The Slay of the Land (The Heathervale Mysteries Book 1)

by Matilda Swift

  Once the combine completed its turn at the end of the row, it stopped. It didn’t move on through the field to cut another swath of grain-heavy wheat.

  Arrina stiffened in her seat.

  She was parked on the top of a hill in a bright-red tractor. Maggie’s tractor. The one that Rory himself had tampered with and which tied him to his brother’s murder.

  Arrina might as well have blasted her horn and announced into a loudspeaker, ‘I know what you did! I’m here to get you!’

  Rory was still a few hundred feet away. But when he slowly turned the combine around, Arrina started up her engine and prepared herself to be chased.

  She could no longer hear Rory’s engine. She watched him carefully as he drew along the end of the field he’d been harvesting.

  When he reached the closest corner, he rotated the grain chute of his combine and released a flow of golden wheat into the waiting trailer, which was tucked into the trees there.

  Arrina realised that if she couldn’t hear his engine when hers was running, then Rory couldn’t hear hers either. And he seemed fully engrossed in the task of harvesting the wheat. There was a chance that he hadn’t even looked up to the hill on which Arrina was waiting. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed that she was there.

  Then the door of Rory’s combine opened. Maggie leapt out—a small figure in the distance, stretching her arms casually over her head and tipping her face up to the sun. Arrina’s heart leapt at the sight of the woman.

  Maggie craned her head, as though listening to the person in the cab above her. She nodded. She pointed out across the field and nodded again.

  Then she set off, walking directly into the dense field of wheat.

  What could she be doing there?

  Arrina saw her dart in between the shorn, stubbled section of the field and the high spears of uncut wheat. She seemed to be weaving in amongst the crops at random. Then Arrina saw her chase an enormous hare out from the cover of the wheat. Maggie dashed after it to ensure that it ran for the hedge boundary rather than back into the crops. Then she turned and waved at Rory and gave him a thumbs-up.

  He must have sent her to clear the field of animals ahead of his combine. Arrina had lived in the countryside for five years, and she’d never heard of anyone doing that. Perhaps in the olden days, when people cut their fields with silent sickles. Though even then, Arrina was sure that animals were smart enough to get out of the way by themselves.

  Maggie wouldn’t know that. As she’d said just yesterday, she knew nothing about farming.

  Arrina was now certain of Rory’s plan. It was like all the best plans—ridiculously simple. He was taking his niece out for a day of harvesting. Showing her the ropes before she took over the place. But she was a chemistry teacher, not a farmer, in reality. And she didn’t know how dangerous farm machines could be. Perhaps he would say she wandered off and he didn’t see her until it was too late. Or maybe he could claim that she rushed over to a helpless animal that was stuck in the combine’s path and he wasn’t able to swerve his huge machine in time.

  It would be tragic. And it might even be suspicious. But this sort of accident wasn’t uncommon in the countryside. And the police would have trouble making a case against him. Especially if the only person who really knew what had happened was the victim.

  But Rory didn’t know that there was another witness, someone who knew exactly what his plan was and who wasn’t going to let him get away with it.

  Maggie dove back in amongst the towering spears of wheat, hunting down animals that would be in the path of the combine’s next row.

  Rory rotated his grain chute back into its resting position and turned the combine around to face the field. He set the enormous yellow vehicle going, trundling gently along through the stalks of wheat. The sharp reaping blades at the front of the combine glinted in the sunlight and headed slowly but surely for the small, defenceless form of Maggie Lee.

  39

  Arrina would only get one shot at this. When she made her move—driving down the hill in the bright-red tractor that had almost killed Hugo—Rory would realise that she was onto him. She wished she could be sure that this would be enough to stop him in his tracks. But he was a man on a mission. And Arrina didn’t think anything would get in his way.

  She felt exactly the same.

  Down in the field below, the huge yellow combine lumbered along. Maggie ran through the crops in front of the vehicle, chasing out the tiny rural creatures that made their homes there.

