by Issy Brooke
“Yes, I’m sorry, it’s all been…”
“Not to worry,” Lucy carried on, breathlessly. “At least we have had your wonderful sister to replace you!”
Ouch.
Ariadne was standing to one side of Lucy, and she smiled broadly. “Hey, Penny, how are things? I haven’t seen you for a few days.”
Penny was grateful that neither woman was clearly going to mention the drugs business. It had to die down soon, anyway, unless the person behind it all continued with their campaign.
Surely they would not.
“I’m not bad,” Penny said. “Are the kids here?”
Ariadne waved towards a few animal pens which had been set up about forty feet away. There was a crowd of children and adults around them. “There are puppies here,” she said.
“Of course. Aww.”
“And where’s Drew?” Lucy asked. “I like Drew. He’s so … big. I like that. He looks like he could kill a dragon for you.”
“Er, yes, he probably could,” Penny said, and wondered why she felt her cheeks hot up. “He’s away on a business course or something.”
“At the weekend?”
“He’s been away most of the week. I don’t actually know when he’s coming back.”
“How strange,” Lucy said.
It was, Penny realised. Drew never usually went away. And it was so last-minute, as well.
“Well, Brian, you know, needed him to go…” Penny said, trailing off into silence as she gazed across the teeming throng and caught sight of the last person she expected to see.
It was Alf.
He had replaced his overalls with a pair of grey trousers and an old polo shirt that had seen better days, probably back in the 1970s, judging by the blue and grey over-sized collar and fetching yellow piping on the seams. He was standing by the lemonade stall, hands by his sides, glaring around. Penny wanted to slowly fade out of his line of sight, without making any movement that would attract his attention.
Brian and Alf; they were linked. Were they in on it together, she thought, working as a strange partnership … of murder?
It made no sense, but then, nothing had so far. Alf was the one with the grudge and the means, and the connection to the murder weapon, but Brian had met Owen, and for most people, simply meeting Owen was enough to spark a reason to want to kill him.
Penny was startled out of her pondering by two fingers jabbed into each side of her waist. “Hey!”
It was Francine, who had come up behind her, all squeals and bright make-up, and next to her was the strangely stiff figure of Inspector Travis who looked quite bizarre out of uniform. He wore his khaki shorts with his knobbly knees proudly displayed. He seemed smaller, but his mismatched fleshy face was as kind as ever.
“Hello, Penny. Are you keeping out of trouble?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” she said, wondering if she could ask him for more information about the murder or the drugs rumours.
“No,” he said.
“What?”
“I could see what you were about to ask,” Inspector Travis said.
Did he never turn his policing sense off? Francine grabbed his arm proprietorially, and thrust her head forward. “Ooh, he’s good at that, you know.”
Penny had to look away as they began to coo at one another. Her eyes met Cath’s, who was standing just behind the Inspector, and they shared a moment of awkward pain.
For a moment it looked as if Cath was coming up to talk to Penny. Penny remembered the last time they’d spoken – and Cath had taken her information about Alf’s garage, and disappeared. Cath had been surprised to hear that he didn’t own the land, and Pennyw as curious whether that had led to further discoveries.
But then Cath was called away by someone that knew her. Inspector Travis and Francine were wandering towards a tombola, and Ariadne was loudly discussing the mechanics of trimming a scared dog’s nails with Lucy.
Everyone was talking to someone.
Everyone else. Except for Penny. Even Alf was now engaged in conversation with another man.
She shook herself, and surged towards the lemonade stand; it was at one end of a long outdoor bar. She was surprised. She had thought that Brian would encourage people to come into the hotel and use his bar, but then she saw that the outdoor facility was being staffed by Steven, and another young man in a smart white and black outfit. So it was still part of the hotel, and maybe he wanted to discourage people wandering through the building.
Like she planned to do.
“Hi Steven,” she said, and he looked momentarily surprised, taking a few seconds to recognise her. Then he smiled but with no feeling; it was a professional sort of expression.
