by Agatha Frost
“I was tempted,” Julia said as she sat next to Izzy. “But no, they’re safe to eat. You’ve got my word, and that means something.”
Izzy accepted the muffins and rested them on her lap. The bravado and feistiness had vanished, leaving behind who Julia suspected Izzy really was; a fish out of water.
“Why are you being nice to me?” Izzy mumbled as she pulled her dressing gown tighter together. “I would have broken my nose by now if I were you.”
“Because we’re women, and we get enough of that from the rest of the world,” Julia explained calmly. “Everyone deserves kindness, and I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt based on what you told me about your sister yesterday. Is it serious?”
Izzy simply nodded, causing the tears to immediately flow. Despite what she had tried to do to her, Julia wrapped an arm around Izzy. She melted into Julia’s side, the sobbing intensifying until she was all cried out.
“She’s only seven,” Izzy said, wiping her nose with the edge of her dressing gown. “Abigail. She had leukaemia when she was four. She fought it better than I would have, but it’s come back. I found out just before I came here for the book launch. My head has been all over the place. I threw myself into my work to distract me. Barker was sweet. I can see why you fell in love with him. He made me feel like he cared, and he probably did, but you’re right. I didn’t care that he was engaged. I just wanted to feel safe for a minute. I could lose my job over this.”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen,” Julia assured her. “But I think you should go home, if only for a little while. Tell your boss the truth. They won’t be heartless, and if they are, they’re not worth working for. If your sister really is a fighter, she’ll beat it again. You’ll see.”
“They caught it early,” Izzy said as she wiped her eyes dry. “She’s a tough cookie. She gives me a run for my money with her mouth. I think I’ve just realised I was avoiding going home because I didn’t want to see her like that. Cancer sucks the life out of you. It makes you look like a shadow.”
“I know,” Julia said, holding back her own tears. “I lost my mother. This was her engagement ring.” Julia held up her left hand, the pearl twinkling in the sunlight. “Your sister will bounce back from this. I know it.”
Izzy nodded and looked down at the muffins. She peeled back the lid and took a bite of one of them, her eyelids fluttering in the way Julia had missed.
“Are you sure they’re gluten free?” Izzy mumbled through a mouthful. “These might be the nicest muffins I’ve ever had. I might need to take your number and have you send me some.”
“Gladly,” Julia said, pulling her business card out of her handbag. “If you ever need to talk to someone who won’t put up with your attitude, call me.”
Izzy smiled as she accepted the card. She took another bite of the muffin as she slipped it into her dressing gown pocket. Knowing her work there was done, Julia stood up and walked to the door. She reached out for the handle, but turned back to Izzy, needing to say one more thing.
“Be kinder to people,” Julia said firmly. “And more importantly, be kinder to yourself.”
Not needing to hear a reply, Julia slipped out of the room and made her way back down the stairs feeling lighter than when she had climbed them. After saying goodbye to Evelyn, Julia left the B&B and set off back to her café. On the way, she stopped outside The Plough when she noticed someone reading the latest copy of The Peridale Post. She had been so distracted by Izzy’s misstep and Dot’s photographs that she had not given much thought to what Johnny had revealed to her.
Knowing Jessie would be okay for another ten minutes, Julia walked into the pub. The weather was beautiful today, meaning most of the residents had opted to sit at the tables in front of the pub. Aside from the usual old men who were always propped up at the bar with their pints, The Plough was empty. Shannon was behind the bar, her attention on her phone. Julia approached and cleared her throat, making Shannon jump.
“Lovely day,” Julia commented as she nodded to the old men she recognised from around the village. “It’s a shame you’re cooped up in here.”
“What?” Shannon muttered, her attention torn between Julia and her phone. “Oh, yes. Sorry, it’s – nothing. What can I get you?”
“I just wanted to see if you were okay considering the current headline on the front of the paper,” Julia said, noticing another copy at the end of the bar. “It must have been a shock to find out like that.”
