Body in the Woods (A Reverend Annabelle Dixon Cozy Mystery Book 3)

by Alison Golden

  Barbara shook her head sorrowfully.

  “Such a sad story.”

  Annabelle leaned forward.

  “What is the story, exactly? I’ve heard so many versions of the tale, but I still don’t feel like I truly know what happened all those years ago between Lucy, Louisa, and Daniel.”

  “Ah yes,” Barbara smiled, her blue eye shadow seeming to brighten as she recalled the memory. “The ‘love triangle.’ It went on for ages.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you have to go back very far to get the full story, Vicar. You see, they all grew up together. Louisa, Lucy, Daniel, and all the rest. They were all born within a few years of each other, and they were like a pack of wolves, I tell you! No, they were nice kids, really. Anyway, Louisa and Gary were both very quiet, intense kids. Both liked to read, both liked to be indoors. You could tell they would become a couple even before they knew it. Well, the thing was, Louisa grew up a real knockout. Oh, you should have seen her! Maybe one of the most beautiful girls I’ve ever seen in Upton St. Mary. She could have been a film star! Everybody said she was destined for great things. You know when you can just see it in someone? She was smart, too. She was still quiet, but she could have a laugh. Still loved being indoors, but you’d see her at a dance every once in a while usually surrounded by boys. Oh, the boys loved her, for sure.”

  “Including Daniel?”

  “Especially Daniel! He ruled the roost! He was always a mischievous one, that Daniel. He was a bit older than her, but if any of the boys were going to have a chance, and in my opinion she was out of all their leagues, it was Daniel. The only problem was that she was still with Gary. He was a nice enough chap, don’t get me wrong, but let’s just say she made her choice before she even knew she had one.”

  “So Daniel began courting Lucy, instead?”

  “Right. Lucy was a gorgeous girl too, but next to Louisa… Well, even Marilyn Monroe would have competition.”

  “Did Lucy and Louisa get along well?”

  Barbara pursed her lips a little.

  “Not really. It was a little strange, to be honest. Get either of them alone, and they were fine, but put them in the same room, and it was almost as if Lucy lost a little of her shine, and Louisa got a little more bossy. I think there was always a little jealousy between them. Lucy didn’t like it that Louisa was prettier and bossed her around. Louisa didn’t like it that Lucy was outgoing and loved by everyone for her personality and charm. I heard that they fought constantly behind closed doors.”

  “Hmm,” Annabelle murmured. “That’s certainly similar to what I heard.”

  “Oh, but that’s not even half of it, Vicar,” Barbara said eagerly, touching the Reverend’s arm to add emphasis. “It gets much more complicated.”

  “How so?”

  “Louisa fell in love with Daniel!”

  “What?!”

  Barbara nodded.

  “She never said it, not to any of us, anyway, but it was obvious. You could tell by the way she looked at him, by the way she acted. You see, when Daniel began courting Lucy, he was suddenly always around Louisa too. Going to her house, asking Louisa where her sister was, having Louisa as their chaperone. Daniel was a handsome lad himself, and charming, too. It turns out all he needed was some time to work his magic. It was patently obvious that they both liked each other. Suddenly it wasn’t just Gary who was Daniel’s problem, it was Lucy too. Louisa started bossing her around even more, stopping her from going out with Daniel, asking her all these questions.”

  “There’s one thing I just can’t understand though, if all you’re saying is true.”

  “No word of a lie, Vicar!”

  “But in so many years, since Louisa’s divorce and Daniel being single still, why have they never gotten together?”

  Barbara shrugged.

  “Beauty fades, Vicar, as does love. Plus, when Lucy disappeared, it affected everyone badly, especially their friends. They were never the same. No more regular Friday night dances, no more gatherings in the market square, no more parading through the streets like a marching band on its day off. Their group of friends broke up. Sure, they were still around, but they grew up the very night that Lucy disappeared.”

  “It’s a tragic story.”