“Hello. What can I get you?”
She ordered a lemonade, and asked where Agnes was, nodding towards the unfamiliar staff member a few feet away.
Steven shrugged and turned away to get her drink. “She’s working. Is there anything else?”
“No, thanks.”
She spun around and leaned back on the bar, clutching her drink, and gazed at the back of the hotel. A few windows on the upper floors stood open; she assumed there would still be guests there, but perhaps not. The accommodation catered more to conferences and executive weekends and corporate events; and it was unlikely that anything like that was booked to take place this weekend, not with Drew away and the grounds given over to a fete.
“Auntie Penny! Our favouritest aunt ever,” Destiny called, towing Wolf along.
“I’m your only aunt,” Penny said.
“And the best!”
“What do you want?”
Destiny pouted, and Wolf wriggled himself free of her grasp. “Mum said you’d buy us some lemonade.”
“Did she?”
“Well, I am sure she would if we asked her.”
Penny knew that she didn’t have the stamina to spin this argument out; the conclusion was tediously inevitable. She gave up straight away and turned back to the bar. “Right. Okay. Two lemonades, please.”
Steven was busy at the far end of the bar, so she was served by the other young man, whose name badge declared him to be “Kris” and his accent was Polish, like Agnes. He, too, didn’t smile.
“Let’s go and sit in the shade,” Destiny said, and strode towards a low wall that bordered a patio. Wolf and Penny exchanged a look, and then followed her. It was quieter here, nearer to the hotel, as there were no attractions this side. They sat on elaborate chairs around a table and large parasol.
Penny wanted to ask how they were; how they were both coping. She struggled to open the conversation. She also knew that they were going to be asked that question over and over, for quite some time.
Instead, she said, somewhat awkwardly, “So, school starts soon, for both of you, and it might be strange and things will be different, all over again. So I just want you to know that I’m always here for you. If you need me. If you want to come and talk. Or not talk, that’s good too. Do you want some spare keys to my house?”
There was an embarrassed silence. Destiny stared at her drink. Wolf couldn’t hide his feelings from his face, not yet, so he cringed openly and then said, “Thank you, auntie Penny, but we’re fine.”
“Are we?” Destiny said.
“Well, we were until she said all that.”
“Oh, Wolf,” Penny said in exasperation.
“It’s okay,” Destiny said. “We know what you mean and we are grateful – yes, we are, Wolf, so shut up. I hate school,” she added. “So, there’s that.”
“I love it,” Wolf said. “It’s only because you’re thick.”
“What do you enjoy?” Penny asked, and little by little, Destiny told her about the pleasure she got from success in practical things and sports and games. Wolf pulled an ebook reader out of his cargo-pant side pocket, and hunkered down in his chair, oblivious to their gradual bonding.
Destiny was just describing a particularly stupid method of dieting that an old friend of hers had tried
, to Destiny’s disgust (“I told her, what did you expect to happen if you only ate beetroot?”) when Wolf looked up suddenly.
“Auntie Penny, why did you come here to the fete?”
“Because everybody else is here. And I was promised free food,” she added, remembering Gaz’s unintentional slur.
“You told mum you weren’t going to come,” Wolf insisted, with the literal stubbornness of the young.
“I changed my mind.”
“Are you still investigating the murder?”
“I never was,” she countered. “So, no.”
Both Wolf and Destiny laughed. The girl said, “Yes, you were. Come on, you want to. You know this area better than we do. Who is on your suspect list now?”
“I am not investigating! But if I was … I’d be looking at Alf, and maybe Alf linked with Brian. Tina’s not top of my list but I might have missed something.”
“What about that Gaz who had the fight with him that night?”
Penny outlined her suspicions and as she spoke, she grew more and more suspicious not just of Alf, but of Brian.
So, too, were the kids.
“Brian’s well dodgy,” Destiny said. “I don’t like that Alf, neither.”
