Peridale Cafe Mystery 22 - Scones and Scandal

by Agatha Frost

  “A break?” Sue heaved a laugh. “I’ve been working flat-out shifts back-to-back. Today’s the only day I’ve had off this week, so I took the kids out of the house just to give Neil a break. I can’t juggle it all.”

  “Especially when you’re trying to juggle concrete blocks,” Julia said, widening the soothing circles. “Until I had Olivia, I really had no idea how hard it could be, and that’s with one. And that’s before we get to your job.”

  “Before you say it again, I can’t go part time.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “We’re more understaffed than ever. There just aren’t enough new nurses coming up. I’m stretched to the limit, and I’m supposed to be happy with pay rises counted in pennies.”

  “You can’t keep this up.”

  “I know,” she moaned, “but I have to.”

  “Neil has a job.”

  “For now,” she said, pushing herself upright. “The council have slashed funding for the library again. Nobody has any idea how close that place came to shutting for good. Neil begged to keep it open, reduced his shifts, took a pay cut, halved the opening hours, and has to rely on volunteers to staff the place.”

  Julia thought of Des.

  “My kids aren’t the only ones I feel like I’m missing out on, but what choice do I have right now? In two years, they’ll be in school, and maybe then—”

  “You can’t think like that,” Julia jumped in, her stern big sister voice coming out as she resettled Olivia at her waist. “Here and now, not two years in the future. There’s always another option. We’ll all chip in, and—”

  “It’s my career, Julia,” Sue snapped in her equally familiar little sister defensive tone. “Years of my life. It’s not that simple.”

  “I never said it was.” Julia kissed Sue on the top of her head. “And I’m here for you. Any time, any place, always.”

  “I know.”

  “But I’ll keep reminding you anyway.”

  They hugged until the clink of stilettoes echoed through the entrance hall, and they pulled away and walked to the arch.

  “Weirdly, I’ve missed that sound,” said Sue. “Feels odd to be back here.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  Standing under the plastic-wrapped chandelier, Julia looked across the entrance hall as Katie made her way along the landing. The sitting room was still empty, just as it had been on the night Julia had discovered she was pregnant while burglars roamed the manor. The burglary had turned out to be an elaborate last-ditch insurance-fraud claim misguidedly cooked up by Katie.

  A year later, the burglary situation put Katie’s misstep into perspective. Somehow, Julia didn’t think the explanation behind what was going on with Penelope would have such a simple solution.

  “I found them!” Katie squealed, teetering down the stairs in sky-scraper heels carrying a cardboard box barely contained against her chest. “Oh, thanks, Sue.”

  Katie handed over the box as Sue met her halfway before moving a hand to the bannister to support her the rest of the way down.

  “Found these in the attic too,” she said, grimacing as she made it to the bottom step. “I can’t believe I used to wear these every day.”

  “Used to?” Sue laughed. “When did you stop?”

  “I haven’t worn heels like these in years.” As Katie dragged them off her feet, the pink shimmer coating sparkled in the early evening sunlight. “When I was pregnant, I quickly realised I had to let them go. What do I do with them?”

  “Keep them,” Julia suggested, following them into the kitchen. “A souvenir of a long-lost time.”

  “Good idea.” Katie slammed the heels onto the marble island before going to check on Vinnie, who now stood by the patio doors, looking out onto the grounds. “Anyway, I can’t believe you thought I still wore heels that high. Haven’t you noticed I’ve been toning down my look?”

  As Katie leaned down to wipe Vinnie’s runny nose, her tight t-shirt rode up, down, and sideways, revealing skin at every angle.

  “Wear what you want until you can’t,” Sue said, admiring the shoes on the counter. “Sorry if I ever gave you a hard time about any of it.”

  “Look at us.” Katie returned to the island. “Not that long ago, you couldn’t stand to be in the same room as me, and now here we all are, having birthed the next generation of our family. You’d think we planned it.”

