by Agatha Frost
Even though she knew she didn’t need to, the nagging in the back of her head convinced her to keep driving when she reached her cottage. She followed her father’s instructions to pass Peridale Farm, join the Riverswick bypass, and take the second turning on the right. Within minutes of driving past her cottage, she saw a hand-painted wooden sign pointing down the lane to take her to Hookthorn Cottage.
But before the cottage even came into view, something up on the left of the road caught her eye. A motorbike was parked in the meeting place where cars would stop to let others pass on the incredibly tight lane. The rider still sat on the bike, helmet on and visor up as they looked at something on their phone.
Julia knew the rider was Alfie before he turned around to look at her.
13
Julia had to park her car right up against the slim meeting place to fit in. Alfie climbed off the bike and pulled his helmet off. Tongue turning the ring in his lip, Alfie approached with an uneasy smile. Julia pulled her keys from the ignition and climbed out.
Julia stopped a safe distance from him and called, “What are you doing here, Alfie?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I asked first.”
One of Alfie’s brows arched, as though he couldn’t believe Julia was questioning him so forcefully. Julia could hardly believe it either but seeing Alfie had unsettled her.
“You did.” Alfie set his helmet on the seat before pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Jessie sent me a text saying you suspected I was behind the manor robbery?”
Julia’s glanced away, too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. She nodded.
“I thought it was quite funny at first,” Alfie admitted, frowning. “But then, it hurt me a little, too, because I thought you knew me better than that.”
“So, why are you here?” Julia asked, nodding down the tight lane, hearing the accusation in her voice. “I’m here to speak to the manor’s former gardener, the last person on a list of names my father gave me in connection to the robbery.”
“You mean Dale?” Alfie asked. “Dale Michaels?”
“You know him?”
“Quite well,” Alfie said, his expression growing more puzzled. “We’ve done a lot of work with him over the past couple of months on his bigger landscaping jobs. We help build the foundations and fencing from his designs, and he does the gardening. You think he was behind the robbery?”
“I – I don’t know,” Julia admitted. “I just wanted to talk to him. You still haven’t answered why you’re here.”
“I’m here to find my boots!” Alfie let out a disbelieving laugh. “When Jessie said you noticed the burglars had boots like mine, I checked my inventory at the builder’s yard and found two pairs missing. It took me a couple of hours of searching before Billy finally admitted he thought he left them in Dale’s van after our last job together, and he’s been keeping it secret for weeks because he knows how expensive they are. I was a little surprised when Jessie said you thought they were the same shoes since they’re so expensive.”
“Jessie said they were common.”
“She was wrong there.” Alfie tucked his phone away after showing Julia the text message. “I’ve travelled the world more times than I can count, so I know the importance of comfortable shoes, especially in a job where you’re on your feet all the time. When it comes to boots, if you buy cheap, you buy twice. I’ve come here to see if Dale has them.”
“So, the boots aren’t common?” Julia asked, her heart pounding as her mind flashed back to that night. “And two pairs were missing at the time of the burglary?”
“Oh.” Alfie’s eyes widened. “Oh!”
Before Julia could apologise once again for suspecting Alfie, his gaze left hers and drifted up the lane. He yanked her away from the road, pulling them both tight up against the bushes behind their parked vehicles. Thorns poked into Julia’s back, but she kept quiet when she realised why Alfie had reacted so forcefully.
The roar of the engine grew closer until a large, familiar, white van drove past them. The driver was so high up, he didn’t notice them in the tucked-away meeting place.
He might not have seen them, but Julia had seen him.
“That’s Leon,” Julia said once the van had gone, and they had finally freed themselves from the thorny bush.
“Who?”
“He’s been working with my dad at the antiques barn, and that’s my dad’s van,” Julia explained. “I think I owe Jessie £200.”
A building job had brought Alfie to Peridale over a year ago, but finding Jessie, the sister he hadn’t seen in seventeen years, had kept him there. When Jessie was only a baby, their parents had died in a car accident, and they had been separated in the care system. A fire in the records department severed their ties, leaving Jessie to grow up not knowing she had a brother.
Even though Julia wasn’t old enough to be Alfie’s mother, she loved him as an extended member of her family, which was why she felt so embarrassed about suspecting he could ever be connected to anything so shocking.
“I really am sorry,” Julia apologised again as they crept down the lane towards the cottage in single file. “My head has been all over the place since the robbery.”
“I heard you were pregnant.” Alfie glanced over his shoulder.
“You heard correct.”
“It’s hard to have secrets when there are so many gossips in Peridale,” Alfie said with a sarcastic smile. “But I’m really happy for you and Barker. He must be so pleased.”
“I’m sure he will be,” Julia said, her cheeks burning, “when I tell him. I’ve been trying to tell him all week, but things keep getting in the way. It looks like fate has forced my hand now, though. I have to tell him when he gets home from London before someone else does. Thanks to the gossips, I’m sure everyone in Peridale knows by now.”
“People are really happy for you,” Alfie said. “You’re well-liked, and people are glad to share in your joy. I’ve never heard a bad word said about you.”
“And yet I still suspected you.”