“I don’t like anyone who threatens mum,” Wolf said darkly. “He’s here, is Alf, at the fete. Let’s go and trash his garage while no one’s there.”
Penny restrained herself, tempting though the idea was. “No, we must stick to the law.”
“Why? It hasn’t stuck to you.”
Penny sighed. She gazed up at the blank windows of the hotel.
“There he is,” Destiny hissed. “Brian. Schmoozing his way around. Ugh.”
“He dresses well,” Wolf remarked.
“Shut up.”
All three of them watched for a short while, in silent contemplation, as the smart figure of Brian Davenport oozed his way around the crowds, shaking hands and slapping backs and grinning in a perfect wide white smile.
“You need to break into the hotel,” Destiny said.
Penny felt herself go pink. It was exactly what she had been thinking. “No,” she said firmly. “Absolutely not.”
If I can get them to go away, she thought, then yes. I can sneak in – not break in! – and have a look around. She said, “Why don’t I buy a lemonade for you to take over to your mum? She’s working hard on that stall.”
“No, she’s not. She’s gossiping and she has a two-litre bottle of water with her, anyway,” Wolf said. “We need to walk around and find a window that’s open, or easily opened, but out of sight.”
Destiny and Wolf stood up. Penny put out her hand to stop them. “No, wait, listen. Sit down. For a start, why crawl in through a window? The hotel is open to guests. We can go in by the front door. And secondly, we’re not doing that, either, because we’re not going to go sneaking around.”
“If we go in through the front door, we’ll be on their security cameras and whoever is on the front desk will see us and remember us,” Wolf explained patiently. “The only way for this to work is if we find a hidden entrance. You sneak in. I know you don’t want us to get into trouble because obviously a criminal record is harmful to people at the beginning of their lives, but as you are … sorry…”
Yeah, so it doesn’t matter to those of us hurtling towards the end. “Thanks.”
“But we’ll keep a look-out, on the outside. We can pretend to be innocent. We’re kids, after all. I’ll stay by the window and Destiny can patrol around. We’ve both got mobile phones. Set yours to vibrate – not ringing, obviously–”
“Obviously.”
“–and we’ll alert you to take cover if Brian comes back in. Does that sound like a plan?”
Penny got to her feet and looked at her young nephew with entirely new eyes. “You’ve thought this through really well,” she said in admiration.
“Of course.” He shrugged, but she could see his small smile of pride.
“Too well,” she said, trying to inject a serious note of caution into her voice.
“Well enough,” he said, undeterred.
“You two are not going to go away, are you?”
Destiny and Wolf grinned. “Nope.”
“Your mother will kill me.”
“Nah.”
There were no more excuses except the obvious and sane ones, which Penny was happy to disregard. “Come on, then.”
She didn’t even get to lead the way. Wolf inflated his chest, and strode confidently towards the back of the hotel.
Chapter Seventeen
They meant well, they really did, Penny thought. But the two youngsters had little idea of how to move carefully, without drawing attention to themselves.
Then again, she thought, as she pressed flat against a wall, I’m only doing what I’ve seen action heroes do in the movies.
Wolf scurried ahead, bending over low, followed by Destiny who was darting her head from left to right like a panicked owl. Penny was pressed hard against the wall, her arms spread out, watching the two kids as they ran in a zig-zag manoeuvre along the patio and towards the corner of the back of the hotel.
That’s for when someone’s shooting at you, isn’t it? The zig-zags?
Then Wolf disappeared, and Destiny stopped to gesture frantically at Penny. As they hadn’t agreed any signs or signals, Penny had to assume she meant “come on” and not “run for your life.”
She glanced back at the fete. The nearest people that she could see were the other side of the low patio border wall, and facing away. A band was starting to play, and she breathed a sigh of relief; everyone’s attention was going to be elsewhere, at least for a short while.