“The police gathered us to tell us last night,” Shannon said as she tucked her phone into her pocket. “They found out about the leak, so they wanted us to hear it from them first. But yes, it was a shock.”
“I was wondering if I could ask you a question about something you told me at the hospital.”
“Why?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why do you want to ask me a question?” Shannon snapped, her tone sharper than Julia had ever heard it. “What does any of this have to do with you? You keep hassling my family. I heard about what happened at my uncle and auntie’s cottage. I guess your reputation for being a snoop was right.”
“A snoop?” Julia echoed, the label taking her by surprise. “If that’s what people think of me, I can’t help that, but if I ever stick my nose where it’s not wanted, it’s usually for noble reasons. I can assure you, Shannon, I’m not a gossip. I just want to get to the bottom of this mystery as much as you do. Unless you’ve got something to hide, my simple question will probably have a simple answer.”
Shannon stared at Julia, her eyes crinkling at the sides making her look just like Donna. Her expression softened, and she seemed to recognise how sharp her tone had been. Shannon lifted up the end of the bar and nodded for Julia to join her in the back of the pub.
“I forgot what people in this village were like,” Shannon said as she guided Julia down a hallway, only stopping at the foot of the stairs that led up to the flat above the pub. “You say one little thing, and it whips around the village before you’ve even finished your sentence. Shelby has swanned off to Cornwall and left me to run this place. That’s exhausting on its own, so with everything else, I’m reaching my breaking point. Now I’ve got my mum texting me trying to squeeze money out of me, but I just don’t have anything to give her. I’m afraid you’ve caught me on a bad day.”
“You don’t need to apologise. We’ve all been there.”
“What was your question?”
Julia thought back to the picture on her phone and decided it would be better to show her the proof first. She pinched the screen and zoomed in on Donna and Shannon standing outside the church during the 2008 spring fête.
“Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I’m sure you told me you didn’t come back to Peridale after moving to Wales, but according to my gran, the fête happened after you’d already left.” Julia watched Shannon squint at the picture, wondering if Shannon was trying to think up a lie to cover her tracks. “That is you and your mother, isn’t it?”
“We did come back,” Shannon said with a nod. “I guess I just forgot. It was ten years ago, Julia. Mum wanted to get the rest of her stuff. We left in such a hurry, we didn’t have time to pack up everything, so we came back with empty suitcases. We planned to sneak in and sneak out. We’d already caused enough drama by leaving in the first place. Kylie would have swung for us if she’d seen us.”
“Going to the village fête is hardly keeping a low profile.”
“We’d just climbed off the coach and Mum wanted to find somewhere to grab some food,” Shannon said with a forced laugh. “There was a food truck there. I think you can see me holding a hot dog.”
Julia zoomed in, and sure enough, Shannon appeared to be holding a hot dog.
“Did you know this was the same day your grandmother also returned to Peridale?” Julia asked as she slipped her phone into her pocket. “There’s also a photograph of Mabel that was taken a stone’s throw away from where you were with your mother. I suspect it was the d
ay Mabel was murdered.”
“If my grandma was in the village that day, I didn’t see her,” Shannon said, her brows furrowing. “Are you sure that’s when she came back? Have you got the picture with you?”
“No,” Julia said, unsure why she had not taken a photograph of the more important picture. “You’ll just have to take my word for it. If that was the day Mabel was shot, don’t you think it’s a coincidence that you and your mother just happened to be back here?”
Shannon thought about Julia’s words for a moment, and she could almost hear the cogs turning.
“My mother was acting weird that day,” Shannon whispered as she craned her neck to check that no one was waiting to be served at the bar. “We’d been planning to come back a week later, but she received a phone call that morning and rushed us to the station. Her phone rang almost nonstop until we got here.”
“Where did you go after the fête?”
