by Agatha Frost
“I’m sorry, but I knew,” he admitted, nodding at Johnny’s ankle. “Penelope told me a few weeks afterwards when I asked her about Callum’s increasingly erratic behaviour. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. But I can put things right. I’m going to tell the police he’s been sleeping in my conservatory. We aren’t on speaking terms, and I can barely bring myself to look at him, but he’s still my grandson. Still Melinda’s son. I . . . I couldn’t turn him in, but . . .”
“What else is there to do?” Julia finished.
“Exactly.” He smiled sadly. “Turns out I was wrong about them not being connected. I knew I never liked Gus, but I could never put my finger on why.”
Desmond turned to leave, but Julia thought back to her list of questions.
Two had been answered.
Two remained.
“The flowers,” she called, drawing him back in. “At the graveyard. I think Callum left them. The card said ‘You were right’, and I can’t figure out why. Did Penelope know Gus was going to kill her?”
“I can’t see how,” he said, shaking his head. “She trusted him and loved him, for whatever reason. I never saw it, but then again, people said the same thing to me about her before our separation.” Pausing, he considered his next words. “Penelope was always telling Callum that he’d get someone killed. Maybe that’s what he meant? He insisted he was in control, even after the car accidents. I don’t think even he believed that, but somehow, she did. Enough that we’ve ended up here. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that death would be hers. I’ll figure out a way to sleep at night. I just hope Callum is able to do the same.”
Desmond headed towards the station.
“When you put it like that,” she said, setting off with a sigh, “I suppose Callum did kill his grandmother, in a roundabout way.”
“Be careful who you cover for, I guess.”
They joined everyone in the café, growing busy at a rate Katie couldn’t keep up with. With Barker holding the baby and Dot holding court, Julia threw on an apron and prepared to do what she did best.
“Did it really happen like that?” Barker whispered to Julia as she hurried around him to clear a table as three more people peeled away from the crowd gathered at the door and made their way towards it. “It all sounds quite dramatic.”
“For once,” she whispered, kissing Olivia on the head, “that’s exactly how it all happened.”
15
O n the first Sunday following Gus’s arrest and the day after the funeral – rearranged to Desmond’s account of what Penelope wanted – Julia flicked through the latest issue of The Peridale Post in the café’s kitchen. She glanced over at the final scone from the final batch, but she couldn’t quite stomach it.
“If I never see another,” she said to herself, pushing it away, “it’ll only be too soon.”
Returning to the paper, she devoured Johnny’s riveting write up of the events. He chronicled everything, bringing together the stories of Shawn Morris, Abigail Smith, himself, along with the murder, burglaries, and hit and runs. The headline “HIT-AND-RUN HEADSTONE HORROR!” ensured he’d have another great week of newspaper sales. Julia was glad this paper had circulated, for even poor Gerald Martin – once a keen gardener and artist and not just a miner – had a moment to shine.
Johnny’s account, including his discovery of the crucial information that had tied everything together just moments before the village hall reveal, painted him as the hero of the piece. In the end, there was no denying that the title of hero belonged to Dot, if for her delivery alone.
She stopped reading when it dove into Callum’s reasons for robbing houses. In Peridale, his methods related to how he’d chosen to fund his drug addiction had been a hotter topic than what happened to the girl in Riverswick, though she imagined it was the other way around over there. Most people had written him off, but Julia couldn’t. She’d looked into his eyes and seen the pain there. She’d kept her thoughts to herself though.
Through the grapevine, she’d heard that, much like the night he’d hit Johnny, Callum claimed he didn’t remember seeing Gus in Howarth Forest. She didn’t spend too long thinking about whether she believed that. Going by Gus’s account of the boy, it was probably a lie. However long he spent behind bars, she hoped he used the time wisely. As Gus had pointed out, he’d probably be out in a few years.
Maybe even four.
Ironic, since Gus was looking at a much longer stretch.
