by M A Comley
“Two people? I heard about Geraldine on the grapevine, but who’s the other one?”
“My brother-in-law. He sliced two fingers off whilst carrying out renovations on their house. He had an operation yesterday. I had to be there with Carolyn; she needed my support.”
Louise shuddered and shook her head. “Ugh, that’s dreadful. The operation, was that to repair the damage?”
“No, they’ve managed to stitch the fingers back on. It’s jeopardised their plans to have the renos completed by Christmas, though. Enough about our problems. If you can do some digging and get back to me ASAP, you know how appreciated I’d be.”
“I do. Where would you be without me at times, eh?”
“Exactly. It works both ways. I’ve given you a few decent headlines over the years, too, remember?”
“I do. I’d better be off before the boss gets antsy. Lovely to see you, I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Thanks, Louise. Can you keep things under wraps for now?”
“Until you give me the go-ahead.”
Louise hugged her and left the coffee shop. Ruth finished off her own coffee at leisure, going over certain aspects of the case that were bugging her. She withdrew her phone and swiped through the photos she had taken on the day. Zooming in to them highlighted something unnerving that she had previously missed.
Now she was faced with yet another dilemma: should she visit Geraldine, tell her about the mysterious phone call and what she’d uncovered so far? Or did she take an alternative route now that the investigation had spun off in a different direction?
She flipped through a dozen or so more photos and spotted yet another clue that she had missed. She kicked herself under the table, downed the rest of her coffee and rushed back to the car. Needing to clear her head a little, she drew up at the park and let Ben out again. As he ran after a few of the squirrels darting from tree to tree, her mind was whisked up into a frenzy. She soon came to the conclusion that she’d be foolish if she didn’t chase up what she’d seen.
Panting and exhausted from his exertions, Ben returned. “Come on, you, enough terrorising the squirrels. Back in the car.” The fresh air appeared to have done the trick and enabled her to think straight. There were three people she was desperate to speak to, and they were all within spitting distance of the park. Ruth gave Ben a drink and a treat and then drove to the first house. Eva Lord was just getting ready to leave for her shift at the pub. “Please, Eva, I wouldn’t normally ask, it’s important I talk to you about this.” Ruth showed her the photo she’d captured at the wedding. “Can you explain this?”
The timid brunette gave her a look of resignation as she opened the front door and invited her in. Once they were in the living room, Ruth took a seat on the couch offered to her while Eva remained standing, pacing the floor. “I knew it would only be a matter of time before you came knocking.”
“Meaning what? Do you know what happened to Bradley? What’s with the hateful expression on your face in the photo?”
Eva’s hand covered her heart, and she gasped. “No, you’ve misunderstood me. I didn’t mean that I had killed him, heaven forbid. Would it be wrong of me to think that he got what he deserved?”
“Why don’t you tell me what has led you to think that, Eva?”
Eva sighed heavily and threw herself onto the couch beside Ruth. “I’m not the only one to think the way I do about him. I saw it evident in other women there at the wedding.”
“I don’t doubt that. There are two other women I intend calling on after I see you. What’s going on? I can see you’re struggling with something. Is the burden lying heavily on your shoulders? Do you think telling me will lead to you getting arrested, is that it?”
Her eyes widened as shock appeared to set in. “I swear I have nothing to feel guilty about. My conscience is perfectly clear. The only thing that doesn’t sit well with me is the fact that I’m pleased he’s not around any more.”
“But why? For the record, that’s a pretty callous thing to say. We’re talking about a human life.”
Eva shook her head, and a small tear dropped onto her cheek. She swiftly swiped it away with the back of her hand. “I don’t have to be reminded of that, Ruth. What an insensitive thing to say.”
“I’m sorry. All I’m trying to do is search for the truth. This is a murder investigation now, something that I can’t take lightly. Okay, I’ll stop flinging accusations at you if you promise to tell me what happened between you.”
“I can’t. I just want the matter to rest now, with him.”
“I can’t allow that to happen, Eva, you know that. Geraldine deserves answers, you can understand that, can’t you? Barely married five minutes before her husband is murdered, how the hell would you react?”
“I know she does. But I don’t want to be the one to break the news to her.”
“What news? Come on, you’re not giving me enough to make an intelligent assumption…wait a minute.” She ran a hand over her face and stared at Eva. “You’re not telling me he was a sex pest, are you?”
Eva’s gaze fell to her clenched hands sitting in her lap. She remained tight-lipped for several seconds, until she finally nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Don’t tell me he never tried it on with you?”
“What? No, he didn’t.” For a fleeting moment, Ruth didn’t know if she should be offended or grateful that Bradley hadn’t attempted the same with her.
Eva snorted. “You must be the only woman in this town with whom he hasn’t tried it on.”
Ruth stared at her. “You’re kidding me, aren’t you?”
Eva vehemently shook her head. “Not in the slightest. Show me the rest of your photos.”
