Small Town Christmas (Some Very English Murders Book 6)

by Issy Brooke

  “Hmm. That makes her less likely to have been the one that drove at you, then. That’s positive. Or…”

  “What?”

  “She could have been the one who drove at you, but it could have been accidental,” Cath explained. “We deal with cases where people are taken ill at the wheel. It can be anything from a heart attack to a dizzy spell to a diabetic emergency. If it were her, she might be ashamed about it, and therefore she’d give up driving for a while.”

  Penny nodded. “That’s plausible, but it would make the incident tonight a separate one.”

  “Would it?” Cath said. “She’s told you something that she doesn’t want anyone else to know …”

  “Oh. My. Goodness,” Penny said. “Surely not!”

  “Linda is a hard sort of woman,” Cath said. “If she’d kill her own brother, she’d have no hesitation in bumping you off. I have to pass this intel on.”

  “The thing is, though, that it’s all so reliant on chance.”

  “Is it?” Cath said. “I don’t think so. The car drove at you when you were walking home from the carol singing, and I think everyone knows you have been singing, and where the practise takes place.”

  “That’s true. But just now … oh. Oh, wait.” Penny thought it through. “I had mentioned to Jared, and to Linda, that I was going out tonight. Only Haydn didn’t know.”

  “You assume Haydn didn’t know. It wasn’t a secret. Drew knew, I assume?”

  “He would have nothing to do with this!”

  “Calm down,” Cath said, smiling. “But he could have mentioned it to any number of people.”

  Penny twisted her hands together. She felt miserable. “I know,” she said sadly. “This just sucks. I want to go home and I want a hot toddy and I want to go to bed.”

  “You sound like a small child,” Cath said but her face was kind. “Come on. When my colleague gets back with the car, we’ll drive you home.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was hard to know what to do. Penny oscillated wildly between wanting to flee to stay in a hotel in Warrington or Plymouth or the suburbs of Glasgow, and wanting to stay and brazen it out.

  Brazening it out, in her less realistic fantasies, involved her obtaining a gun from somewhere and somehow ending up in a dramatic shoot-out with the attacker, although obviously she only wanted to incapacitate them rather than kill them. I’d go for the legs, she thought. It can’t be that hard. As long as they stay still for long enough. And I’m quite close to them.

  She knew that Drew had a shotgun but that was going to be hard to conceal even in the largest of tote bags.

  She didn’t sleep well, but she did come up with another fifteen ridiculous and unworkable plans to find out who was coming after her.

  She had hoped that she qualified to be in some kind of police protection programme, but there was not enough concrete evidence, apparently. “Anyway, budgets,” Cath had said apologetically as she dropped Penny off. “Maybe you could ask Drew to come and stay with you?”

  “What kind of brazen hussy do you think I am?” Penny said sniffily.

  Cath had simply shrugged. “One that wants to stay safe.”

  Now it was Thursday, and Penny could not settle. She felt like she was more of a target by sitting at home, in spite of the presence of her dog. She still hadn’t burdened her sister Ariadne with the details of either of the attacks, and the longer she left it, the harder it would be to tell her anything.

  She didn’t want to ruin Ariadne’s Christmas with more worry and concern, anyway.

  Christmas Day was less than a week away. She had a final batch of orders to ship out, so she stacked up a few large bags and decided she would brave the outside world, and go to the post office. She felt a little nervous but there was going to be safety in numbers.

  The town centre was absolutely heaving with people. I’m better in a crowd, she told herself, in complete opposition to how she had felt when she had gone out to do the night photography, and had somehow thought she was safer alone. This is great.

  It was not great. It was noisy and unpleasant, with people rudely pushing and shoving. Their faces were stressed with the hassle of having to create the perfect Christmas, and no one seemed to be sharing any festive joy. Everyone had seen the adverts on telly and the latest raft of inspirational cookery programmes. Everyone knew what was expected of them.