  “That it is, Vicar. Louisa got married to Gary as soon as she turned eighteen, went to university, and came back to teach. She barely spoke a word to anyone about anything, let alone about the past. Nobody even knew she was getting divorced until Gary came in one night with his bags packed saying he was going to America. Daniel got himself an apprenticeship, despite being a lazy so-and-so, and worked his socks off every day. Lucy had been like a free spirit in the town. When she disappeared, it was like she took all the childhoods of the village with her. Even I ended up taking a job at the florist’s so that I’d have something to do during the summer. The dances and the company just weren’t the same when she went. It was such a shame, Vicar.”

  “Thank you, Barbara,” Annabelle said, gratefully, “I can’t tell you how much of a help you’ve been.”

  “I don’t know why you’re asking about all of this, Vicar,” Barbara said, downing the last of her wine, “and for once, I’d rather not know. Some things belong to the past and are better left to rest there.”

  CHAPTER 7

  ANNABELLE LEFT THE pub with her head spinning. So much so that she failed to notice the sight of Dr. Brownson carrying what looked like paint, an easel, and palette into the pub. He nodded warmly, but Annabelle decided not to stop and chat. She had far too much to think about, and a distraction was the last thing she needed.

  Once again, her impression of what had gone on between Louisa, Daniel, and Lucy all those years ago had been completely turned around. Now she had a complex tale of fate, unrequited love, passion, and jealousy to chew over as she got inside her Mini.

  Annabelle paused before starting her engine. Despite the huge amount of information she had gathered, there was still simply not enough for her to come to a conclusion. The more she learned, however, the more enigmatic Louisa became, and thus the more Annabelle wondered what Louisa kept in her allotment shed. It was, of course, entirely likely that there was nothing of any consequence in there, that Louisa had merely gone to the shed to gain some respite from the village she seemed to find so tiresome. Many a man would understand her sentiment entirely! But Annabelle felt that she had seen something in the manner of the teacher as she made her way toward the allotment. A strange atmosphere of grim determination and loss.A hurrying gait.Signs of a person who has an important thing to do or see.

  She brought the key up to the ignition but hesitated once again.

  The Inspector was right. There could be an entirely rational explanation. The shed could be filled with nothing but gardening tools and bags of seeds. Annabelle thought of herself as very much a rational person, but her instincts were inflamed with curiosity concerning the shed. Barbara’s story had only made her more intrigued by the teacher and her erratic behavior, and Annabelle felt there had to be some side of her that she had not yet seen. Some secret that would not be revealed lightly.

  She turned the key and fired up the engine with an air of purpose. The engine roared into life as if agreeing with her decision. She would find Inspector Nicholls, and they would discover the shed’s secret, even if there weren’t one.

  As she puttered slowly toward the Upton St. Mary police station, she caught sight of Constable Jim Raven walking in the opposite direction. She gave a cheery beep to grab his attention and slid the car into a nearby parking spot.

  “Hello, Reverend. Heard you had a successful sermon today,” the officer said as she exited the car.

  “Oh, thank you, though I doubt it will persuade you to attend in future.”

  Constable Raven laughed to hide his embarrassment.

  “Well, I’m so busy… And I do like my Sundays…”

  Annabelle waved away the Constable’s weak excuses as she drew close.


  “I’m looking for Inspector Nicholls. Is he in the station?”

  Constable Raven sighed as if exhausted at the mere mention of the Inspector’s name.

  “Yes, he is, which is why I’m outside. He’s getting worse, if anything.”

  “You mean his temper?”

  The Constable nodded. “I still have no idea why.”

  “I think I might,” Annabelle said.

  Constable Raven’s eyes almost doubled in size as he leaned forward.

  “Well, tell me!” he pleaded.

  Annabelle shrugged a little to indicate her lack of confidence in what she was about to say.

  “I heard him shouting down his phone. About a woman, I think. I can’t be sure.”

  “What did he say?” asked the Constable, with none of the methodical detachment one would expect from a police officer.

  “‘I want her back.’ ‘She’s mine.’ ‘You can’t take her from me.’ Various things to that effect.”

  Raven folded his arms and looked to the side with a furrowed brow as he digested this information.