“And I’ve already accepted your apology,” Alfie said as the treeline suddenly broke and the cottage came into view. “Over there, by that wall.”
Alfie grabbed Julia’s hand, and they crouched as they hurried past the large white van to the small garden wall surrounding the lone cottage in the middle of the forest. If Dale Michaels’ cottage was on the front of his business card, it would do all the work necessary to prove his skills as a gardener. While the cottage was a little rundown and shabby, the garden looked like it had been ripped from the pristine pages of a gardening magazine.
The front door opened, and Leon emerged with what appeared to be a heavy bust, badly wrapped in newspaper. Alfie grabbed Julia’s hand again and silently pulled her further along the curved garden wall. Julia glanced over and noticed the van had been parked with its rear right up against the gate. Leon put the bust on the ground and slid open the back of the van.
“That’s Leon,” Julia whispered to Alfie.
“I’ve seen him around recently,” Alfie whispered back. “He seemed to turn up out of nowhere.”
Leon climbed into the back of the van and walked inside. He put the bust in the van and hurried back into the cottage. Less than a minute later, he appeared at the door carrying one side of a large, gold-framed painting. From her vantage point, Julia couldn’t see the subject. Had they been on the other side of the wall, she could have seen if she recognised the painting from the manor.
“Slow down,” Leon called to the person holding the other side of the painting as they hurried down the short garden path. “It’s heavy, and I have to go backwards.”
“Give the whingeing a rest, boy,” a man cried back. “You like the sound of your own voice too much.”
Julia might not have been able to recognise the painting, but she recognised the voice the moment she heard it. Her body fell backwards to the ground while her mind returned to the manor. She fumble
d through the darkness as the storm raged, her eyes trained on the sawn-off shotgun. She looked up at the dark eyes shining through the balaclava, and then down at his lips as he barked orders at her. She couldn’t make out what he was saying, but she could hear the voice booming in her eardrums.
“Julia?” the voice boomed, the lips in the balaclava wrapping themselves around her name. “Julia?”
Julia’s body shook, and light flooded the darkness. Her eyelids fluttered, forcing her back to reality. She was still outside the cottage, lying in Alfie’s arms as he gently shook her. She tried to talk to let him know she was okay, but it felt like someone had their hands wrapped around her throat; she couldn’t breathe.
“I – I—” she choked, her eyes darting around at the trees above them.
“Look at me, Julia,” Alfie ordered, his voice firm and soft as stared directly into her eyes. “What did you sell at the café today?”
The question puzzled Julia. She tried to think back to the café, but her mind wouldn’t budge from the storm and the gun and the man in the balaclava.
“What did you sell?” he repeated.
“Cheesecake,” she forced out. “Raspberry cheesecake.”
“That sounds delicious. Did you sell out?”
Julia nodded.
“No.” Alfie shook her again. “Tell me.”
“Yes,” Julia replied, her breathing slowing. “We sold out.”
“That’s great.” Alfie’s smile grew. “What are you baking tomorrow?”
“I – I don’t know.” Julia felt her mind return to the present moment as the grip on her throat loosened, allowing her to catch a proper breath. “W-what happened?”
Alfie looked over at the white van, and Julia suddenly remembered where they were, and why.
“That voice,” Julia said, pulling herself up out of Alfie’s arms. “That’s the man who had the gun.”
“It’s Dale Michaels,” Alfie said. “I think hearing it triggered a flashback and made you have a panic attack.”
“Panic attack?” Julia could hardly believe her ears. “Are you sure?”
Alfie gave her a sympathetic smile as he nodded. “I’ve seen them before. I travelled with this guy across India a few years ago, and he had them quite often. I learned the best way to calm him down was to distract him.”
Julia rubbed at her throat. She had never had anything that could be described as a panic attack, but the seriousness in Alfie’s eyes let her know he wasn’t mincing his words.
“Thank you,” Julia said as she peered over the wall, where the two men were still taking things from the cottage and putting them in the van. “I think I’m fine.”
“They’re more common than you’d think,” Alfie whispered when they resumed crouching and looking over the wall. “I can’t believe it was Dale. I always thought he was decent.”
“He’s not working alone though, is he?” Julia nodded at Leon as he carried a cardboard box of books from the cottage to the van. “My dad was right about this being an inside job, but it’s coming from more than one side. I need to confront them.”
Julia went to stand, but Alfie dragged her back down.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Alfie said, holding her arms tight. “Even if you hadn’t just had a panic attack, I wouldn’t let you do that. You’re pregnant, and these guys clearly don’t mind threatening women with guns.”
“We can’t just sit here and watch,” Julia said, pulling free of Alfie. “It looks like that’s all my dad’s stuff, and they’re getting ready to move it because they think they’ve got away with it. I have a chance to fix all this, but only if we catch them in the act before they move!”
“We’re not going to sit here and watch.” Alfie glanced over the wall. “And we’re not going to let them get away with it either. C’mon. The coast is clear. We need to get back up the lane.”
Alfie dragged Julia from the wall and back up the lane. They jogged along the shadows of the trees until they were back at the meeting point. Alfie opened the box at the back of his bike and pulled out a second helmet.