  “We’ve come so far.” Julia toasted with her tea before tossing back the last cold mouthful. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “I did.” Katie grinned, and pulled the box in close. “I wanted to come back for these the second I realised I’d left them here. Thought it was about time. Who knows how much longer we’ll have keys to this place?”

  “What is it?”

  Katie bit her lip, her grin growing.

  “All my glamour modelling shoots,” she said, hugging the box. “Do you want to see them?”

  Sue and Julia looked at each other and, so perfectly timed it seemed rehearsed, said, “Absolutely.”

  Early in their relationship, Julia had to get comfortable seeing her ‘step-mother’ almost nude. What used to be Katie’s master bedroom upstairs had been lined with blown-up photographs, leaving nowhere to look without a hint of something.

  Seeing them up close now, all spread out on the island while the kids were in their little worlds, Julia’s reaction was different.

  “You were fearless,” said Julia. “It looks like you always lived on holiday.”

  “The magazines would fly us out,” she said, showing them a particularly brave one perched on the edge of a rock while waves crashed moodily behind her. “They were never five-star places, and it didn’t seem fun at the time, but looking back, it actually was.

  It’s not like I could have done it forever. I would have been too old for them ten years ago, and most of those magazines don’t even exist anymore.”

  “It’s a time capsule of you at your peak,” said Sue, tilting her head at one picture, “in every position on every beach around the world.”

  “Mostly Europe.”

  “Mostly Europe,” Sue continued. “And you looked phenomenal doing it.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” Katie beamed. “I much prefer myself now, though. I was such an annoying brat back then.”

  Sue looked about to react the same way she’d done with the shoes, but Julia gave a subtle headshake. Sue let the inevitable ‘Only back then?’ slide.

  “Sometimes I wonder if I went too big.” Katie stood to the side and pushed her chest out. “I used to be completely flat. What do you girls think?”

  Sue and Julia shared an uncertain look, though the right words between not lying and not hurting Katie’s feelings didn’t come as easily as the previous response had done. Gravel crunched outside, bursting their bubble in a flash.

  “Nobody should be here,” Katie said, almost to herself.

  Picture still in hand, Katie crossed to the window as a car pulled up next to hers and Sue’s.

  “Your sneaky father.”

  Katie marched into the entrance hall as car doors slammed outside.

  “What do we do?” Sue whispered. “The island is full of naked pictures of Katie.”

  “She does own the house.”

  Not wanting to leave the kids alone but also not wanting to miss the showdown, Julia and Sue hovered by the kitchen arch. Posed perfectly in the centre of the space, one hip popped, the picture clutched in her hand while her wrist leaned against her hip, Katie looked powerful, even barefoot.

  “Brian!” Katie cried, clapping her hands together when the door creaked open. “What a wonderful surprise. And you have Mr Jacobson with you. Of course, why wouldn’t you?”

  Sue and Julia exchanged more glances, but their eyes went right back to the action.

  “K-Katie.” Their father walked in, arms out. “I didn’t know you were here. I’ve just come to show Mr Jacobson around again and—”

  The handsome, suited man sank back, lo
oking for all the world as though he was about to make a run for it.

  “Brian.” Katie held a finger in the air. “You promised we’d do everything together. You know my feelings on this.”

  Julia and Sue’s heads tilted, mirroring Mr Jacobson’s. Though the picture was curled in Katie’s palm, she was so well lit on the beach it was hard not to see . . . everything.

  “You’re absolutely right, baby.” Brian swooped in, blocking the picture as their potential buyer’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. “Mr Jacobson, can we reconvene at a more convenient time?”

  The man left with little fuss, no doubt glad to be away from the confrontation. Katie and Brian’s voices hushed to frenzied whispers, so Julia and Sue left them alone.

  Just as Julia was wondering if the extended silence meant they’d killed each other, Katie returned to the kitchen and stood where she had been before. She whipped her blonde curls over her shoulder as she smoothed the picture on the island.

  “I had this in my hand the whole time, didn’t I?” she asked, gathering the rest of the shots as though on autopilot. “The man trying to buy my house just saw me naked.”

  “Yeah,” Julia said, resting a hand on her shoulder. “That’s about the long and short of it.”

