness, we just can’t see it. After reading this letter, I almost understand why he went that far. I haven’t been able to look at him the same since reading it.”
“What does it say?”
Dawn opened the letter and parted her lips as though she was going to read it aloud. She paused, tears welling up in her blue eyes. She snapped the letter shut before handing it carefully over to Julia, who accepted it like a fragile artefact.
“Julia?” Dot called from the door. “Your dad called. It’s about Hilary.”
Dawn immediately snatched the letter back, crammed it in her pocket, and jumped up. She blinked hard at Julia as though she was disgusted she had shared so much. Julia wanted to protest, but Dawn ran out of the room, pushing past Dot as she went.
“How rude!” Dot cried as she dusted down her blouse. “Grief is not an excuse to have no manners.”
“What is it, Gran?” Julia asked, the disappointment at not reading the letter swelling up inside her. “How’s Hilary?”
“She’s been rushed into emergency surgery,” Dot said, the house phone clutched in her hand. “She’s alive, for now, but her skull is cracked. Brian said something about relieving pressure on her brain, and then he got all technical. You know what I’m like with medical mumbo-jumbo. I want to know if it can be cured, or if it’ll kill me, and everything else is the stuff in-between.”
“So, she’s not going to be able to tell us if she was pushed, or if she fell,” Julia said, dropping her head into her hands. “I have no idea who did this, Gran. Nothing makes any sense.”
“Do you know what you need?”
“What?” Julia asked, looking up hopefully at her gran. “Tell me.”
“A nice cup of tea,” Dot said, jerking her head for Julia to follow her back into the kitchen. “And I mean a proper cup of strong tea with milk and sugar. None of that peppermint and liquorice modern drivel that you like."
For once, Julia agreed with her gran. She stood up and followed her into the kitchen without another word.
12
Julia felt substantially better after her tea break with her gran, who had made sure to chatter about every piece of idle village gossip she could summon rather than rattle on about what was happening around them. She left Dot to wash up in the kitchen, her mind more alert thanks to the caffeine from the tea.
She walked across the marble entrance hall to her father’s study. After knocking softly on the door, she cracked it open, disappointed to see DS Christie alone.
“No Barker?” she asked, disturbing him from his notes.
“He stormed out the front door.” He leaned back in his chair, tossing the pen on the table. “I might follow him. I’ve got the chief breathing down my neck now. Wants an update on what’s going on, but what do I tell him? He thinks I should arrest them all one by one and book them until one starts talking, and even then we’d have to drive them out to a station with space.”
“You can rule Casper out,” Julia offered, closing the door behind her. “And Heather, at least for Luke’s murder. They were together in their bedroom when it happened. Casper admitted to visiting Luke, but almost an hour before he was discovered. You’ll find out those footprints were his.”
“How do you know he didn’t just strangle him and leave him there?”
“Aside from the time of death being later in the day, Conrad visited him, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, rubbing his eyes, his brows high up his head. “It’s been a long night. Have you confirmed the visit?”
“Conrad confessed everything,” Julia said, taking the seat on the other side of the desk, the endless bookshelves lining the room swallowing her up. “Bella knows about the affair too.”
“That’s a motive at least,” he said, picking up his pen again to scribble something down. “Killed her cousin as an act of revenge.”
“The affair had been going on for months, and Bella knew from the beginning,” Julia said, tilting her head to look at the notes. “It’s complicated, but I think you can rule them both out.”
“That just leaves Dawn, Theo, and Ethan,” he said, sitting up a little straighter and writing a little faster. “Heather and Bella aren’t exactly in the clear, but if you have a hunch?”
“I don’t think Dawn did it, for what it’s worth,” Julia said, leaning forward. “Although I have no proof. She’s not accounted for during either incident.”
“Did you notice that Dawn came out of Theo’s bedroom after Hilary was pushed?” DS Christie asked with a dry smirk. “After I realised their noses were different, it was the first thing I noticed. She quickly stepped to Ethan’s side, but she came out of his twin’s bedroom. Do you think something is going on there?”
“I saw them kissing,” Julia offered. “I don’t think Conrad and Luke were the only ones having an affair. There’s something going on there, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.”
“Imagine cheating on your husband with his identical brother,” DS Christie said, the pen in the corner of his mouth. “I don’t see the point.”
“They’re quite different.”
“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “Ethan is a bit wet. I know his son’s just died, but he needs to man up.”
Julia suddenly stood up, everything Dawn had told her heavy on her mind.
“That kind of talk helps no one,” Julia said, as calmly as she could. “Just because he’s a man, it doesn’t mean he has to pretend everything is okay all the time.”
“I didn’t mean –”
“I know exactly what you meant, DS Christie,” Julia said, turning and walking back to the door. “Take it from me, Luke’s death isn’t the only thing weighing on that man’s mind.”
“What else is there?”
Julia considered opening up if only to make him regret his comments, but she had promised Dawn she would not mention it to anyone if she did not think it was important to the case.
“It’s private,” Julia said. “If he wanted you to know, he would have told you in his interview.”
Leaving DS Christie to his notes, Julia slipped out of the room. She strode into the middle of the entrance hall, and spun on the spot, wondering where Barker could be. Deciding to take up the detective sergeant’s tip-off, Julia slipped past the officer on the front door, who had changed since her meeting with Conrad, and into the freezing air.
The cold hit her like a brick. Every hair on her body rose up, letting her know it was wrong to be out there. She immediately began to shiver, her teeth clattering together loudly, as though she had just jumped into a lake on Christmas Day.
“You might want a coat, miss,” the officer said, already taking off his own. “It’s a chilly night.”
Julia was too cold to protest. She accepted the coat gratefully before stepping off the doorstep onto the gravel. Katie’s pink Range Rover and her father’s b
lack BMW were parked where they had left them. Two police cars had been parked sloppily behind, and Julia’s was where she had skidded to a halt at the opening of the lane. When she saw a shadow moving behind the wheel, she set off towards her little vintage car.
Julia climbed into the passenger seat, not saying a word to Barker. She rested her head on the headrest, rolled to face him, and smiled. She was warmed even more than by the coat when he returned it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, crossing his arms and staring out of the window. “What is it they say about not being able to choose your family? Was I too hard on them?”
“Considering what’s happened, no,” Julia said. “DS Christie said your boss wants to start arresting them to scare one of them into confessing, and the way things are currently going, I can’t say I would blame him.”
“Some birthday, huh?”
“I’m sorry.”
“This isn’t your fault, Julia,” Barker reminded her, taking her by surprise by grabbing her cold hand. “You were trying to do something nice, like you always do. You’re an amazing woman who got my family together for the first time in three years. Granted, maybe it should have waited another thirty years, but you pulled off the impossible.”
“And look how amazing it turned out,” she joked, forcing a laugh. “Your birthday cake is still in the boot.”
“My chocolate cake?”
“That was a decoy,” she admitted. “I made you something more special.”
Barker pulled on the door handle and jumped out. He looked into the car as though waiting for Julia to follow him.
“There’s cake in the boot,” Barker said. “What are you waiting for?”
Julia followed Barker to the back of the car. She popped open the boot expecting the cake to be entirely destroyed, so she was pleasantly surprised to see the cardboard box still in one piece, if not a little battered thanks to her reckless driving on the way there. Julia peeled back the cardboard lid, a smile taking over her face when she saw that the cake was exactly how she had left it.