The back door opened slowly, and Barker walked in with a napping Olivia draped over his shoulder. He glanced into the café before passing her over.
“I have to get to my meeting,” he whispered, “but she’s just had a fresh change. How are they getting on in there?”
“No arguments yet.” She closed the paper, up to when the police arrested Callum in the conservatory after staking it out for two nights after Desmond’s confession. “I think they’re wrapping up.”
Chair legs scraped across the café’s floor, and after a round of handshakes, James Jacobson, even more handsome in daylight, and his lawyer left. When the bell rang, Katie made her way into Julia’s arms.
“It’s happening,” she said. She pulled away and sank into the nearest stool. “I thought I’d feel upset, but I’m relieved.”
“Here, here.” Brian dabbed at his forehead with his pocket square. “Don’t suppose you have any whisky down in your office, Barker?”
“Sure,” he said, checking his watch. “A quick one.”
When they were alone, Katie let out another breath, and smiled.
“I’m free,” she said, closed eyes tilted towards the light. “The woman in those magazine pictures never thought she’d be able to live without a mansion and designer bags and a housekeeper. The old Katie was clinging onto the last shred of hope that the old life would be coming back, but it’s not, and I don’t want it. The age of Wellingtons at Wellington Manor is over.” She opened her eyes and rested her hand on Julia’s. “Thanks for letting us use the café, by the way. I didn’t fancy taking them to our new place. After seeing his property portfolio, it’s a shoebox in comparison.”
“But you’re happy there?”
“Happier than I’ve been in a long time,” she said, looking around the café. “You know, this is another thing I never thought I’d be able to do. A job. A real, proper, hardworking job. I know my dad would hate what we just did, but I still wish he could have seen this version of me. Then again, I suppose he’s just set up my new, less expensive future.”
“Did you manage to get the offer up?”
“We wiggled it a little,” she said playfully, leaning in. “Enough to pay off every last penny of the debt, with leftover for Vinnie’s future and our retirement. And we’re going to pay a year’s bills up front, just to be safe.”
“That’s wise.”
“We’re figuring this money stuff out. It’s too easy to spend it when you think it will never run out, and nearly impossible to learn to stop when it does.”
“But you’re here.”
“We are,” she said. “Although, there is one big thing we want to do, and since he upped the offer, I think we can manage it.” Her shiny teeth pushed into her plump pink lower lip, pulling back a smile. “I think we’re going to buy a place where I can finally start my nail salon.”
“Really?”
“We talked about it so long ago,” she said, pulling the stool closer. “You’d barely found out you were pregnant. I wasn’t ready then, even if I had been able to afford it, but now?” She looked around the kitchen and nodded. “If I can handle a busy Saturday shift in the café, I can handle anything.”
“That’s my secret.”
“I’ve learned so much,” she said. “I’m ready. And I think the village is ready. I’ve been juggling clients while working here, and now that I’m qualified, people seem to trust me.”
“And you’re really good at it.”
Katie looked down at her nails. Julia knew Ka
tie was keeping them shorter than she liked for the sake of the café, but they were pink and perfectly manicured, nonetheless.
“I suppose I am.”
“Not to mention baking scones,” she said, pushing the final one to Katie. “And selling them. I can’t believe you shifted that last hundred so quickly.”
“There was some bowls championship cup thing going on in Riverswick, so I loaded my car and headed over. Cleared me out, and I didn’t even get to everyone.”
“You’re thinking like a businesswoman now. Though you might want to keep Vinnie away from the inventory orders.” Julia lifted the paper and slid a white envelope across the table. “Your cut of the scones profit. Call it a bonus. You’ve worked hard, and you deserve it.”
“Thank you.” Katie tucked the envelope into her jeans. “I should get your father home before he drinks half that bottle with Barker. He’s been walking on cloud nine all day. Besides, we’ve left Vinnie with your gran. Doesn’t your meeting start soon?”