  Arrina couldn’t make out the expression on Maggie’s face from this distance, but the young woman was speeding up. And the regular glances over her shoulder suggested she was worried about how close the combine was getting. Still, she lowered her head and continued with her task. She thought it was important farm work, and she was so eager to please her new family that she wouldn’t want to fail in the job she’d been given.

  Arrina judged the distance she needed to cover. She estimated the spot in the field where she would meet Rory’s combine. Then she pushed the tractor up to its top gear and raced down the hill. The fallow field she drove through was rough and uneven. Arrina bounced in her seat. She struggled to keep an eye on the darting figure of Maggie Lee. But she knew she could not lose sight of the eager young woman.

  At the bottom of the hill, she reached a hedge that divided her field from the one Rory was in. She didn’t stop. Didn’t slow down. She drove right through it.

  Her tractor leapt up, and Arrina was shaken in her seat. Her head smacked against the window, but she barely felt it.

  She could see Rory Hayes now. His huge frame filled the combine’s cab. He turned to look at what had happened to the edge of his field. His expression of shock was clear. He slowed slightly as he stared in wonder at the sight of a schoolteacher gunning towards him in a tractor.

  Arrina prayed for him to brake, to stop and give up on his murderous plan, but instead, he turned back to face the wheat in front of him.

  The crops swayed. Birds fluttered up from the field, but there was no sign of Maggie Lee.

  Rory was still not quite level with Arrina. She could turn now and slam her tractor into the side of his vehicle. Demolishing the hedge had slowed her down a little, but she still had enough speed to do his combine serious damage.

  She could even drive into him and leap out of the cab at the last minute so that she wouldn’t be hurt in the crash. She had a brief glimpse of this action-hero escape from danger.

  But then she looked ahead in the field of wheat and caught sight of Maggie Lee. The woman had sped up and almost reached the end of the row. She was far ahead of Rory’s combine now, and Arrina didn’t have to crash into Maggie’s uncle in order to be sure of saving her.

  Arrina pulled her wheel sharply to the right and pushed her throttle up. She drove into the path of Rory’s combine and then slammed to a stop.

  She turned to look at him and saw a glint in his eye that suggested he wouldn’t brake. He was going to plough right into the side of her. Arrina reached for the door handle of the cab. She had a few seconds to make her escape.

  But then Rory screeched to a halt. He banged his fists down hard on the wheel and stopped his engine.

  Arrina stopped hers as well. For a moment, all she could hear was her own panting breath.

  Then another sound filled the air. A tiny buzzing. At first Arrina thought there was a bee in her cab. But when she opened the door to get away from it, the noise grew louder. She realised it was a motorbike. But Arrina couldn’t see one anywhere.

  Suddenly, a bike leapt through the gap in the hedge that her tractor had created. The helmeted rider headed straight for Arrina, and she raced down the steps to meet it.

  She pushed her hair from her damp forehead and blinked back tears of relief. The motorbike skidded to a stop, and the rider pulled off his helmet to reveal the familiar face of Tony Mellor. For the first time in months, Arrina was overjoyed to see him.

  ‘Rory’s up there,’ Arrina sa
id, pointing at the combine. ‘Rory Hayes. He was going to kill Maggie Lee.’

  ‘I know,’ Tony said over his shoulder as he headed for the yellow vehicle. ‘Julie told me.’ Then he clambered up the steps of the combine and pulled the huge man down.

  Maggie ran over then as well. She was breathless, and tears were pouring down her cheeks.

  ‘He was going to...’ she said. ‘He would have...’

  But she couldn’t finish the words. She collapsed into Arrina’s arms and wept.

  ‘It’s OK,’ Arrina said. ‘You’re safe now.’

  And as Tony handcuffed Rory Hayes, she knew that her words were true. Maggie was finally safe.

  Rory stared around himself, looking at the farm he knew he would never see again. ‘She doesn’t deserve this place,’ he hissed. ‘I’ve tended it for years. And it was bad enough to have my stupid brother play at farmer and tell me what to do. But to have to hand the whole thing over to some little girl who’s too stupid to know how dangerous a combine is... I can’t do it.’