  “Look at it this way.” Sue joined in at Katie’s other side. “You said it yourself, you were in all the magazines. A man his age? There’s a good chance he’s already seen it.”

  Julia held her breath, braced for the argument that would have come in a past life. Instead, they laughed. They laughed until the kids joined in for the sake of laughing.

  Brian’s head popped around the arch and he approached with palms outstretched. Julia gave him a ‘what did I tell you earlier?’ arched brow and tight eye, and he replied with an ‘I know, I know’ nod.

  “At least it was one of my favourites?” Brian said, going in for a kiss but getting only Katie’s cheek.

  “Okay.” Sue pointed two fingers at their dad. “That made it weird.”

  Julia hadn’t intended to stay at the manor for long, but when Dot called to say Evelyn had insisted they move their meeting to eight in the evening, they ordered a Chinese takeaway and ate around the island, something they’d never have done when living in the place. Everybody stayed until life kicked back in and they were pulled in their separate directions.

  When Julia discovered Sue was going to the library to pick up Neil, her plan to be dropped off at her gran’s to set Olivia up before the meeting changed.

  Neil emerged from the building and locked up. He waved to the car before patting a man talking on a phone on the shoulder.

  “Night, Des,” said Neil as he walked away. “See you tomorrow.”

  Sensing her chance to finally get her one interview with a current member of Peridale’s Eyes, Julia climbed out of the car. After a quick hello and goodbye with Neil, Julia popped up the pram and waved off her waiting sister.

  Julia hung back while Des finished on the phone. He was of average height and build, around the same age as Penelope, and dressed just as a sensible librarian would. She couldn’t make out who Desmond was talking to, but he didn’t seem happy.

  She approached once he hung up the phone. “Desmond?”

  “What?” he snapped, whipping around to face Julia. “What do you want?”

  Faced with his fury, all Julia could do was freeze and pull back the pram. The lurch pulled Desmond to his senses, and his rage blinked away to reveal an expression as warm and open as Percy’s.

  “Forgive me,” he said in a voice devoid of its earlier boom. “I hope I didn’t scare you, I—”

  He reached out a hand, and Julia pulled further away.

  “Serves me right,” he said, bowing in retreat. “My wife died recently. Ex-wife, I mean. According to her new husband, I didn’t know the woman at all, and never mind we were married for forty years to his four. He’s planning her funeral all wrong, and I just have to sit here and—” He clenched his fists but dropped them just as quick. “Just one of those days.”

  Des hesitated as though listening back to everything he’d just said. One of the main questions Julia had cooked up on the drive over had already been answered.

  Did Des and Gus get on as well as Vicky claimed?

  It didn’t seem that way.

  “You approached me,” he remembered. “You know my name.”

  “Yes,” she said, finally stepping forward. “My name is Julia. I own the café in the village.”

  “Ah, yes. The woman with the vintage car.”

  She paused, expecting a car-related tirade like those of his ex-wife, but the attack didn’t come.

  “I hoped to find you here. I’d like to ask some questions about Penelope,” she said. “But I can see it’s a bad time.”

  “What kinds of questions?”

  “I’m part of a new neighbourhood—”

  “Are you with her?” he snapped, pointing sharply at the library. “That crazy woman?”

  Julia gulped.

  “C-crazy woman?”

  “Tall lady,” he said, indicating a height. “Little white dog with a yellow bow.”

  “Ah, that would be my grandmother,” Julia admitted, seeing no point in denying it. “And I apologise for everything and anything she might have said. She means no harm.”

  Des forced a disbelieving laugh before crossing the street. He pushed heavily on the door to the busy-as-ever Comfy Corner restaurant. A single finger went up to indicate ‘one’ to Mary, one of the owners, before the door swung shut.

  “Auntie Leah was right,” Julia whispered to Olivia as she set off to the meeting. “It’s time to say something to Great-Grannie Dot.”

