Just Desserts

by Jan Jones

  JUST DESSERTS

  The Penny Plain Mysteries: Book

  Two

  JAN JONES

  A pub with an odd menu, a missing 1950s test plane, the Salthaven WI Village Show, an unlikely development on the Enterprise Park, and Penny’s eldest daughter behaving out of character. It can only be a Penny Plain Mystery …

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter One

  ‘Tell me about Lowdale.’

  Penny Plain looked up from what purported to be Thai-style fish soup. It had sounded nice, reading the menu, but having now tasted it she suspected this particular dish had been no closer to a fish kettle than the pub’s microwave. Such a shame when the sea was on the doorstep and local fishermen were having their boats foreclosed on.

  ‘Sorry?’ She was becoming used to Leo Williams’ conversational leaps – especially when he was hunting down a story for the newspaper – but it was still disconcerting to have him move from pulling apart the appalling decor of the Dun Cow to asking about Lowdale Enterprise Park.

  Leo levered a slab of corporate pate onto his not-particularly Melba toast. ‘Lowdale,’ he said. ‘Tell me about it.’

  Ah, that explained why he’d asked her out. He was after local knowledge. Not, Penny told herself hastily, that she had expected anything more. She and Leo were friends. Occasional puzzle-solving colleagues, that was all.

  She decided to tease him a little. ‘Lowdale? Fifteen minutes up the coast road from Salthaven. The Enterprise Park used to be the old aerodrome. It attracted one of those incentive schemes to persuade companies to build there and keep skilled folk in the Lake District, rather than have them decamp to the city. Light industry, research labs, that kind of thing.’

  Leo raised his eyebrows. ‘And?’

  ‘That’s it. Unless you mean the way someone, somewhere, pulled strings to allow a gently decaying site in the middle of a National Park to be developed for the aforementioned light industry instead of returning to nature as planned.’

  ‘That’s my girl. Come on, Penny, give. For instance, why would a planning application for a sizeable extension be granted to Lowdale Screw Fittings? This is a company so small, boring, and archaic that it can’t possibly be profitable. It’s crying out to be investigated, but is curiously slippery when I try to do so.’

  Penny assumed an enlightened expression. ‘Oh! You mean you want to know about the research station where they test secret stuff that nobody is supposed to realise exists?’

  Leo closed his eyes briefly. ‘Almost certainly. What do you know about it?’

  She grinned. ‘Nothing. It doesn’t exist.’

  ‘Penny, your family has lived in Salthaven since the dawn of time and you have local connections woven right through you. I cannot believe that you don’t know someone – the third cousin of the milkman’s wife or somebody – who hasn’t changed the plugs in the foyer at Lowdale Screw Fittings or cleaned the carpets or …’

  ‘Why do you want to know?’

  ‘Mostly because someone is stopping me.’

  Penny chewed a mouthful of soup. ‘I hope you’re writing down that this food is really average,’ she said. ‘When you invited me to help with restaurant reviews, I expected to go somewhere nice.’

  Leo looked rueful. ‘Me too. Sadly, my editor thinks readers ought to read about places they can afford.’

  ‘You mean he saw through your wheeze of an evening meal once a week at the Salthaven Messenger’s expense?’

  ‘No flies on Harry. So, Lowdale Screw Fittings?’

  ‘The company has been there for years. They took over the old aerodrome buildings long before the place was redeveloped. Totally above board.’

  ‘And the “storage facilities” that they are blocking me finding out about? The warehouse out at the back has an underground level, according to some very old plans I found.’

  ‘That’s secret. It’s always been secret. You ask your Great-uncle Charles. Leo, you aren’t going to be able to poke around if the powers-that-be don’t want you to.’

  Leo finished his pate. He continued to look perfectly pleasant, but in an indefinable way there was now an edge of granite to him. ‘When they tell me to clear off, I’ll stop. Until then I’ll gather as much information as I can. I don’t like secrets.’

  Penny sighed. ‘Have you made many enemies during your career?’

  He handed her the menu and grinned. ‘One or two.’