“Thanks for the reminder,” she said before draining her leftover peppermint and liquorice tea. “I think it will be the last one for me, but I promised I’d be there.”
Leaving Barker to get off to a first meeting with a potential new client claiming to have been framed for stealing his business’s charity money, Julia crossed the green with Katie and her father. After they left with Vinnie, only the same people who’d been present for the first group meeting remained in the sitting room. Julia took the same place between Shilpa and Amy.
“I know we said we were done after the Penelope case,” Dot began, standing at the mantlepiece, “and I know it wasn’t smooth sailing.”
“But we’ve all been talking,” Percy added, “and, well . . .”
“We want to give it a go,” said Shilpa while a giggling Olivia tugged at her bangles. “Properly, this time. Honestly and openly, with no bulldozing and no stepping on each other’s toes.”
“Equally,” added Evelyn. “And for the good of the people.”
“And for fun along the way,” said Amy. “But mainly to help.”
“Julia?” Dot stared at her eagerly. “What do you say? Are you in or—”
The doorbell cut her off, and Dot rushed off to fetch Johnny and Leah. This time, they walked in arm in arm, their smiles stretching all the way from Leah’s left ear to Johnny’s right.
Leah’s hand shot up with a squeal.
The pear-shaped diamond glinted in the light for all it was worth.
“Bloody hell.” Dot grabbed Leah’s hand. “Look at the size of that thing, Leah!”
Leah’s smile grew wider; Dot remembered her name.
“She said yes!” Johnny said, winking at Julia. “We’re getting married!”
“Oh, I do love a wedding.” Evelyn hugged herself. “And you’re the perfect person for it! A wedding planner planning her own wedding.”
“Finally.” Leah’s elbow gently sank into Johnny’s side. “Which is why I think I’m out of the group.”
“Oh.” Dot released her hand. “Well, it was lovely to have you. Johnny?”
Shrugging off his jacket, he perched on the arm of the sofa.
“I think I’ll stay,” he said. “As long as you don’t ask to borrow my camera again. I’m going to be needing it for all this investigative journalism we’re about to do.”
“That’s the spirit!” Dot rushed to the mantlepiece again. “Think of the headlines . . . and of all the good we can do. Of course.”
“It is nice to read about yourself in the paper though,” Shilpa admitted in a whisper. “I really liked the section about the guy whose grave . . .”
As they talked about the article, Julia joined Leah in the hallway. They clung to each other, their bond beyond the need for words.
“I feel so silly,” Leah whispered as she pulled away. “I should have known Johnny didn’t have a wandering eye.”
“With the money he must have spent on that thing? I should say he’s not looking at anyone else.”
“It’s perfect, isn’t it?” Leah held it up, turning her hand this way and that to admire the sparkle. “It’s like he pulled it right from my brain.”
If Johnny hadn’t told Leah about his Pinterest browsing, Julia was content to let the romantic mystery remain.
“Bridesmaid?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Julia hugged her again. “And Roxy?”
“How could I not?” Leah stepped back and checked her watch before pulling open the door. “Speaking of the devil, I should go and tell her in person before I post the picture. I think she’s just got back from her teacher training week.” She laughed and shook her head. “To think this isn’t even the wildest thing that happened this week! Feels good to sleep at home again, I’ll tell you that much.”
After a moment spent admiring the ring in natural sunlight – practically blinding, it was – Julia returned to the house. The garden gate opened before Julia shut the door. Ethel approached, her usual swagger a little more reserved.
“W-would it be possible to speak to your grandmother?”
“Sitting room,” Julia said, holding open the door. “Play nice.”
Ethel’s appearance in the doorway silenced the chatter within. By the time Julia sank into her spot and took Olivia from a wary-looking Johnny, she could have heard a pin drop halfway across the village.
“Having a meeting?” she asked, looking around the room. “Of course you are. You did a great job, I suppose. Makes sense you’d continue.”