Ruth pulled her phone out of her pocket and punched in her password, then she handed it to Eva, who swiped through the photos. Using two fingers to make an image larger, she pointed out the two other women who had caught Ruth’s attention prior to her arriving. The women wore a similar expression of distaste whilst looking at Bradley. She continued to swipe through and angled the phone Ruth’s way, indicating another couple of women who Ruth had neglected to see.
“There, now tell me I’m alone in thinking he’s a sex pest.”
Ruth placed her hand over Eva’s. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea. Are you up to talking about it? I need to get an idea of what he was up to before I take it any further.”
Eva gasped and withdrew her hand. “I’m not willing to take things further. I want the memories to die along with him.”
“Is that likely to happen? I can see you’re reliving those memories now. It must be torture for you. Won’t you consider unburdening yourself?”
Eva inhaled a deep, shuddering breath. “He’s badgered me for years.”
“Whoa! Years? How many years? Are we talking about before Geraldine and Bradley got together, five years ago?”
“Yep. Once he had you in his sights, there was no stopping him, not until he got what he wanted.”
“In what form did this badgering take place? Did he ask you out on a date? More than that?”
“You know I’m a barmaid and what that likely entails from the punters, but somehow his suggestions always seemed lude and inappropriate. They were always done on the sly, never within earshot of other people.”
“Well, this is all news to me. I would never have taken him for a sex pest, not that I disbelieve you, of course. Crap, how am I going to tell Geraldine this?”
Eva quickly clasped her hands. “You can’t, I won’t allow you. I’ll deny everything I’ve told you here today. I couldn’t live with myself if you told her the truth. Why can’t you leave things as they are, Ruth?”
“Are you joking? I can’t. Geraldine, my best friend in this world, is relying on me to uncover the truth behind her husband’s death. Please, don’t ask me to keep this from her, I won’t do it. She has a right to know what he was like. Surely you can understand that?”
Eva buried her head in her hands and sobbed. When
she glanced up at Ruth again, her eyes appeared dead, as if she’d given up. “I won’t be able to live with myself if you tell her the truth.”
“Don’t say that, Eva. I think you’ll feel relieved it’s all out in the open, take my word on that.”
“I can’t. I don’t want any of this to come out. I’ve buried it deep within here all these years.” She pointed to her head and her heart at the same time.
“Just tell me what happened between you. I swear you’ll feel better knowing that it’s out in the open.”
“I so want to feel better. I haven’t had the courage to be with a man since he tried it on with me.”
“Please, share the details with me.”
Her shoulders slumped. “He pestered me, not like that, but for a date, for months. When I finally relented, we went out. We had a decent time, but when it came to saying goodnight, he wanted to come in for a coffee. We’d both had a bit too much to drink. I thought nothing of it and invited him in. We chatted for a while, everything was fine, as it was during the date. He made me feel special for the first time in my life.”
“What changed?” Ruth enquired, urging Eva to go on when she paused.
“He did. It was like a red mist descended. Not at first, granted, but as soon as I slapped his advances away, that’s when things got heavy.”
“No, you’re not telling me he raped you?”
“Thankfully it never came to that. Eventually, he got the message that I wasn’t prepared to go further, not on the first date. He stormed off in a huff. After that, he hounded me for months on end to give him another chance. He put his enthusiasm down to the drink he’d consumed that evening. He had a knack of turning the tables, making me feel as though it was all my fault. I felt guilty about that but still refused to cave in to his advances. God, I hate any form of confrontation. He started bad-mouthing me to the punters at work. My boss was livid. Told me to sort him out or I’d get the sack. How the heck do you combat someone with that amount of will and intention?”
“It sounds like you were forced into a corner, put in an untenable position. So, what happened next? Did he eventually get the message?”
“It took months. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t take the hassle any more and finally told him that if he didn’t back off, I would report him to the police. That seemed to do the trick then, although afterwards I was even more nervous. I used to walk home at night after my shift constantly glancing over my shoulder in case he was following me. It was horrendous.”
“That’s deplorable. I’m so sorry he put you in that position. Maybe if you’d asked your boss to intervene it would have made your life easier.”
“I couldn’t do that. I’d not been there long. I didn’t want to appear weak in my boss’s eyes. He would have sacked me. As barmaids, we’re supposed to be made of strong stuff. It’s expected of us to take a certain amount of good-natured flack from the punters.”
“That’s dreadful in itself. No wonder you don’t see many men working behind the bar down at the Old Swan.”
Eva shrugged. “I can’t speak for the boss, he has his way of running things. He’s all right and treats me fairly on the whole.”
“Going back to Bradley, was that the end of the hassle?”
“Yes.”
Puzzled, Ruth asked, “If you were that upset with him, what made you attend the wedding?”
“For Geraldine’s sake. She’s so well-liked around here, it would’ve been hard if people abandoned the wedding because of that scumbag. Sorry, I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but that man put me through five or six months of hell that have been, and still are, affecting my whole life. I’m glad he’s no longer around to do what he did. I think there will be a lot of relieved women in this town now, or they will be once his funeral is over and done with. I still won’t believe he’s dead until he’s buried six feet under.”
“Take my word for it, he’s dead, and there is no possible way he could have recovered from that fall.”