  “That’s rather strange. The Inspector spends all his time either sleeping or at work. He barely meets any women. Hmm, let me think. There’s the female officers at Truro, of course, but all of those are either taken or much too young… The girl in the canteen… but she’s covered in tattoos and piercings. Not his thing at all. He practically recoils when she hands him a plate of her Chicken Alfredo. There’s the office cleaning lady but she’s sixty if she’s a day… They’re all the women I can think of. And Harper Jones, of course.”

  Suddenly it was Annabelle who leaned in with keen interest.

  “Harper Jones?”

  Constable Raven stared confusedly at the Reverend for a few moments before laughing off the idea.

  “Give over! Harper Jones isn’t that kind of woman. Plus she’s married!”

  “I wasn’t insinuating anything!” declared Annabelle.

  “Though Dr. Jones is a bit of a closed book. I mean, what do we know about her really? Have you ever met her husband?”

  Annabelle found herself too deep in thought to speak, prompting the Constable to ask, “Reverend? You alright?”

  “Oh, yes. I was just thinking. The Inspector wouldn’t be the first man I’d met recently who was fighting for the attention of Dr. Jones. Perhaps there is something to it…”

  Constable Raven chuckled away the thought.

  “I think we’re trying to explain the unexplainable, Reverend. Better not to know than to have the wrong idea. We’ll just have to wait for it to pass, I suppose.”

  “Yes, I suppose.”

  “Well, see you around, Reverend.”

  “Bye, Constable.”

  Annabelle hurriedly made her way into the police station, and after exchanging pleasantries with the desk sergeant, she was shown into the office the Inspector had adopted as his own since the investigation in Upton St. Mary had begun.

  True to recent form, the Inspector was slumped over, head in hands. She saw he was immersed in the examination of various documents that were frayed and brown from years of being stuffed in gloomy cabinets, no doubt cases that had been filed around the time of Lucy’s disappearance.

  She knocked gently on the door and waited for the Inspector to raise his head and notice her. It took one more knock, but eventually he huffed, looked at the Reverend, rolled his eyes, and then leaned back in his chair.

  “What is it?” he asked curtly.

  “I see you’re still entrenched in your bad mood as firmly as you are in this case, Inspector.”

  Nicholls sighed deeply, and Annabelle took the Inspector’s lack of words as an invitation to sit across the desk from him.

  “Not for long,” the Inspector growled as he tossed aside the document and pulled another from the tall pile beside him. “If I don’t find anything substantial today, I’m going to close this case. I’ve got more important things to attend to back in Truro.”

  “You can’t be serious!?” Annabelle burst. “This is a murder!”

  “Nearly twenty years old. The trail is too cold at this point to make meaningful progress, let alone solve the case, close it, and secure a conviction.”

  “What on earth do you mean?”

  Again, DI Nicholls sighed deeply, as if too tired to expend the effort of explaining himself.

  “Look, Reverend. A young, pretty girl found dead in the woods is the kind of case that you’ll find up and down the country, across the world, I daresay. It only takes one passing madman, the wrong kind of meeting with a lunatic in a quiet area. It’s not nice, and it’s not something you come across frequently out here among your tea shops and village fêtes, but it happens. There’s nothing here. If there were, we’d have found it by now.”

  Annabelle knit her brow, gravely disappointed with the Inspector, and pushed aside the recent idea that he may not be as pure of heart as she had thought. She couldn’t fully convince herself that the Inspector was indulging in such devilish behavior as chasing a married woman like Harper Jones. However, confronted with the brutal dismissiveness of his current thinking, she found herself wondering more and more.

  “Before you drop this case, Inspector, I must make a strong request.”

  A raised eyebrow was Nicholls’ only response.

  “The allotment shed,” Annabelle said, raising her hand to stop the Inspector speaking when he immediately began shaking his head. “I have found out rather a lot in the past couple of days regarding Lucy’s life at the time of her disappearance, and I believe that whoever is responsible for this terrible deed may be closer than your ‘random lunatic’.”

  “Okay, Reverend,” the Inspector said after a moment’s thought. “You have two minutes to persuade me.”