  8

  T hirty minutes after setting foot into the fish and chip shop on Mulberry Lane, Dot finally left with four plastic bags stuffed with paper-wrapped food. Next time she offered her as-yet-unnamed group a chippy supper at a late-night meeting, she’d make sure they all ordered the same thing.

  Eager to discuss the case, she shot up the street past the mostly closed shops as darkness consumed the last of the lingering daylight. She couldn’t believe she’d had to wait another two hours at Evelyn’s bizarre insistence, especially since they were only meeting every two days.

  Perhaps they should be meeting every day, especially while Penelope’s killer was still on the loose. Not for much longer, if Dot had anything to do with it. Once Julia filled them in on her interview with Vicky, Dot would have a full page on her board for everyone in Peridale’s Eyes.

  And what were the police doing?

  Twiddling their thumbs, no doubt.

  Dot’s Detective’s couldn’t have come at a better time.

  Before she could decide if she would suggest the excellent name again, she rounded the corner and all thoughts of the investigation vanished.

  Why was her cottage dark?

  And what was the source of the faint flickering light behind the curtains?

  Acutely aware of her heavy bags, she cut across the green and pushed through the gate at as close to a jog as she could manage. Ditching the food on the doorstep, Dot tapped the handle with the back of her hand. Cool to the touch, and her skin didn’t melt off.

  She opened the door, and a cloud of smoke hit her.

  Rich, spicy smoke.

  “Percy?” she bellowed into the cottage as she counted over twenty candles in the hallway alone. “What in heaven’s name is going on?”

  As Percy appeared at the top of the stairs and scurried down, the soft flames lit up his shiny round head like a disco ball.

  “You’re back,” he announced, fiddling with his glasses. “Was the chippy closed?”

  “Food’s on the doorstep.” She glanced towards the kitchen where Evelyn, Amy, and Shilpa were talking amongst themselves. “I thought the cottage was on fire.”

  “Ah, I can see why you’d think that.” Thumbs hooked through his red suspenders, Percy rocked on his heels with a chuckle. “We’re about to have a s�
�ance!”

  Dot tilted an ear at her husband, not quite believing she’d heard him say what she thought he said.

  “A what?”

  “Séance,” he repeated, this time with a gulp. “It’s where you contact the dead with—”

  “I know what a séance is, Percy.”

  “It was Evelyn’s idea.”

  “It wasn’t going to be anyone else’s, was it?”

  Dot cut eyes down the hallway, and the three women quickly turned away; were they pretending to talk?

  “Over my dead body are we having a séance under my roof.”

  “Our, roof, dear,” he pointed out, tapping on his wedding band. “And everyone wants to do it.”

  “Everyone?”

  She couldn’t hide the disappointment in her voice.

  “Aren’t you a little curious?” he whispered, tickling her in the side with a finger. “Evelyn’s always offering to do them, and nobody ever takes her up on it.”

  “And for good reason.”

  The urge to put her foot down, flick on the lights, and blow out the candles bubbled up like last night’s strawberry jam.

  “Well, if everyone wants to do it,” she said, exhaling the pent-up irritation through her nostrils and letting her shoulders relax, “I suppose I don’t have much choice.”

  “That’s the spirit!”

  “It’s the spirits I’m afraid of.” She forced a strained smile as she stared into the kitchen again; the women returned it. “Why couldn’t we do it at the B&B? Evelyn’s always inviting them in, but I like to keep them out. Why do you think I shut the curtains on funeral days? I don’t want any spirits flying in here.”

  “It’ll take more than curtains to keep the spirits out.” Evelyn emerged from the kitchen. The candlelight caught the gold embroidered pattern across her scarlet kaftan and matching, bejewelled turban. “And it’s your proximity to the church that makes this the perfect location. Can’t you feel her? She never left the graveyard.”

  Evelyn floated into the sitting room, and Amy and Shilpa followed. Dot smiled and nodded at them, then spun to Percy and blocked his path before he could gleefully follow them in.

  “If you, me, or the dogs start levitating off our beds with spinning heads throwing up pea soup,” she said with an outstretched finger, “I’m holding you personally responsible.”