“We went to our old house to get our things,” Shannon explained, her eyes glossing over. “I wanted to go straight to the station, but Mum said she had somewhere to go first. She wouldn’t let me go with her, so I visited one of my old school friends. She was gone for hours, and then she suddenly called me and told me to meet her at the station. She was in a real state and wouldn’t tell me what had happened. I was tired, so we got on the train and went back to Wales. A part of me wanted to stay in Peridale then. Looking back, I should have. I thought I was moving away for the right reasons, but I just didn’t want to leave my mum on her own. Wales was her idea. I think she just picked it out at random. We lived in a tiny council flat with an awful man she met in the pub on our first night there. He was covered in tattoos and collected weird things. He terrified me, to tell you the truth, especially after I heard him talking about – Oh, no! I overheard him telling my mum that he had a gun. He looked like the type. You don’t think – no, she wouldn’t. Would she?”
“What are you suggesting, Shannon?” Julia asked carefully.
Shannon thought carefully again, her lips tracing the words as her mind put the pieces together.
“If my grandma was in Peridale on the same day we rushed back here, what if my mum and gran had arranged to meet and Mum brought that gun with her. But why would she do that? Unless –”
Shannon stopped, her hand lifting up to her mouth. Julia glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were not being listened in on before leaning in closer to Shannon.
“Unless?”
“Months before that whole mess started, Mum borrowed money from my grandma,” Shannon whispered, her hand shaking. “I don’t know how much, but I know it was a lot. My dad lost his job, and the bank was going to take our house if we didn’t get up to date with the mortgage, so Grandma stepped in to help. She said she was doing it for her granddaughters. What if Grandma contacted my mum and arranged to come back from Spain so she could pay her back. I hadn’t told Grandma that we’d moved so she wouldn’t have known we weren’t in Peridale. What if they met up and my mum shot her, so she didn’t have to pay her back?”
Julia processed the information. She wished she had been smart enough to record it if only to write it down word for word in her notepad when she left. Shannon’s theory certainly made sense, but there were still holes in the story that Julia felt were missing an explanation.
“Do you think your mum would be capable of that?”
“Yes,” Shannon said bluntly without needing to take a second to think about it. “Why do you think I moved back here? I was sick and tired of her using me. We didn’t live together for long in Wales, but I couldn’t get rid of her. She cycled through men like pairs of socks, and every time they kicked her out, she ended up on my couch. I was tired of having to explain to my daughter why her grandmother was such a mess. I came here to cut the cord for good, but she followed me back like a bad smell.”
“Do you know what hotel she’s staying in?”
“She’s been kicked out,” Shannon said, pulling her phone from her pocket to show Julia the latest text message. “Look at this. ‘Sleeping on a bench and desperate. Help your mum out, Shannon’. She just doesn’t get it. I don’t want anything to do with her. Kylie has been right about her all along. I picked the wrong side.” The pub door opened, and two customers walked up to the unattended bar. “I need to get back to work. Are you going to tell the police what I’ve just told you?”
“I’d like to speak to Donna first. Let me know if she turns up again, okay?”
Shannon nodded that she would before heading back to the bar. Julia lingered at the foot of the stairs for a moment as she mulled over the overload of new information she had just heard. She pulled out her phone and looked at the picture again. Zooming in on Donna, she wondered if she had a gun concealed in her handbag.
Leaving Shannon to get on with her job, Julia left the pub. The second the sun hit her skin, Julia noticed Barker leaving the station across the road.
“I’ve just been signing some books for the boys,” Barker said as he rubbed his hand. “I think they’re going to flog them online, but you can’t blame them for wanting to make a few quid off their boss. Did you speak to Izzy?”
“I did.”
“Do I need to nip into the B&B to see if Evelyn is cleaning blood off the walls?”
“Not quite,” Julia replied with a chuckle. “We talked like adults, and I think I might have got through to her. If I didn’t, hopefully she’ll come to her own conclusions when she’s ready. I think you’ll need to find a new publicist though. I have a feeling she’s going to need some personal time off for family reasons.”
“What family reasons?” Barker asked, looking at the B&B. “She never mentioned anything was wrong.”