This was it. It felt like if she followed Wolf and Destiny around the corner, and out of sight of the fete, it was crossing the line. It would be a clear sign that she was intent on something illicit.
It was scary.
She did it anyway.
As soon as she started towards Destiny, the young girl nodded and went to join Wolf. By the time that Penny got around the corner, Wolf was already pulling at a small window.
Penny’s heart couldn’t pound any harder. This was a whole new level. She’d followed people, confronted them and got into fights, but this?
She reached Destiny and hissed, “I’ve never broken in anywhere before!”
“This isn’t breaking in,” Wolf said over his shoulder. His fingers were under the bottom of the window and he was easing it outwards on its hinge. “The front door is open, right? Anyway who sees us inside will assume we came in the normal way. We are just doing this to avoid alerting reception and security.”
“You’re almost making sense,” she said. “I must be losing my mind.”
Wolf ignored her. The window was a small, square one, hinged at the top. It was a utility-sort of opening, not the kind of window you’d have in a living room. He got it open about six inches, but then it stopped.
“It’s jammed,” he complained.
“It’s a hotel thing,” Penny said. “I’ve stayed in lots of places like this. They don’t want the windows to open all the way. They say it is for security but I think it’s to stop guests sneaking in an extra person, or stealing the television and dropping it out of the window.”
“Oh, so not jammed,” Wolf said thoughtfully, dropping to his knees and peering up into the gap. “On a latch or lever or some kind of … ah yes.” He reached his slim hands up into the gap, and began to pull at something. “Destiny, have you got any tweezers in your bag? A decent pair, not a thin set that will bend too easily.”
She didn’t question. Within moments, she had handed them to Wolf and he was unscrewing something, a task made slow and awkward by the fact he could only do it at arms’ length and above his head, while he squatted on the ground.
There was a jingle, and he deftly caught something silvery and metallic that fell from the window. “Got it.” He handed Destiny her tweezers back as he stood up.
“Off you go. Have yo
u set your phone to silent? Just vibrate?”
She did so, noticing that her palms were slippery. “Keep a look out!” she warned them.
“Of course. I’ll patrol here and all around the back, just looking in windows. Destiny can go around the front and keep an eye on who comes in.”
“Brian. It’s Brian. I need to know if he comes in. Oh, or his bar staff, Steven or Kris.”
“Who?”
“The waiters, they’re in black and white. They have name badges.”
“Right. Okay. Good luck! Destiny, go.”
“I’ll go back through the fete, to check Brian is still out there,” she said.
“Good idea.” Penny nodded at her and she disappeared. Wolf pulled the bottom of the window out, and this time it opened wide.
She crouched down, and Wolf held the window as far out as he could so she could get up underneath it. Pulling her leg up onto the sill was harder than she’d imagined; it was a little too high to be comfortable. “Oh, my aging hips,” she said, but Wolf was unsympathetic. He tried to help by grabbing the ankle that remained dangling on the outside while she tried to sit and slide in, and his extra and unexpected thrust sent her tumbling into the hotel. She wanted to avoid hitting the floor with her knees, and her mid-air twist brought her to the carpet on her side and thighs, one leg doubled underneath her. She struggled to a sitting position, felt for damage, and took a moment to get her breath back.
The window slowly closed above her.
She leaned back against the wall and looked around. She was in a drab corridor that didn’t match the colour scheme of the public areas of the hotel that she’d been in. This was beige, and utilitarian, and very much a service corridor. In front of her was a blank dark brown door, and the corridor stretched left and right. To the left, at the far end, was a set of narrow stairs that went up. To the right, about ten metres down, was another door, and this one was ajar.
None of the doors were labelled.
She got to her feet, as she felt she’d be better able to explain her presence if she was, at least, standing up. Even so, “Hi, yeah, I’m just trying to find evidence that Alf Smith or Brian Davenport killed Owen Jones, don’t mind me” was an unconvincing statement she really didn’t want to have to make.