  ‘Why does that not surprise me?’ But as her eyes skimmed over the glowing descriptions of the main courses and she plumped for ‘corn-fed chicken wrapped in speciality bacon, lightly drizzled with an enchanting emulsion of cave-cultured Stilton and wild mushroom sauce’ , Penny thought to herself that Salthaven was her town and she didn’t want anything going on in its environs that might damage it or its inhabitants. ‘As it happens,’ she said, ‘my son-in-law works at the Enterprise Park. But not at Lowdale Screw Fittings, so I don’t see how it would help.’

  Leo smiled widely. ‘When are you next hosting a family Sunday lunch?’

  ‘This weekend,’ said Penny in a resigned tone. ‘And I’ll just bet you’re free.’

  Leo watched Penny’s knife sawing at her chicken. Maybe pitching restaurant reviews to his editor hadn’t been quite as brilliant an idea as he’d first thought. He’d just wanted a way to keep in regular touch with Penny that didn’t make him look needy. Or like a stalker, come to that. Obviously he’d need two people eating to give a balanced view of the menu – and it was also a way to thank her for all her local-knowledge help. But the food here at the Dun Cow was terrible, and the service was worse, which made nonsense of the thank you gesture. He grimaced, tackling a lamb rogan josh that was mouthful for mouthful exactly the same as the ready meal he’d bought from the supermarket last week, but four times the price.

  Penny glanced up with the twinkle in her eyes that he was beginning to look for. ‘I think the edge of the fork is sharper than this knife,’ she confided.

  Leo laughed. What did the food matter? He enjoyed being with her. Enjoyed sparring with her. And she must like his company too or she wouldn’t have accepted the offer of dinner. ‘What does your son-in-law do?’ he asked.

  ‘Tom? He’s a food scientist. Tests things for E numbers. Or maybe he synthesises them. I’ve always been told I wouldn’t understand.’ A tiny wrinkle of worry appeared fleetingly on her forehead.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Nothing. I just …’ Her voice trailed off.

  Leo’s interest was aroused. He’d never seen Penny unsure before. ‘What?’

  ‘It’s going to sound silly.’

  The waiter took their plates away and dropped a dessert menu on the table.

  Penny eyed it. ‘Do we have to?’ she asked.

  Leo tutted disapprovingly. ‘Of course we do. No point tackling a job if you don’t do it properly. Besides, the paper is paying. Sticky toffee pudding?’

  ‘You have to be joking.’

  He looked at her in surprise. ‘But you love sticky toffee pudding!’

  ‘Yes, I do. Very much. Which is why I refuse to have them ruin one. Just ice cream, please.’

  ‘You may be right. I’ll go for the cheese board.’

  ‘Two cream crackers in cellophane and a lump hacked off the cooking cheddar?’

  ‘That’s good. I might use it in my copy.’

  They continued to banter until the dessert course arrived. Penny picked up her spoon. ‘At least it comes in a pretty tub. I hope you realise I’m only eating this because Grandma Astley dinned it into us that wasting food would put us on the fast track to hell.’ She put a spoonful into her mouth. Her eyes widene
d.

  ‘Is it that bad?’ said Leo, watching her. ‘Leave it then. I’ll have a word with St Peter for you.’

  But Penny’s eyes were closing. To Leo’s astonishment, it almost looked as if they were closing in ecstasy. She shook her head as if searching for words. ‘It’s sublime.’

  Leo couldn’t believe his ears. ‘It’s what?’

  ‘Sublime. Gorgeous. Wonderful. Here, have some. Not too much.’

  Leo leant across. ‘If this is a wind-up, Penny …’ He stopped in amazement, turning heavenly cold magic over on his tongue.

  ‘Leo, what on earth is ice cream like this doing in the Dun Cow?’

  A familiar spark of excitement flared in his chest. ‘I don’t know, but we’re going to have fun finding out.’

  Penny felt a chuckle build inside her as Leo waved energetically at the waiter. He did so like getting a whiff of a story. It was quite endearing in a grown-man-little-boy way.

  ‘Anyway,’ he said, his eyes bright. ‘Going back to you. Why are you worried about your son-in-law?’

  Correction. It wasn’t endearing at all. ‘I’m not.’

  He grinned. ‘You are talking to a professional, remember.’

