Raspberries and Retaliation

by Katherine Hayton

  “Sergeant Matthewson, was it?”

  Nadine nodded eagerly. “I’ve never been involved with the police before, but he seemed a very nice man.”

  “Surely, you’ve met him around town before.” Holly couldn’t shake the man, and she hadn’t even been back in Hanmer Springs for a whole year yet. But Nadine was shaking her head. Nope. It appeared Matthewson’s constant company was a cross that only Holly had to bear.

  Well, that, and she did have a horrible habit of stepping straight into the midst of trouble.

  “What was he asking about? Did he think the girl fell down the side of a hill after eating one too many chips?”

  Nadine looked aghast, then giggled when Holly smiled to indicate she was joking. “Oh, you. No. He came around to our shop because someone told him about an argument.”

  Holly lifted one eyebrow. “Were Aidan and Jessica fighting in your shop?” she asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

  “What? No!” Nadine looked appalled, and Holly felt her spirits lift a little. “It was that girl and her dad were fighting. They’d just put in a big order, probably for half the family by the size, and were sitting down, waiting for it to cook. A second later, they were screaming in each other’s faces.”

  Nadine had her hand pressed up against her chest as she recounted the incident. “It was horrible. We’ve had couples in there occasionally having a small spat, but it’s usually nothing more than a fight over whether to order fish or sausage. Nothing like those two.”

  Holly handed the woman’s card back, along with the cupcake she didn’t really want. “I take it the fight wasn’t about your cooking, then?”

  Nadine suddenly looked close to tears, and a rush of remorse flowed through Holly’s bloodstream. How could she have stood here making fun of the woman when she’d gone out of her way to admit something she obviously found hard?

  “It was awful. The dad was yelling at his daughter, Jessica, I think her name was—” Holly nodded “—and telling her if she didn’t find a more suitable partner she wasn’t going to inherit a red cent from him. Those were the words he used. A red cent!”

  “That must have been horrible to listen to,” Holly said with genuine sympathy. “And it’s not like you can walk away when it’s your shop they’re fighting in.”

  “Exactly.” Nadine bit her bottom lip, tears welling for a second. “I had to stand there while he called her a—” again the furtive glance over the shoulder “—well, a word I can’t repeat. Then he said that her boyfriend Clarence was a no-good drunk and she should leave him out on the street for the next garbage collection. I thought I’d better let you know because… You know. What with Aidan being a suspect and all.”

  Nadine stopped talking for a moment, breathing heavily.

  “You don’t have to tell me, you know,” Holly said. “Although it’s sweet of you to come down here and tell me. I don’t need to know the details.”

  Nadine continued with her story as though Holly hadn’t even spoken. “Jessica then screamed at her dad that she was pregnant, and she was getting married to her boyfriend, so her dad better keep his opinions to himself. She said, if she wanted to know about living with a drunk then she’d just ask her mother, and he slapped her.”

  Holly blinked and took a step back. “The father hit Jessica?”

  Nadine nodded. “He told her that she’d be better off dead than married to that useless man, and if she had a kid with him, it would probably turn out with twelve fingers and three toes.”

  “How awful.”

  The bag in Nadine’s hand started to disappear as she rolled the top down, tighter and tighter.

  “Not to mention, the whole argument long, there was someone else in the shop!”

  “I know,” Holly said. “It’s hard to believe that people think you’ve disappeared just because you’re standing on the other side of the counter.”

  Nadine looked blank. “What?”

  “Well, you were the other person in the shop,” Holly explained. “Sometimes, I think customers don’t believe that we can hear or see them from the other side of this bench.” She slapped her hand down on the countertop, but Nadine was already shaking her head.

  “Not me. Another customer was standing in the shop the whole time. I mean, I didn’t take the argument well, but I’m a professional. Since I’m being paid, I’ll stand there quietly while the customers argue about whatever they want. No. It was another woman. She’d come in and ordered just before those two arrived.”