  Penny fought her way into the post office and found herself at the end of a very long queue. Both of the counter positions were open. Sheila and her husband were working hard, but it still took Penny twenty minutes to reach the counter.

  “Ah! Now then, Penny May,” Sheila said. “Pop them on the scale, one by one. All inland?”

  “This batch are. I’ve got another bag here, with a heap of packages that are going overseas.”

  “I hope they are for Europe, otherwise they are not going to make it for Christmas.”

  “Mostly Europe,” Penny said. “But it’s now or never, eh.”

  “Hmm.” Sheila worked mechanically, printing out each label and slapping it on with one hand even as she reached for the next parcel with her other hand. And as she did all that, she was still talking. “Now, did you hear the news of what just happened?”

  “Last night?” Penny said, thinking the gossip might be about herself.

  “This morning!” Sheila said, and leaned forward, and told Penny something that made her feel sick with worry all over again.

  * * * *

  “I think you’ve got it all wrong!” Penny exclaimed to Cath. Penny had rushed home, and found Cath just getting out of her car by her house.

  “Hello, how are you, and all that,” Cath said. “What have I got wrong now, then?”

  “I’ve just been in the post office and Sheila told me what you did this morning.”

  “This morning? I had a huge row with my eldest son about the time he spends on his computer.”

  “No, I mean you as in the police.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Yeah, okay, but you have to tell me what’s going on. Is it even true?”

  “That’s the first thing you should be asking.” Cath followed Penny into the house and stopped to greet Kali for a quick ear-rub. “Tell me what you have heard.”

  Penny dumped her coat on the sofa and flopped into the armchair. She waved her hand vaguely, and Cath shoved Penny’s coat to one side with a dark look before taking her seat on the sofa.

  “I heard that Linda had been arrested this morning,” Penny said. She fixed Cath with a stern glare. “Linda! They are saying it’s for the murder of her brother. Is that true?”

  “That she was arrested or that it’s for the murder?” Cath said.

  “You are infuriating. Stop it.”

  Cath grinned. “Yeah, well, whatever. Okay, it is true that Linda has been arrested this morning. I passed on the information you gave me last night, and I am not sure what else has been going on in that investigation, but it obviously joined some dots for the team. They would not have arrested her without good reason.”

  “But what reason?” Penny said.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Was she arrested for the murder, or just for attacking me? Because I don’t think that she did. Well, I don’t think that she attacked me. I do imagine she could have killed Clive.”

  “If she could kill Clive, she could certainly attack you,” Cath said. “And vice versa.”

  “Everyone at the last planning committee meeting knew where I was going, and when,” Penny said. “I feel ill. My information to you has now led to this! I think I’ve caused a miscarriage of justice.”

  “No, and if the culprit is Linda, then you’ve directly helped us out. You’ve caught the murderer! That’s what you do, isn’t it?”

  “No,” Penny said with a dejected air. “I am convinced that we are missing something, and it’s about last night.”

  Cath clicked her tongue. “Leave it to the investigation. Hey, last night, you were taking
photos, weren’t you? Did you get any good ones?” It was obvious Cath was trying to change the subject to calm Penny down.

  “I did, actually. Do you want to see? I couldn’t sleep last night so I spent some time editing them and I’ve got the best ones uploaded already.”

  “To the community webpage? Yeah, go on, let’s see them. Oh – while you’re up, you may as well put the kettle on,” Cath added as Penny went through to the kitchen.

  Penny returned with a tray of hot drinks, snacks and her laptop. “Okay, here we go,” she said as the device warmed up. It was probably a good idea to focus on something other than her own troubles for a short while. “Ah, now look. I like this one.”

  Cath looked at the shot of the stars. “That is cool,” she said. “How did you get them to stand out so brightly?”

  “Actually, it’s a bit of a fudge,” she said. “It’s three different shots all layered together, but it’s a nice effect.”