“We can’t follow them in your car,” Alfie said, giving Julia’s vintage vehicle a quick once over. “It’s too noticeable.”
“Follow?”
“Yes,” Alfie said as he pushed the helmet on Julia’s head. “If we find out where they’re taking this stuff, we can film it, give it to the police, and no one needs to confront anyone. You can still fix this by going through the official channels.”
“It’s not just about the stuff,” Julia said as she made the helmet comfortable on her head. “They murdered a girl with that van on their way to the manor. This is about Samantha Wicks, too.”
“Then, for Samantha’s sake, let’s not hang around and wait for them to see us.” Alfie pulled a stack of motorbike leathers from the storage box and passed them to Julia. “Put these on. I don’t know how long we’ll going to be riding, and I don’t think that dress, as lovely as it is, will keep you warm.”
14
Julia and Alfie waited in the shadows at the top of the lane for twenty minutes, but they had been on the road following the white van even longer. Clinging to Alfie as they sped along at a dizzying speed, she couldn’t check her watch, but the sun was starting to set.
The strange sensation of whizzing along wearing a full leather suit over her dress had been exhilarating at first, but the longer she clung to Alfie, the more her arms hurt, and the more the leathers felt like they were choking her.
Just when Julia was sure she couldn’t take another second of the long ride, they slowed down and entered an ordinary-looking modern housing estate made up of pleasant, semi-detached houses, each with their own garage and neat garden. As they followed the van through the winding streets of the estate, Julia noticed the life around her. The place was alive with the sound of children, which made what they were doing feel even stranger.
They came up to a small row of shops and takeaways, and the van turned the corner. The lights stayed where they were, giving the impression they had parked somewhere. Alfie seemed to notice at the same time as Julia because he slowed down and parked them outside of a moderately busy chippy. Even though the sneaking around was giving her a nice shot of adrenaline, the scent of the fish and chips made her realise she should probably be at home with her feet up, eating dinner like a normal person.
Instead, she was climbing off the back of a motorbike to follow two men who had robbed and murdered on the same night. She couldn’t deny the flicker of excitement about the whole event, and anticipating eight months of her midsection expanding outwardly ahead of her, she didn’t feel too bad about not being one of those normal people lining up for their chippy supper.
“Remember what we said.” Alfie put his arm out when they reached the top of the shadowy alley the van was parked down. “We get proof, and then we take it to the police.”
“I know.”
“No confrontations.”
“I don’t intend on making any.”
“Good.” Alfie let out a breath before grabbing his phone from his pocket. “Let me just see if the coast is clear.”
Instead of popping his head around the side of the chippy, Alfie opened the camera on his phone and held it out into the alley.
“Looks like there are storage units at the end of the alley,” Julia said as she watched the screen. “I think they’re emptying the van out here.”
“Looks like we can get closer.” Alfie popped his head around the wall and nodded to the large blue bins outside the chippy’s back door. “They won’t be able to see us. It’s too dark.”
It really was dark. The light had faded fast from the sky, and a chill had settled in the spring air. A shiver ran over her shoulders under the tight jacket, and as though the universe felt it too, the tall streetlamps suddenly flickered to life.
Julia and Alfie ran to the bins, which were in complete darkness compared to the brightness of the streetlamp directly over Dale and Leon as
they talked by the side of the van. When they both walked to the back of the van and out of view, Alfie and Julia wordlessly agreed to venture further down.
They crossed the alley, ran in a diagonal line, and hid behind an abandoned burgundy sofa that was positioned halfway across the alley, giving them the perfect viewpoint.
“We need to know what they’re saying,” Alfie said, holding his hand out, his leathers creaking as he squatted down. “We need concrete proof that it’s them so there’s no way they can get away with it. Give me your phone.”
Julia dug around in one of the pockets before pulling out her phone. She unlocked it and handed it over to Alfie. He immediately put it on silent and did the same with his own. He called himself from Julia’s phone and then answered on his own. After handing Julia’s phone back to her, he ran around the sofa without any warning.
Holding her breath, Julia watched as Alfie crept down the side of the van. Metres away, Dale and Leon stood with their backs turned, talking. All of a sudden, Julia heard what they were saying on the phone. She lifted it to her ear and listened closely.
“She’s meeting us here soon,” she heard Dale say, his voice making her shudder. “Stupid idiot still thinks she has leverage.”
“Forget about her,” Leon replied. “When are we going to hit the antiques barn? I’m telling you, there are just as many valuables in there.”
“When I have things in order,” Dale said. “We can’t raise any suspicions this soon after hitting the manor. We need to let things cool down. Until then, you can keep pretending you have a real job for once.”
“You’re hilarious,” Leon muttered.
Alfie hurried back around the back of the sofa at that moment, giving Julia a quick fright.
“I put it next to the van,” he said as he resumed his crouching next to Julia. “What are they saying?”
“Won’t they be able to hear us?” she whispered back.
“I put us on mute,” Alfie said, pointing out the highlighted microphone icon on the screen. “They can’t hear us. It’s also recording their whole side of the conversation. What are they saying?”