  Holly pulled a face. “I would’ve left if it’d been me.”

  “Me too,” Nadine said, looking relieved. “She must have been starving to stand there and listen to all that. She seemed a really nice lady, too, not used to that sort of language or behavior. Had a dog tied up outside the whole time. That poor animal must’ve been traumatized too.”

  Holly nodded, breathing a short sigh of relief as Nadine exited the store, the raspberry cupcake already half-crushed by her squeezing the bag.

  “You really shouldn’t tease the clientele,” Crystal said, poking her head around the corner. “If you’re going to be out of sorts with our customers, then we should swap places for the day.”

  “That, my dear sister,” Holly said, immediately untying her serving apron and stepping into the bakery room, “is the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

  Chapter Ten

  Holly came awake with a start when the book she’d been reading suddenly landed on the floor. She must have fallen asleep with it open, but it had gradually slipped out from her fingers.

  As she retrieved it from its resting place on the carpet, she flipped through the pages trying to work out where she’d been up to. Nothing looked familiar, and she snapped it shut again in disgust. With so many things on her mind, reading didn’t work. The words danced in front of her eyes, and even though she turned pages, none of the stories ended up inside her head.

  “Shh,” Crystal said in a low voice right outside Holly’s bedroom door. “If she’s asleep then I don’t want to wake her up. She’s having a tough enough time lately.”

  Holly felt the twin emotions of indignation that her sister thought this was a bad time and thankfulness that she was kind enough to let her sleep. The gratitude won out—thank goodness. Holly had spent enough of her time lately being grumpy. It was about time for a change.

  “I’m awake,” she called out. “So, feel free to barge in and tell me whatever it is you’re whispering about outside my door.”

  She was about to add a tiny remonstration about the time when she caught sight of the clock. Seven-thirty. Oh, well. It was an acceptable bedtime somewhere in the world.

  “Perhaps it would be better in the lounge,” Crystal said. “I’ve got something special here, and I’m not sure that the bedroom is good enough place to show it off.”

  Holly rolled her eyes at the amateur dramatics but also got out of bed. She poked her tongue out at her reflection as she passed the mirror. The silver surface must be lying. Otherwise, she looked like a hundred-year-old witch straight from the worst recesses of a dark fairy tale.

  “What is this special something?” Holly asked, pushing her way out into the hall.

  Crystal immediately grabbed her by the arm and dragged her down the passage and out into the lounge. “Sit,” she insisted, not giving Holly much choice as she pressed down on her shoulders. “We have a special announcement.”

  As she looked up at Crystal and Alec, their arms slung around each other’s faces and joint grins so wide they were in danger of splitting their faces in two, Holly suddenly understood what was about to happen. The sick sense of dread in her stomach blossomed at the same time a thread of joy wound about her heart.

  “We’re getting married!” Crystal and Alec began to bounce up and down. The movement was bad enough on her sister, but it made Holly splutter with laughter to see burly Alec going through the same motions. A hand danced in front of Holly’s nose, and she grabbed at it, forcing it to sta
y still while she peered in wonder at the ring.

  “It’s beautiful,” she exclaimed. “Hold still and let me see it properly.”

  Crystal nodded but continued to bounce up and down for a few steps more. When she stopped, her foolish grin looked so enchanting that Holly couldn’t help but sport the same look in return. “Did you pick this out?”

  “I did. It was all me.” Alec looked absurdly pleased with himself and Crystal planted a giant kiss on his mouth.

  “Yes, he did. Wasn’t it a great pick? I think it looks just like Mom’s engagement ring, don’t you?”

  Holly squinted, tilting her sister’s finger back and forth before reluctantly letting it go. “It does a bit. You did very well, young man.” She gave Alec a light punch on the shoulder. “Now, tell me where you proposed.”

  “In the back of the van,” the couple said in unison, then together burst into raucous laughter. “We were stopped up by the top of the hill, watching the stars out the back,” Crystal hastened to explain.