  Annabelle breathed deeply, placed her hands on the table, and began eagerly. She told the Inspector everything, from the unfulfilled desire Louisa and Daniel had had for one another, to the acrimonious relationship between Lucy and her sister. She even told him of the strange behavior Daniel had exhibited when she had spoken to him, and the rush with which Louisa had made her way to her allotment. Her story took far longer than two minutes, but the Inspector listened intently, possibly due to the fact he and his police team had uncovered very little of what Annabelle had managed to on her own. She spoke sincerely and passionately, putting all her charm and persuasiveness to work in order to get through the Inspector’s tough shell.

  “...if there is a secret yet to be discovered, a clue, then it has to lie with Louisa, and thus, the best chance we have of finding it is in that shed,” Annabelle concluded, her eyes fixed upon the Inspector as she waited for his reaction.

  He scratched his head for half a minute, sighed, and looked around his desk at the mess of paperwork he had sifted through, as he considered all of the Reverend’s points.

  “Okay,” he muttered, eventually. “This case is a dead end anyway. But if there’s nothing in the shed, Reverend, don’t expect me to take your opinion seriously ever again. You’re putting my trust in you on the line, here.”

  Annabelle nodded, her lips closed tightly for fear of changing the Inspector’s mind once again.

  Nicholls stood up, and walked to the door of his office.

  “Where’s Raven?” he shouted.

  “He’s just gone out,” called Constable Colback, a slight tremor in his voice.

  “The lazy so-and-so… You’ll have to do the paperwork yourself then, Colback.”

  Colback mumbled for a few moments before managing to articulate himself more clearly.

  “What paperwork’s that, Chief?”

  Nicholls emitted a sigh that was almost belligerent this time. “The search warrant on Louisa Montgomery’s allotment! Do keep up, Colback!”

  After increasingly exasperated calls from the Inspector, Colback had pulled in every favor with the Truro station he could to have the Inspector’s search warrant ready in double-quick time. When it was ready, Detective Inspector Nichol
ls snatched it out of the young officer’s hand with a glare and set off for his car. With Annabelle in the passenger’s seat offering him directions to the allotment, the Inspector drove with the same quick temper and aggression that he had maintained since he arrived in the village. It was an experience that Annabelle, who prided herself on her exceptional driving skills and her respect for the speed limit, found deeply disturbing.

  “Who examined the body, by the way?” Annabelle asked innocently after they’d arrived at their destination and she’d caught her breath.

  “Harper,” grunted the Inspector, “and some big shot from London.”

  Annabelle nodded.

  “Harper’s rather nice, isn’t she?”

  “She’s a professional. Doesn’t mess around. That’s what I like,” answered the Inspector, shooting her a glance.

  “She’s married, is she not?”

  At this, the Inspector growled roughly. “Why would I care?” Then, under his breath, “Marriage is for fools. Pointless piece of paper that no one should pay any attention to.”

  Try as she might, Annabelle couldn’t hide the concerned frown that emerged on her face. Suddenly all manner of dots connected up in her mind. Could the Inspector really be involved in a love triangle? With Harper and her husband!

  They reached the allotments and got out of the car, the Inspector slamming his door so hard that Annabelle shrieked a little at the sound. Carefully avoiding the nettles that had so pained her during her previous visit, she and the Inspector traipsed up the path that she had watched Louisa walk days earlier.

  “It’s just over here, Inspector.”

  “Hmph.”

  “Oh dear,” Annabelle said, as she reached the shed door. “I completely forgot that the shed was locked when she—”

  She turned around to address the Inspector just in time to see him retrieve a menacing-looking crowbar from his long coat and snap the locks apart as if they were made of flimsy plastic.

  “Good thinking, Inspector.”

  “Police procedure, Reverend.”

  They exchanged a look to confirm their preparedness for whatever lay behind the shed door before DI Nicholls reached out and opened it carefully, peering into the gap as if something might leap out and attack him. When he had opened it enough to be sure nothing dangerous lay inside, he yanked the door open fully. Annabelle quickly followed him inside.