by Agatha Frost
“That’s not all Ed was up to last night!” Dot clicked her fingers. “I almost forgot. Katie and Brian had gone to talk to James about the manor, but they turned up after he was hit.” She paused, as though making certain no one had considered them suspects. “Katie found Ed at the manor last night. The man was nearly nude, spread out on the floor like meat at the deli counter, and from the candles everywhere, it looked like he was waiting for a bit of how’s your father, if you know what I’m insinuating.”
“I think we got it from ‘nearly nude,’” said Barker.
“Oh my days!” Amy gasped. “Outrageous.”
“Trespassing, too, I might add.” Dot wafted a finger at the board. “Put that up there, Julia. Trespasser, Lothario, and happy to dish out threats.”
Julia wrote them down.
“If Ed was waiting for someone else, does that mean we can assume Ed and Mindy weren’t having an affair?” asked Amy. “Unless she’s woken up and we don’t know about it?”
“You know, I thought the same thing this morning,” said Percy. “So, we called the hospital, and she’s still not come around.”
“Did you check on James?” Julia asked.
Percy blushed. “Oh, I didn’t think to.”
“We can call to check on James,” Barker said as he wiped Olivia’s chin with a tissue. “But we can’t discount the possibility that Ed has multiple partners. There’s no point speculating who he was waiting for. It could have been anyone.”
It could have been anyone.
But Julia was thinking of someone specific.
For now, she kept it to herself.
“But we know Richie is innocent.” Evelyn pushed away her empty plate. “He’s the only one we can account for at the time of the shooting, isn’t he?”
“Can’t rule out the possibility that he paid someone to shoot his father,” Barker said. “Although maybe we can, since Richie nearly got shot?”
Julia added that idea to those already simmering, her gaze going to the window. Once again, grey clouds peppered the horizon over the treetops at the bottom of Dot’s garden.
“The garden party was planned to last all day,” she said. “The rain wasn’t forecast until later, which means half the people wouldn’t have known it was coming until it was there. There was a moment between the rain and the gunshot.”
“Time enough for someone to run into the forest to carry out what they’d hoped to do later,” said Barker. “A rush job before everyone was safe inside the manor. Without the luxury of the guests being out in the open, shooting someone would be much harder.”
“But why would Richie want to kill his father?” Percy asked, scratching the side of his bald head. “Inheritance, maybe?”
Julia wrote it down.
“There’s some conflict between them,” Julia revealed. “When I spoke to Richie at the B&B, he insinuated that he and his father were estranged for a time. I wasn’t able to dig deeper into it, but I sensed some lingering resentment.”
“Anyone else get the feeling the boy is here under duress?” Dot asked, looking around the table. “He cuts such a morose figure.”
They all grumbled their agreement and none pointed out that his mother had nearly died. Maybe, like Julia, they’d noticed his sadness even before the shooting.
“Before we flesh out these motives, we need to speak to everyone again,” said Barker as he stood. “Evelyn, shouldn’t you be at the B&B for breakfast by now?”
“Oh, sugar!” Evelyn jumped up in a fluster. “What am I like?”
“We’ll follow along,” Barker said. “Now that we have our new angle, we’ll catch the three of them before they leave for the day.”
“I’ll have to excuse myself to open the post office,” Shilpa said. “Julia? Can I have a word before I go?”
Julia followed Shilpa into the quieter sitting room, dim thanks to the grey clouds moving quickly over the village.
“Will Katie be at the café today?”
“I imagine so.”
“Then I need to explain myself to her.” She looked down. “I feel awful. It’s going ’round that bailiffs have been seen at Katie’s new cottage. I didn’t realise things were that bad.”
Though she shouldn’t have known about the bailiffs, it was only a matter of time before someone who wasn’t Sue saw – and said – something, so she didn’t bother to pretend at ignorance.
“It’s been a hard time for them.”
“James made me an offer too,” Shilpa revealed, looking out to the green. “Quite an aggressive one, actually. And boy, was I tempted. I could have run off into the sunset with a bag of cash and not looked back, but that’s not what I want. I’m quite content. Foolishly, I thought that because I’d turned down his offer, everyone else should have done the same.” She paused. “Have I upset her?”
“If you tell Katie what you told me,” she said with a smile, “I think you’ll be just fine. Katie’s not the grudge-holding type.”
As they turned to leave – and for the third time that week – the silhouette of James Jacobson filled the doorway. This time, he was leaning rather than standing, and he wore a blue hospital gown under a long jacket. Above two black eyes, a white bandage suffocated the top of his head.
“Goodness me!” Dot exclaimed from the hallway as he limped to the sofa. “How are you even standing, man? I heard you were on death’s door.”
Shilpa shook her head at him and left.
“Very much alive, I’m afraid.” With a groan, he fell into the middle of the sofa. “Don’t mind if I take a seat, do you? I’m a little light in the head.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Julia said, unable to hide her frustration. “Someone tried to murder you. You should be resting.”
“I’m sat down, aren’t I?”
“Resting at the hospital, surrounded by doctors and nurses.”