“Good. I know that makes me sound like a hard, uncaring cow but, under the circumstances, I think it’s warranted.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. One last thing before I let you get on with your day. If Geraldine is such a good friend, why, oh why, have you never confided in her about what he was like or how he treated you?”
“Would you? If you were in my shoes, could you have thrown a spanner in the works? Maybe he was different with her. I thought he’d changed. It was an eye-opener to me when I glanced around at the other guests and picked out a few women who obviously felt the same way as I did.”
“I totally missed it on the day. It wasn’t until I looked through the photos today that I picked up on it. Thank you for being so candid with me. I can’t thank you enough.”
“You’re right about one thing. I do feel as though a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders.”
Ruth smiled and patted Eva’s hand. “Glad to hear it. Why don’t you be kind to yourself and go the whole hog and take time out to work through your feelings with a counsellor? I also feel I need to add that not all men are the same.”
“You appear to be very happy with James. Any plans on tying the knot yourself in the future?”
“That’s like asking how long a piece of string is. I love him far more than I’ve ever loved another man. I’m simply struggling to commit. He asks me constantly, and each time I reject him I see another crack develop in our relationship. I don’t want to be forced into a marriage that might go wrong further down the line.”
“I can understand that. I think your doubts are realistic. I’m sure hundreds of women who are in a relationship feel the same way. Sadly, I’m not likely to be in that position myself.”
“Nonsense. Think positively going forward and get some help. You’ve done it once, spoken to me about the bad experience you encountered, so listening to the advice of a counsellor will put you on the right track, I’m sure. If not, you have my permission to punch me in the face.”
They both laughed as they rose from their seats. Eva led her to the door and surprised Ruth by giving her a suffocating hug.
“Thank you, Ruth. I hope you find the perpetrator. I’m dying to hear the outcome of your investigation and what this person’s motive was for doing away with him.”
“Top of my list when I discover who the culprit is. I won’t give up until I nail the person. If you hear any snippets of gossip down at the pub, you know where I am. Take care, Eva.”
“I will, Ruth, you can be sure of that. Thank you for listening to my woes, it really made a difference.”
“You’re welcome. Stop being so hard on yourself and get on with your life. If you take my advice, you should join a club or something. Don’t go dating any of the punters from the pub.”
“Excellent advice. I was wondering whether to enrol in the new tango class at the town hall. Do you know if it’s popular?”
“No idea, sorry. Or, you could join the Am-Dram club. We hold regular meetings every Sunday evening.”
“That’s a thought. My acting skills aren’t up to much, I’m afraid.”
“Not a problem. You could always join to be part of what goes on behind the scenes. Think about it and give me a call. We’d love you to join us. We do tend to gossip like old women at times, but we have a laugh. That’s the main thing in this life, isn’t it?”
“I must admit, I’ve not done a lot of that over the years. Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll seriously consider it and get back to you. I’m a little shy with new things as an outsider.”
“No need. All the members probably frequent the pub anyway, so they won’t be strangers to you.”
“Now you’ve got my juices going. It would be better than tango classes—I’d need a male partner for that, which is out of the question…for now,” Eva added before Ruth could open her mouth.
“Good. Let me know.”
Chapter 10
Her stomach churning with a mixture of outrage and disgust, Ruth
drove to the next woman’s house. Unfortunately, Maria Fox wasn’t at home. However, Ruth wasn’t going to let that alter her plans about speaking to her. She hopped back in the car and pulled up outside the small supermarket in town where Maria worked. That was the beauty of living in a small community—most of the time, people knew where everyone else worked.
Upon entering the Cove Supermarket, she saw the manager, Lee Oswald, stacking the shelves with cans of beans. “Hi, Lee. Nice to see you getting your hands dirty for a change.” She smiled down at him.
“Oi, you. I’ll have you know that I’m always on the shop floor tinkering with this or that.”
Ruth raised an inquisitive eyebrow. “Not the best response you could have made. Lucky there’s no one else around to overhear your remark.”
He shook his head and stood. “What do you want, Ruth?”
“Sorry, I’m only teasing, you know me.”
“Yep, that I do. A pain in the rear at the best of times.” He smirked.
“Whatever. I’ll let that one slip, for now. I was wondering, in my official capacity as the town’s only PI, if I could have a chat with Maria for ten minutes or so.”
He peered over his shoulder at the pretty blonde cashier. “Is she in some kind of trouble? Should I be concerned? Do I have a murderer working for me?”
Ruth cringed when she heard the final question. For all she knew, he could be right. Many a true word spoken in jest and all that. “None of the above. I will say one thing, Lee. You have an overactive imagination.”
He chuckled. “If you’re ever hiring, I’m your man.”
His chuckle proved infectious, and in spite of trying to keep a straight face, she burst out laughing at the camp tone he’d used. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
“I’ll relieve her on the till. We’re the only two on duty. You can go through to the staffroom and have a chat there. She’s not likely to be upset, is she?”
Ruth hitched up a shoulder. “I really don’t know is the honest answer. I’ll be as gentle as I can with my questions.”