  “And I asked her, just like that,” Alec said, looking sheepish. “I’d planned to do it at a fancy dinner and stuff, all dressed up like you’re meant to, but it just popped straight out of my mouth, and I couldn’t take it back.”

  “You’d better not,” Crystal said with a stern waggle of her finger. “That would be far too embarrassing at my age. It’s taken an indecently long time for anyone to propose to me as it is!”

  Holly laughed at their rapid speech and flushed faces. The two of them appeared so happy that she felt a thrill of joy wriggle through her own heart.

  She remembered the thrill of being asked to marry, the excitement of planning a ceremony and telling everyone the news. Holly smiled at the reminiscences. No matter what the ultimate outcome had been for her, the joy of that moment after the initial question would always warm up her heart.

  She was ecstatic that now Crystal would have that experience too.

  “We should go out and celebrate with a big meal,” Holly said, clapping her hands together. “It’s not too late, is it?”

  “We’ve eaten,” Crystal said with a pang of regret in her voice. “Although, I suppose we could—”

  She turned her face toward Alec and Holly shook her head. “Don’t be daft. We can do it tomorrow or on the weekend, instead. It doesn’t have to be tonight.”

  Holly clapped her hands together again just because it felt good, then stood up and pulled Crystal into a tight hug.

  “Hey, I’m getting lonely,” Alec complained after a long moment, so Holly looped her arm around his waist too.

  “Group hug.”

  “These should totally be a thing from now on,” Crystal said. Her cheeks were flushed with color and her eyes danced with more lights than in the diamond on her finger. “A group hug every day.”

  Holly smiled and pulled away. “Maybe not every single day,” she said with a laugh. “The town will start rumors.”

  “Oh,” Crystal said, jerking a step back. “I need to go and tell Derek.”

  Derek Masters was the teenage boy who she sponsored as part of the local AA program. A position that Crystal took very seriously, even though Derek was making great strides on his own.

  “It’s not too late to go around there now, is it?” Crystal asked Alec, who shrugged.

  “I don’t know them, babe. If you think it’s okay, I say we go.”

  “Then let’s go! I’ll see you later.” Crystal grabbed Holly and kissed her with gusto on each cheek. “We need to start talking about weddings. You’re so much better at organizing stuff like that than I am.”

  Holly waved as the couple walked down the path to the road. “You’d better not call me babe again,” Crystal was scolding her new fiancé, “or this will be a very short engagement, indeed.”

  As Holly closed the door, she suddenly felt like weeping. Although the joy she’d experienced at her sister’s news was genuine, it put her own situation in stark relief.

  “You wouldn’t even want Aidan to ask you, silly woman,” Holly scolded herself as she picked up her book and once again tried to find her place.

  Of course, that might also be the problem.

  Chapter Eleven

  Holly sent Crystal to front-of-house the next day. “They don’t want me to serve them when there’s a diamond ring being kept secret out the back. In fact…”

  She took the marker pen and wrote a new special on the whiteboard. Engagement Ring Special. Just Ask.

  Crystal laughed and shook her head, but she didn’t change the board or protest too vehemently. For Holly, it was a relief to tuck herself away in the bakery section and not wonder at the motives of everyone coming through the door.

  By mid-morning, the oohs and aahs trickling through from the front room had died down a little and Holly made the daily deliveries, lingering out on the far road to Inglewood Manor house who’d become one of their regular clients. The early season lambs were gamboling in the fields, jumping up and down with the excitement of new life.

  As Holly looked on, one lamb, in particular, decided to call out for his mother. He planted his four feet wide apart for the best balance and baa-ed as though his life depended on it.

  Holly stared in fascination as his tail poked straight out and wriggled in time with his efforts. After a few moments, a large sheep came running and nuzzled close to him, silencing the cries.