“I asked the specialist if I was going to die, and he said I’d be fine if I kept my stitches clean. Pumped me full of painkillers and sent me on my way.” He squinted at Julia. “How hard are they saying I was hit?”
“Brains on the carpet.”
“Not quite.” A wince cut his laughter short. “They should have gone in for a second swing.” He closed his eyes as if gathering his thoughts . . . or passing out. Just as Julia was about to check which it was, he said, “Look, you’re going to think I’m crazy, but I think I was the one the shooter wanted. I can’t stop thinking about it. What if they thought Richie was me? Everyone’s always saying we look alike.”
Julia shrugged slightly. “We’ve come to the same conclusion.”
“Seriously?”
“We’re on our way to the B&B to interview the people we’ve narrowed it down to.” She pulled a pad and a pen from the stack of magazines on the coffee table. “Stay here and make a list of every reason you think Ruth, Richie, or Ed might want to kill you.”
James rolled his eyes. “This again?”
“This isn’t about the library.” Her firm tone silenced his laugh. “I think it’s personal, and you’re too afraid to admit that someone you know wants you dead.”
James took the pen and pad without argument. Seconds later, Percy rushed in with a tray of tea, fluffy pillows stuffed under his arms, and a declaration that he would stay behind with the patient.
“Do you remember what happened last night?” Julia asked after strapping Olivia in her pram.
“In bits.” He clinched his eyes as though a wave of pain was taking over. “I was going over some paperwork when you left. I was at it all night. I had the telly on loud; the noise helps me think. I didn’t see anyone, I don’t think. My memory is foggy. The doctor said it could be like that for a while.”
“If you think of anything, write it down,” she instructed. “No matter how insignificant it seems. We’ll be back after the B&B. Percy, keep an eye on him and Olivia.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
A little later than intended, Julia approached the B&B with Dot and Barker. The walk was
a short one, but Dot had spent the entirety it insisting she’d heard the exaggerated account of James’s condition from someone whose name she couldn’t remember.
Ruth was waiting on the doorstep, tapping her foot and gazing up at the encroaching clouds. She acknowledged them with a smile before her eyes dropped to her watch.
“Mindy’s finally awake,” she explained. “I’m just waiting for Richie to get down. Taxi will be here soon. We were on our way to see James, but we just got the call.”
“James is out,” Dot replied. “We’ve just seen him.”
Julia was glad she kept his whereabouts vague.
Ruth sighed. “Just typical. Nothing has gone to plan since we got to this village.” She checked her watch again. “Richie, the taxi really will be here any second.”
Richie finally appeared, hurrying downstairs and straight past his grandmother. He pushed through the gate and leaned against the wall. Julia joined him, leaving Barker and Dot to talk with Ruth.
“I’m glad to hear your mother is doing better.”
“From the bullet that was meant for me,” he said, folding his arms tight. “My dad called from the hospital with his latest theory.”
“Do you have one of your own?” Julia asked. “Are you aware of anyone who might want to shoot your father?”
Almost reflexively, Richie looked over his shoulder. His eyes remained fixed long enough for Julia to follow them to one of the rooms. Ed had evidently returned; he wore a dressing gown and sipped coffee by one of the bedroom windows as he looked down on them.
“No idea,” Richie replied. A taxi slowly pulled up to the kerb. “Come on, then.”
Ruth abandoned her conversation with Barker and Dot and joined Richie in the taxi. He sat in the front; she sat in the back. Neither spoke as they drove away.
“You’d think they’d be happy to be on their way to see Mindy awake,” Dot said through pursed lips. “And they say our family is strange.”
“Ruth says she was with James for most of the night, going over his accounts and finances,” Barker said. “And she was quite forthcoming about James’s horror at how much Mindy’s been spending.”
“Sounds like a gold-digger!” Dot proclaimed. “Leeches. They cling to a pot of money and suck it dry. From what Ruth says, the divorce has been a long time coming.”
“But where does all that fit in?” Barker pondered. “And Mindy’s affair with Ed?”
“Something tells me Mindy’s not who Ed was, or is, having an affair with,” she said, catching Evelyn’s eyes as she wrote in a book on the reception desk. “If you can even call it that. One second.”
Julia entered, and as though he knew he’d been talked about, Ed swaggered down the staircase, still in his dressing gown. He strolled into the dining room and helped himself to the buffet.
“I could have sworn he didn’t come back.” Evelyn bit the end of her pencil. “I stopped by his room before the meeting to remind him he’d not paid for the last two nights, and the bed hadn’t been slept in.”
“Who’s to say he stayed in his own room?” she said. “Is the room above the bay window Richie’s?”
Evelyn muttered under her breath, counting something with the pencil before nodding.
“I thought as much.”
Julia joined Barker and Dot on the pavement outside the B&B, her mind tingling with ideas.
“Let’s get back before the rain,” she said. “I want to see if James has got anywhere with that list.”
They’d got as far as the green before Dot and Percy’s front door opened and James hobbled out, followed quickly by Percy and the dogs. Torn between stopping his patient and keeping the dogs from running out with no leads, he decided in favour of the dogs. Barker and Julia caught up to James halfway across the green.