  Penny abandoned the pretence. Truth to tell, it would be nice to discuss her vague unease with someone. Someone who wasn’t one of Lucinda’s family or friends so that there would be no risk of anything getting back to her. ‘It’s just that twice this week Lucinda has asked me to babysit at short notice because she and Tom needed ‘time for them’. She was really irritated when I couldn’t do tonight.’

  ‘You stood up your daughter for me? I’m touched.’

  ‘I’ve known that for a while.’ She rolled another large spoonful of wondrous ice cream around her mouth. It really was heavenly. ‘The point is that in the background Tom was saying it didn’t matter because he was planning on an evening’s paperwork anyway.’

  ‘Riveting.’ Leo leaned forward, spoon poised.

  She fended him off. ‘Oi, order your own. You don’t understand, Leo. Lucinda never interrupts Tom’s work, especially when he has reports to write. It’s sacrosanct. And on Monday she was wearing a chunky yellow bracelet Tom gave her that she’s never liked.’

  ‘Oho. She thinks he’s playing away.’

  At his flippant words, Penny actually felt her heart bang. She stared at him in horror. ‘No! Oh no, he can’t be. I was guessing she wanted another baby, but I couldn’t understand why she was trying to seduce Tom rather than simply writing her fertile days on the calendar like they did when they were going for Bobby.’

  Leo’s eyes widened. ‘Penny, they didn’t!’

  ‘They really did.’ But she saw scepticism in Leo’s face at her pregnancy deduction and felt almost ill. He couldn’t be right. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that Tom might be having an affair. While she was grappling with the unpalatable thought, the waiter mooched over.

  ‘This ice cream,’ said Leo. ‘We’d like more. One of every flavour, please. It’s wonderful. What make is it?’

  The waiter scrubbed his head. ‘There’s a form,’ he said eventually, and jerked his head at the table.

  Penny looked down, still shaken. What she had taken for the bill was in fact a neatly laid out questionnaire. ‘We are a new concern and would value your feedback,’ she read aloud. It went on to ask what flavour she’d had, how she rated the taste … Something about the layout of the form bothered her, but her head was too crowded with disturbing ideas to track it down right now. She put the questionnaire in her handbag to fill in later. ‘How strange not to have done the market research first.’

  ‘Maybe this is the market research?’

  Penny was scandalized. ‘It can’t be! Don’t products have to be certified before being sold to the public?’

  ‘I do love the way you are so trusting,’ said Leo. He looked with satisfaction at the array of small tubs the waiter dumped on the table. ‘Here you are – dig in. How do you feel about a trip to Lowdale tomorrow?’

  Penny helped herself to a spoonful of caramel ice cream. ‘You are going to have to start driving again yourself one of these days, Leo.’

  He brushed this away, as he did any mention of the accident in which he’d badly injured his leg. ‘Pretty please?’

  The caramel hit the back of her throat in a delicious smooth slide. ‘I’ll pick you up after I’ve done my shopping.’

  Despite her protests, Penny quite liked chauffeuring Leo when he was on a quest for knowledge. He was so alert, so quick to notice things and ask questions. It made her see her familiar surroundings with new eyes. Today, he had a large scale map spread out on his knees and his smartphone open at the Maps application.

  ‘I do know the way,’ she said mildly.

  He threw her a swift grin. ‘I know. But there are other things I want to watch out for while we’re in the area.’

  ‘Not a lot to see up here except sheep and heather.’

  ‘And hills and tarns and the odd missing aeroplane.’

  Penny glanced at him in astonishment. She felt the car wobble and hastily concentrated on the road. ‘Say that again?’

  ‘I came across a report from 1953 of a test pilot from this region who disappeared up here, along with his plane. He’d gone through the war, was a bit of a daredevil, bit of a hero, so I want to trace him. I had in mind a ‘Famous Sons of Salthaven’ strand for the paper. And ‘Famous Daughters’ too, of course.’

  ‘It’s not going to run for too long then, this series?’

  Leo laughed. ‘Penny, I cut my eye teeth on the regional press long before I moved to the nationals. There are always local heroes, some more well-known in the wider world than others.’