  “Cheat!”

  “It’s no more cheating than when everyone developed their photos in darkrooms. They still messed around with exposures and so on. They dodged and burned parts of the image, they cropped and they highlighted; it’s just that it was done physically.”

  “I suppose. Show me some more.”

  Penny flicked through the album of her images, and then returned to the photo site’s homepage.

  “Now that is a good photo!” Cath said, pointing to another star scene.

  “Huh. That one’s not mine,” Penny said. “They’ve done really well there, though. You can actually see the milky way!”

  “You’re PennyWithADog?”

  “You’re channelling Sherlock again. Yeah. That’s WhiteDeer.”

  Cath stuck her tongue out and they both laughed. “Right, I’ve got to get on. I promise I’ll keep you posted, as much as I can.”

  It was an instant reminder of the current situation and Penny’s smile died. “I have a really bad feeling about all this,” she said.

  “Don’t. If nothing else, Linda is guilty of wasting police time and not telling us everything when we asked her. Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  * * * *

  Penny wasn’t sure how to tell Drew about the latest incident. After Cath had left, she sat down and played with her phone for a while, drafting out various text messages. Eventually she simply called him.

  “Hi, are you busy?”

  “Sort of … but I’m free later on,” Drew said, his voice muffled.

  “Can you come over?”

  “Sure I can.” He paused. He obviously picked up on her tone; she wasn’t exactly speaking in a flirty way. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, don’t worry. But it would be nice to see you.”

  “Right.”

  * * * *

  “Everything’s not okay,” he said as soon as she opened the door to him. “I can see it in the way that Kali is standing close to you.”

  Penny hadn’t even noticed that until Drew mentioned it. She looked down to see that Kali was pressed against her leg. She would usually be bounding over to Drew to say hello. Instead, she was protecting Penny.

  “I’m rumbled,” she said. “Come on through.”

  Her laptop was open and she pointed at the screen which was still showing her photos. She’d been editing some more.

  “Did you take those last night?” he asked as he sat down. “They’re good.”

  “Thank you. Yes, and something happened last night. I don’t want you to panic or over-react…”

  He was sitting up straight immediately. “Nothing makes me panic more than being told not to panic. Was it that car driver again?”

  “No. Yes, maybe. But not in a car. And first of all, let me tell you that the police are involved, and I phoned them right away, and it’s all in hand, and in fact, someone’s been arrested for it.”

  He frowned. “I heard Linda had been arrested. But surely that can’t be connected …”

  Penny explained everything.

  Drew listened, and she went to great lengths to reassure him, over and over, that Cath had been there, that the police had attended, and that everything was under control.

  “I really think you ought to consider going away for a few days,” he said. “We could go on a break together. School’s out for the holidays, you know. I’ve got some free time.”

  “It’s a great idea. I had considered it. But there’s the Christmas market coming up, don’t forget.” She smiled at him. “We’re going together, remember? I’m looking forward to it. And I’m supposed to be the stand-in for Santa Claus, and I want to be around for Ariadne, too. It’s the kids’ first Christmas without their dad around. It’s an important time for them.”

  “Ah. Yes. That’s a big one,” Drew had to concede. “But I am still concerned.”

  “Speak to Cath yourself if you’re at all worried,” she said. “I understand. I mean, I’m not exactly happy myself, you know. But I trust the police.”

  “That’s a new turn for you,” he said. “You’ve always thought you could do better than them in the past.”

  “That was before I was the potential target,” she said. “Now I’m utterly out of my depth.”

  Drew smiled and took her hand.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Penny was just getting ready to go out for that evening’s carol singing, later that day, when she heard a knock at her front door. Kali bounded through, tail wagging, relaxing a bit from her on-guard attitude. Drew had stayed for an hour or two, and his presence had calmed Penny, which had, in turn, calmed Kali.

  It was Cath at the door. Penny was pleased to see her.