“I just want my laptop,” he said, pulling away and continuing onto the flat. “The police delivered my things from the B&B before someone decided to take a hammer to my head. I n-need . . . need to . . .”
They caught him as he stumbled. He shook his head and continued into the alley. They had no choice but to follow him under the police tape and upstairs.
Paperwork covered the coffee and dining tables. Drops of blood, too. Not the swaths she’d imagined from the stories, but enough to imagine how much pain James was ignoring. He dropped into the chair where he’d sat while talking with Julia earlier and pulled a laptop from a bag on the floor.
“James, there’s something you need to know,” Barker said, glancing at Julia cautiously. “It seems Mindy has woken up.”
“Really?” He arched a brow. “I wonder how long it’ll be before she’s back out there spending my money. This is what I was doing when I was hit.” He started typing. “I was reaching down for my laptop, and that’s the last thing I remember before things went dark. I think I wanted to check something.”
He looked over the paperwork, moving pages around.
“I think this is still a crime scene,” Barker said, reaching out as though to stop him touching things. “We shouldn’t really be here.”
“Then someone should have stopped us,” he said, lifting the laptop’s lid. “I just need to jog my memory. That’s all. I could have sworn I was onto something.”
Julia didn’t want to talk about numbers or how much his wife was spending on her credit card. She sat across from James, glancing at the paperwork full of circled and highlighted values. Some of the numbers had a dizzying array of zeros.
“James, can we talk about your son?”
“One second.” He frowned at his keyboard. “I’m trying to remember my password. I don’t usually do all of this myself.”
“I get the impression Richie doesn’t want to be here,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “That he doesn’t want to run your restaurant.”
“His restaurant,” James corrected. “And don’t be silly. He’s got it made. Much better off than I was at his age.”
“What if he doesn’t want that?”
“Then he should tell me.”
“And what if he’s scared of you?”
James looked up, fingers hovering over the keys.
“Is that what he said?” He sounded as though he believed the truth of it.
Julia shook her head. “No. But it’s the feeling I get,” she said. “Did you get anywhere with that list or reasons why they might want to do this?”
“Hang on.”
“This is important.”
“This is important.”
James returned his focus to the computer. Abruptly, he stood too fast and had to steady himself against the wall. Barker moved in to help, but James was already off and rooting through the paperwork.
“A company name.” Struggling to remember seemed to bring James more pain than the head injury. “I noticed something. I wrote it down. I . . .”
He staggered away from the chair and into the bedroom. He returned with the black hoodie he’d been wearing when Julia had left him. He must have changed into his own clothes once the police brought them from the B&B. He tossed the hoodie to one side before pawing through the jeans. He pulled out a scrap of paper.
“James?” Julia called after him. “What is it?”
“You say Mindy’s awake?” He dug into his weekend bag for yet another change of clothes. “Why don’t we pay her a visit so she can tell us all about it?”
12
Katie had been excited to eat her hot toast while she’d slathered on the butter, so she probably shouldn’t have checked her emails before taking the first bite.
Toast and email had become her ritual before work started at the café. Her coupon hunts. Most days were useless, but on some, she’d snag discounts so huge her nail supplies were practically keeping themselves topped up.
One coupon in her inbox claimed to offer 95 percent off selected lines of gel polish and much, much more. On any other morning, Katie would have clicked that one first to make sure it wasn’t too good to be true.
They usually
were.
Today, the email above the coupon definitely seemed too good to be true.
SUBJECT: Wellington Manor Purchase Offer
Sent ten minutes ago.
Katie opened the email and read it from top to bottom, not really taking in much of the technical jargon. On the second go, with the help of the ‘look up’ feature for some words, she realised a property investment company was interested in discussing a private purchase of the manor ‘as soon as possible.’
She read a further three times, just to make sure.
Private.
Did that mean outside of an estate agent?
“It would save on fees,” she thought aloud, turning to make sure Vinnie was still eating his breakfast; Brian had left for work while the bread was in the toaster. “What do you say, Vinnie? Worth a phone call?”
Vinnie nodded, ripping more soggy toast from the buttered slice in his fist.
Rather than suffering through her cold toast, Katie popped the plate into the microwave. While it spun for fifteen seconds, she tapped the number at the bottom of the email.
A Plan B really wouldn’t hurt.
She inhaled deeply, not wanting her excitement to take over.
“Hello there, this is Katie Wellington-South,” she said, affecting the deep ‘get stuff done’ phone voice her father had taught her as a child. “Am I through to Gilbert Holdings Limited?”
13
Against their protests, James refused to sit and take it easy after he finished dressing in a white shirt and blue jeans. Pulling on a black jacket, he put his head down and pushed past them before rumbling down the stairs like a drunk at sea, hitting the doorframe on his way out.
“I get the feeling he’s going with or without us,” Barker said. “If we go, we might get some answers.”
“Frankly, I’m more concerned about the state of his health,” she said. “We should follow before we lose sight of him.”
They left the flat, locking the door behind them. The police officer meant to be watching the crime scene was at the other end of the alley, back turned to the flat, laughing over the phone.