“I told you we’d solve it,” Dot said, folding her arms. “What do you want, Ethel?”
“I was . . . I was just . . . I-I don’t suppose you have room for another?”
Percy choked on his tea.
“That’s not what I was expecting.” Dot looked around the room as if searching for a response in their faces. “I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Do you have room in your heart to forgive a little old lady like me?”
Ethel batted her lashes until a spluttering laugh emerged and she bent over to release it.
“Oh, your face was a picture, Dorothy!” Ethel wiped away a tear as she straightened. “As if I’d want to join your group.”
“Very funny.”
“I thought so.” Ethel’s chuckle slowed. “Yes, you did fine this time, but did you think Peridale’s Eyes were going to roll over and die? Ha! We’ll be doing no such thing.”
“Neither will we.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Then I’ll guess we’ll see who comes out on top.” Dot strode to Ethel with an outstretched hand. “May the best woman – I mean, may the best team – win.”
“Yes.” Ethel accepted Dot’s hand. “I think the best team will win.”
“It’s not you.”
“It’s certainly not you.”
“It is.”
“It isn’t.”
“We’ll see.” Dot released Ethel’s hand and opened the sitting room door wide. “Now if you don’t mind, get out of my house. We’re having a meeting. A private meeting.”
“I was just leaving.” Ethel turned. “I have my own meeting to get to.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Then you should go.”
“I am going.”
“Good.”
“I’ll see you around, Dorothy.” With two fingers, Ethel pointed at her eyes and then around the room. “Remember, Peridale’s Eyes are always watching.”
“Go and get an eye test.”
Dot gave Ethel a slight shove down the hallway.
“Oh, and Ethel?” Dot called after her. “I threw all of those poker games, so you better start … you better …”
The slamming door silenced Dot, and dusting her hands, she strode back to the fireplace.
“Now that I’ve taken the rubbish out,” she said, returning to her place. “You can’t say no after that, Julia.”
“Actually,” Julia said. “I wasn’t going to
say no. I thought a lot about what you said, about doing things for good. If that’s where we’ll focus, I’d be happy to join.”
“I still think Julia should be the leader,” said Shilpa.
“Maybe we don’t need one?” Johnny suggested. “We seemed to get more done when we all used our strengths and followed our intuition.”
“And I don’t quite think I’m cut out for it,” Dot admitted, examining her nails. “It really was demanding.” She glanced up. “But is this it? Is this our group?”
“I think it is, dear.” Percy looped his arm around her waist. “We still don’t have a name.”
“I was thinking about that,” Julia said, removing a lock of her hair from Olivia’s fist before Olivia removed it from her scalp; she’d have to start wearing it up more. “At our first meeting, you told us to keep our ears to the ground. Random, but it came to me in the bath last night. Ear to the Ground isn’t a bad name?”
“Hmmm.” Dot tapped her chin. “It’s good . . . but it could be snappier.”
“Since there’s Peridale’s Eyes,” Percy said, rocking back on his heels and hooking his thumbs through his suspenders. “How about . . . Peridale’s Ears?”
Dot went to snort but stopped midway. As though it was meant to be, they all shared the same questioning smile.
“It is simple,” Evelyn said. “I like it.”
“Me too,” Amy agreed. “Eyes vs. Ears has a nice ring.”
“Maybe they’re always watching,” Shilpa said. “But we’re the listeners.”
“It’ll work well in the paper,” Johnny said.
“Then Peridale’s Ears it is,” Julia said, standing up. “Let’s get this coffee table out of the way and take our first official group picture. Johnny, get the camera on that dresser and set up a timer.”
Dragging out the word ‘ears’, they grinned as the camera clicked a few shots of the group posed in front of the fireplace with Olivia, their honorary member, front and centre.
“I had a feeling today would turn out wonderfully!” Evelyn reached into her satchel. “Here, everyone take a lapis lazuli.”
She passed around the pouch, and they each claimed a deep blue stone flecked with gold.