  She remembered patting the same-sized lambs in their local farming shows. Holly would play with the eager creatures for twenty minutes, then sniff lanolin off her fingers for the rest of the day.

  Rather than heading straight back to the bakery, Holly then swung around by the stream and parked up the side a little away from the camping ground. She watched members of the family reunion coming together, talking, breaking apart, and sneaking off. The key to Jessica’s death was probably down there among them, but Holly wasn’t going to find it by parking this far away.

  For a second, she was tempted to walk down and get in amongst them. Then common sense reasserted itself. Leave the policing to the police and leave the baking to the bakers. It was time to get back to the shop before the midday rush.

  As they shut up the premises that night, Holly felt out of sorts. She’d been on the lower level of grumpy all day—another sleepless night setting her mind in sludge—and couldn’t be bothered going home to cook. “Do you want to grab a takeaway on the way home? I’m starving.”

  Crystal checked her watch. “Sure. Alec will be over later—we’ve agreed to go to meet his parents this weekend, so he’s going to dish all the dirt beforehand.”

  Holly laughed and looped her arm through Crystal’s. “I can’t imagine there’ll be too much dirt to dig through. Alec seems like a pretty open guy.”

  Crystal nodded happily, but Holly found herself lost in her thoughts about her relationship with Aidan again. Why hadn’t he told her about Jessica when she thought they were so close? What other secrets was he keeping?

  The Indian restaurant only took ten minutes to prepare their meal, and the sisters started the walk home balancing hot plastic containers in their hands. As they walked along the main road, a police car sped past them, lights flashing. The siren wasn’t turned on, but in Hanmer Springs it didn’t need to be. The chance of drivers needing to be warned out of the way was low when weighed up against the disturbance.

  “They’re heading for the camping ground,” Crystal said, turning to watch the vehicle’s progress as it sped into the darkness. They were right outside their front door, and her cheeks dimpled with mischief. “Want to drop these inside—” she nodded to their hot meal “—and go see what’s happening?”

  Holly immediately agreed—anything to take her mind off matters outside of her control. Also, it would be wonderful if the police were about to make an arrest and stop the constant influx of do-gooders coming into the bakery for a chat.

  They walked along at moderate speed for a few minutes, then the ambulance from the surgery center sped past them. This time
, the flashing lights sent a spike of worry straight into Holly’s stomach, and she rubbed her belly.

  Without a discussion, the sisters began to run.

  The road was uphill at the end, then the ground sloped down a wide, shallow path to the park and campsite beyond. By the time Holly reached that, she was panting heavily, and the relief of heading downhill was a godsend.

  The police car was sitting near the motorhome belonging to Jessica’s father, but Sergeant Matthewson was nowhere to be seen. The ambulance had pulled to a stop almost at the roadside, a few hundred yards away from the scene.

  “Where is everybody?” Crystal asked as they hurried down the hill to the park. “I would’ve thought they’d all be gathered around the car.”

  Holly just shook her head. “I don’t know. Where’s Matthewson got to?”

  Then she saw him. He was standing upwind of the motorhome with a mask over his face. As Holly watched, he shooed a line of people back from the site, and they moved willingly. Not at all like the scene from earlier where it looked more like herding cats.

  A firetruck then entered the camping ground, cautiously moving forward until it was twenty yards from the motorhome forming the center of activity. A suited man clambered down from the side and pulled free a hose. He pointed it toward Jessica’s dad’s vehicle and started to spray. It delivered a white, puffy foam over the target area, rather than water.

  “It’s gas,” Crystal said beside Holly at the same time she made the connection too. “There must’ve been a gas leak in the motorhome.”

  “Those poor people,” Holly muttered, reaching for Crystal’s hand and squeezing it tight. “I hope no one was in there.”

  Her hopes were dashed a second later when the fireman nodded to Matthewson who pulled open the door on the side of the vehicle. As one, the assembled group of onlookers flinched with anticipation. There was no explosion, just the disappointing click of a small, silver door opening.