  Maggie continued weeping into Arrina’s shoulder, and Arrina hoped that the young woman hadn’t heard a thing the bitter man had said.

  ‘You don’t have a choice,’ Arrina said. ‘It’s what Hugo wanted.’

  Rory strained at the handcuffs and lunged towards Arrina.

  Tony tripped him. Then he picked the man up and shoved him hard in the direction of the hole in the fence. ‘We’ve got a long walk back to the farmhouse,’ Tony said. ‘Don’t make this any harder than it has to be.’ He gave Rory another firm push on his broad back, and the two men walked out of the field.

  Then Arrina and Maggie were alone beneath the golden autumn sun. Arrina held the young woman while she poured out grief for her lost father and confusion over the uncle who’d taken that man away. Maggie would need time to get over what had happened. But she was stronger than she knew. And she still had Fiona Hayes, who wanted to be a second mother to her.

  And she had this farm, which had been a part of her family for centuries.

  Arrina knew how deeply Heathervale could burrow itself beneath the skin. It would do the same for Maggie Lee. And with every season that passed, she would take on the strength of each seedling that grew into a towering stalk of wheat and each tottering calf that became a powerful bull.

  The landscape here would heal the wounds that had been caused in the past week.

  It would take time, but Arrina was sure that the young woman would one day be whole again.

  40

  One month later

  ‘Class started five minutes ago,’ Arrina said to Nancy Morgan, who was dawdling in the corridor outside the canteen. She’d only been at the college a matter of weeks, and already she’d become notorious for her poor timekeeping.

  ‘I’ve got a free, miss,’ Nancy said. She tugged at the hem of her too-short skirt.

  ‘It’s Arrina. You’re not in school now. The teachers here are people you show respect to by your behaviour, not titles.’

  ‘Huh?’ Nancy was the younger sister of the Morgan twins. She was definitely more like Wallace than Wilfred in that she was sweet but several sandwiches short of a picnic.

  ‘I’ll have to explain that another time,’ Arrina said. ‘I’m in a hurry, as should you be. It’s next period that you have a free, but right now you’re supposed to be in history.’

  Nancy’s eyes bulged in her sallow face. She ran off in the wrong direction before realising her mistake and dashing back past Arrina shouting, ‘Sorry, miss. I mean, Miss Arrina. Sorry!’

  Then she was gone, leaving the corridor quiet for once.

  Arrina was in a hurry herself, but she took a minute to stand still and appreciate the hum of energy that pulsed through the building. Every classroom was full. Every student was taken care of. Everything was back to normal.

  Well, almost everything. Arrina had decided to change the décor of the college to make a fresh start after the summer’s crisis. She’d asked Olly and a few of his friends to paint murals along the corridors of the buildings. She stood staring at one, which showed a cartoon version of Maggie’s cherry-red tractor. In the picture, the tractor was wearing a superhero cape.

  Arrina was glad to see that Olly hadn’t lost his sense of humour following the ordeal he’d been through.

  She stared at the tractor and thanked her lucky stars for how everything had turned out that day. It could all have ended so differently.

  When Tony Mellor had knocked on her door the day after Arrina’s frantic tractor chase, she’d thought he was going to shout at her for getting involved in police business.

  But he didn’t. He just told her that the college would be open again by Monday, so all her classes could go ahead for the start of the new term. Then he’d lowered his voice—not seeming to notice that they were alone on an isolated hill—and told her what Rory had said on their walk back to the farmhouse.

  Rory was sick of being overruled by his brother. The issue of the right of way behind the college was just one of many things the two of them had fought about. Hugo had been the one to agree to the bypass cutting their land in two. Since Hugo was the older brother, the land was officially his to do with as he wished. But Rory could not forgive him for splitting up the farm.

  Then Maggie Lee had showed up, and Hugo had encouraged her interest in the farm. She was family, after all. The next generation. Rory could see where things were headed.

  But she knew nothing about farming. And he couldn’t bear to have his life’s work taken away by someone so young and inexperienced.