  But Penny was thinking of something else now. ‘Wait a minute, Leo. You are working on the Lowdale story, this missing plane, the ice cream mystery, and restaurant reviews. Don’t you think that’s too much? You have to have some sort of life for yourself.’

  His lips set in the tiny line she was beginning to recognise. His voice was light-hearted, but with an edge. ‘This is my life. Finding things out. Solving puzzles. Telling the world about them.’

  ‘But four stories? All at once?’

  ‘The restaurant review is once a week. I can do that in my sleep.’

  ‘Three stories at once then.’

  ‘That way I don’t get bored. Are we nearly there yet?’

  ‘You’ve got the map. You tell me.’

  ‘Then we are. Why didn’t we turn left just now? It looks to be quicker.’

  ‘The road is blocked off.’

  ‘It doesn’t show on the map as closed.’

  ‘It is, I assure you. Maybe that’s an old map.’

  Leo looked smug. ‘New – as recommended by army surveillance.’

  ‘Sometimes I really worry about you, Leo. Here we are. A fine example of a local enterprise park. Note the exhilarating lack of landscaping. None of this pandering to the public sensibility up here. Presumably you would like a casual cruise around the buildings? Slowing down near Lowdale Screw Fittings?’

  ‘Excellent idea. If you should suddenly feel the need to repack the shopping while we are outside, it would be even better. Good Lord, this place is bleak.’

  ‘Isn’t it just.’

  They did a slow circuit and she halted just before the old aerodrome buildings. Lowdale Screw Fittings had patched them up and added an extension and new signage, but in essence they were much the same as they must have appeared to the pioneer aviators of the thirties and forties. Beyond the former control tower, where the runway and hangars and mess huts would have been, there was now a hotchpotch of industrial units in various styles and designs extending around the perimeter fence.

  Leo was completely alert. He got out and stood helpfully holding boxes and bags while she rummaged through her shopping, but all the time his eyes were assessing the buildings and the land and the activity going on. ‘Right on the edge of the site,’ he murmured. ‘Couldn’t be be
tter if there’s something shady in the offing. A pile of building materials to establish the fact that work is going to be starting here soon – and a digger clearing the land at a snail’s pace.’ He chuckled. ‘And a chap in overalls just happening to come outside for a cigarette break to keep an eye on us.’

  Penny straightened up, a packet of biscuits in her hand. She gave them to Leo to hold while she repacked the boot. He leaned against the side of the car, the very picture of nonchalance, his voice slightly louder.

  ‘These hills must have made it interesting for the incoming planes when they were still flying here.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure the pilots would have had training,’ said Penny dryly. ‘Are we done yet? Have you seen enough?’

  He grinned. ‘You are very good to me, you know.’

  They drove off. ‘That’s Tom’s lab,’ said Penny, nodding towards a stark white building close by.

  ‘Going to call in?’

  ‘When Tom is in work mode he barely recognises me. He certainly wouldn’t break off what he was doing to offer me a coffee even if it is lunchtime. Neither he nor Lucinda are natural skivers.’

  The remaining circuit of the Enterprise Park didn’t take long. Penny paused at the junction with the main road. ‘Back to Salthaven?’

  Leo was annotating his map. ‘I wouldn’t mind a look along that blocked-off road.’

  Penny sighed. ‘Pass me a biscuit.’

  She had to slow almost immediately as a tractor pulled out of a field on the opposite side of the road. ‘That’s Billy Fell. There’s no point overtaking, he’ll be turning in again in a moment.’

  Billy lifted his hand in apology. Penny waved back and glanced in her rear view mirror. She saw a neat green car turn out of the farm gates some way behind and come towards them. She stalled abruptly causing Leo’s map to slip off his knees into the foot well.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Penny. Her eyes were fixed painfully on the mirror. Her hands gripped the wheel. The green car turned right – into the Enterprise Park.

  ‘Penny? What’s the matter?’

  Penny started the car again, barely hearing him, and did the fastest, messiest three-point turn ever before surging back down the road. She got to Lowdale just in time to see a neat, green Ford drive into a vacant parking space next to the white building she’d pointed out to Leo. Her hand shaking, she slammed the gear lever into reverse and shot back a hundred yards out of sight.