  “Are you off out?” Cath said, eyeing her coat with a strange expression on her face.

  “Yes, I’m carolling.”

  “Again? Would you like to do something more interesting?”

  “I’ve made a commitment,” Penny said.

  “That’s not a yes or a no. Okay, let me tell you the latest news, and then you’ll decide to come with me.”

  “Will I?”

  “Oh yes,” Cath said cheerily. She waved a plastic bag at Penny. “Look what I found!”

  Penny watched as Cath unfurled the bag and revealed a bicycle pump.

  “Are you taking up cycling?” Penny asked. “Don’t forget that Haydn thinks it’s not for the likes of us poor delicate women. Our wombs might get rearranged or something.”

  “It’s to do with Haydn, as it happens. Linda has been released, you’ll be pleased to hear. I can’t find much out about what’s going on there, because of not being on the case. I went down to the incident room to ask, but Inspector Travis chased me out with a staple gun.” Cath looked affronted, as well she might.

  “So where is the pump from? Haydn’s bike?”

  “Potentially – but I found it lodged in a clump of grass and weeds, by the side of the road, where you were attacked the other night. I went back in the daylight.”

  “Oh!” Penny peered more closely at it. “That fits,” she said. “I fended it off with my camera’s tripod. There, there’s a mark on it.”

  “And I think we both know that Linda is not, and would never have been, a cyclist,” Cath went on. “But Haydn is, and so is Jared.”

  “Jared’s more of a runner,” Penny said. “Except for his recent bout of tendonitis.”

  “How long has he been a runner?”

  “I don’t know. But he’s always been sporty.”

  “I was aware he’d always been a cyclist,” Cath said. “Basically, both of them are now suspicious in my eyes. What do you think?”

  Penny had to agree that both men had argued with her, and both could be seen as having motive. The motive, however, was very slight. She said so. “The thing is, Cath, if I had a million pounds that one of them thought was rightfully theirs, or if I had harmed a member of their family, then I’d understand why they had it in for me. But no one kills someone, or even attacks someone, on the basis of a bit of a disagreement. The
motive is not strong enough.”

  “You ought to come and work Saturday night around the bars and clubs of Lincoln, with me,” Cath said. “Someone will glass someone else in the face for the sake of a look, you know.”

  “Eww. But is it common?”

  “Sadly, yes, due to alcohol and drugs. People can be idiots, they really can. Emotions are more powerful than we give them credit for.”

  “Can I have a look at the pump?” Penny asked.

  Cath handed it over. “We’ve dusted for prints, but got nothing,” she said. “Do you recognise it? Apart from the fact that it hit you on the head, I mean.”

  “It’s unusual,” Penny said. “It’s odd, being a full-size frame pump.” She cast her mind back to the meeting with Haydn outside his house. “Most cyclists now use those little carbon dioxide cartridges. Or at least, a mini-pump. This sort of pump is more likely to hang around someone’s garage.”

  “So it wouldn’t be carried out on a ride?”

  “They used to be.” Penny held it out horizontally. “It would be clipped to the frame. A long one like this was usually underneath the top tube. It’s quite an old-fashioned thing to do. Or, as Haydn would put it … retro. Vintage.”

  “The case against Haydn is looking bleaker,” Cath said.

  “Except for motivation. Jared has more motivation to harm me than Haydn, because I’ve spurned him.”

  “They’re both at the top of the list then?”

  “Yes,” Penny said.

  “Right. So we’ll go and visit them both – now.”

  “What, officially?”

  Cath gestured at her baggy hooded sweatshirt and jeans which were frayed at the bottom. “Do I look like I’m on official business?”

  “You could be undercover…”

  Cath shook her head. “No. I’m not on the case, remember? I’m frustrated. Now I think I know how you’ve been feeling, especially on those other cases when you weren’t technically allowed to get involved. So, whatever happens, none of this is happening, and we never spoke about it, right?”