  Rory had rewired the brakes on Maggie’s new tractor at the start of the summer in order to make all his problems go away. But when Hugo had almost been killed by it, Rory decided to bide his time and wait. He tried to sow doubt in Hugo’s mind about whether Maggie was even his. The young teacher was so petite, after all, and the Hayes family was made up of huge, strapping men and women.

  Hugo wouldn’t hear it.

  When Hugo announced that he was going to move back in with Fiona, it was clear that Rory’s days on the farm were numbered. The happy family would all come together to kick him off the farm. He’d never lived anywhere else. And he’d worked the land with a love that Hugo could never understand.

  Then Rory overheard Hugo making plans to meet Fiona in the early hours of the morning.

  Rory followed him to the college and hid until Fiona left and the two of them were alone. He’d only meant to scare his brother, he claimed. That’s what the knife had been for. He just wanted to show Hugo he wouldn’t be pushed around any longer. But they’d fought, and the knife had slipped. He claimed it was an accident, but instead of calling an ambulance, he’d wiped his prints from the knife and walked away.

  Rory hadn’t even known about the proposed changed to the will. He’d thought the place was still promised to Fiona. The manicured society woman had never shown any interest in interfering with Rory’s work on the farm. And Rory had liked it that way.

  Following Hugo’s death, Fiona told him that Hugo had intended to change his will to leave the place to Maggie, but he hadn’t completed it in time.

  Rory pretended to commiserate with Fiona about that, but inside, he’d been overjoyed. He hadn’t wanted to murder his brother, but at least now it was having the right outcome. The farm would stay in the hands of someone who could take care of it properly.

  Then Fiona told him that she wanted to honour Hugo’s wishes. She was going to hand the farm over to Maggie Lee with immediate effect, and Maggie was eager to get involved.

  Rory had no choice. He had to get rid of her as well.

  Tony told Arrina all this as they stood outside her cottage. She’d invited him inside, and he’d looked like he was thinking about it but then declined.

  She’d felt sure that things had changed between them. Tony had leapt out of his police car the moment Julie had told him what was going on at the Hayes farm. He’d fought his way through the flock of sheep, run through fields, and
commandeered a motorbike from the first person he passed. Then he’d sped through the village to face a murderer unarmed. None of that was standard police work. He’d done it just for Arrina.

  But then a day later, he wouldn’t even come inside for tea. Arrina wondered whether the medical examiner, Lissie, had anything to do with this. The woman was incredibly beautiful, and she’d captured Tony’s attention in a way that made Arrina’s heart hurt to recall.

  Arrina couldn’t think about that now. She took one more look around the quiet corridor of the college and walked out of the back exit. She passed through the gap in the fence and headed towards the Hayes farmhouse, where she was meeting Maggie Lee.

  Maggie had only been living there a few weeks, but already the place was transformed. The stones of the building glowed in the delicate September sun. The roof was patched, and the window frames were freshly painted.

  Maggie ran out into the courtyard to meet Arrina and almost strangled her with an enthusiastic hug. ‘Perfect timing,’ Maggie said. ‘My lemon drizzle is just about cool enough to eat.’

  ‘Another cake? It’s a good job it’s such a hike here from the college, otherwise I’d have doubled in size in the past few weeks.’ Arrina remembered her promise to herself to eat better once Hugo’s murder was solved. But it looked like she would have to put that off a little longer yet.

  ‘I’ve got to do something to show you how grateful I am,’ Maggie said as she hooked her arm through Arrina’s and walked her into the lemon-scented house. ‘Besides, I need to practise until I’ve learned all my mum’s old recipes. It’s so great to have Aunty Julie to teach me how to bake them.’

  Aunty Julie. That was a new development. As Arrina walked into the kitchen, she saw Julie taking a large bite of cake. She smiled and spoke through her sponge-filled mouth: ‘I’m just testing it.’

  ‘And?’ Maggie asked, hurrying over and staring into Julie’s round face.

  Julie chewed quickly and swallowed. ‘And it’s excellent. Your mother would have been very proud.’