“Sometimes it’s easier to bury your head in the sand,” Julia said, deciding to change the subject before Barker asked her more questions. “Shannon and Donna were in the village on the day of the fête. Shannon seems to think Donna might have snuck a gun in, to murder her mother. She thinks the reason they were both here was because they were meeting up to talk about some money that exchanged hands between them.”
“It checks out,” Barker said as they set off towards the café. “Dot went to the station this morning to show them the photographs, and one of the boys just told me that Mabel did fly from Spain on the day of the fête. Where did Donna get a gun from?”
“Some dodgy boyfriend,” Julia said, her hand eager to scribble down the notes before they left her brain. “It seems Donna has gone AWOL for the time being, but I have a feeling it’s only a matter of time before she turns up.”
She pushed on the door of her full café, surprised to see Evelyn and Amy wearing blindfolds while Jessie fed them small chunks of blueberry muffin.
“Definitely this one,” Amy said as she licked her lips. “Yes, I’m sure. I like this one more.”
“What’s going on?” Julia called out, startling the blindfolded women. “Can’t I leave you alone for half an hour?”
“Blind taste test!” Jessie announced proudly as Evelyn and Amy pulled off their blindfolds. “And eight out of ten customers agree that my muffins are nicer than yours.”
Barker chuckled as he took the seat nearest the counter, his hand reaching for the plate of the obviously artificial blueberry muffin samples on the counter.
“You’re pushing your luck, young lady,” Julia whispered as she passed Jessie on the way to grab her apron. “This isn’t going to end well.”
“I’m just giving the people what they want,” Jessie said with a smug smile. “Face it, cake lady. You can’t stand the thought of people preferring something from a shop over your own baking.”
Leaving Jessie to continue duping the customers, Julia walked into the kitchen and flipped to a new page in her notepad. She scribbled down every detail that had left Shannon’s lips before turning to a fresh page. She wrote ‘Mabel Crump’ in the centre with the intention of compiling a list of suspects around her, but instead, she filled the page with a large quest
ion mark before she snapped the pad shut.
12
Julia rarely closed her café during the day, but that is exactly what she did on Wednesday when it came to the grand opening of Alfie and Billy’s building yard. When the lunchtime rush was out of the way, Julia and Jessie made their way to Mulberry Lane and down the narrow path to the yard.
Alfie and Billy were in front of the double doors attempting to set up a wallpaper pasting table.
“Clip it in!” Alfie cried. “You’re doing it wrong.”
“No, you’re doing it wrong!” Billy shot back. “Just put that thing in –”
The flimsy table collapsed between them. Billy shrugged as Alfie shook his head, both of them clearly exhausted from the amount of work they had had to put in to get the place up to scratch for its re-opening.
“I brought muffins,” Julia said, holding up a bag as she shielded her eyes from the warm sun. “Need a hand, boys?”
Julia set the bag down before popping up the table in a matter of seconds with Jessie’s help. Alfie thanked them both with a smile before throwing a red and white gingham cloth across its paint-splattered surface.
“Did you bring the blueberry muffins?” Billy asked as he peeked into the bag. “Everyone loves them.”
“Julia is being a spoil-sport and made chocolate chip ones,” Jessie said as she walked over to the open double doors to peek inside. “Are you going to show me around, or what?”
Billy abandoned the bag and ran after Jessie as she ventured into the building. Julia popped her head inside, and she was surprised by how much the space had been transformed. The cobwebs and dust had been swept out, and the space had been filled with all the tools and equipment any builder could need.
“I don’t remember it looking so bright,” Julia remarked when she noticed the light streaming in through the tiny windows. “You’ve done an amazing job in such a short space of time.”
“It’s amazing what a little soap and water can do,” Alfie said as he joined Julia in the doorway. “We put every penny we’ve made so far into this, so let’s hope it pays off. We’ve invited every business owner we could contact in the village to let them know that we’re here.”