by Agatha Frost
“Just these, please, Shilpa,” Julia said as she put three loaves of wholemeal bread and a tub of butter on the counter. “Lovely day out.”
“And yet I can’t wait for it to be over,” she said lightly as she accepted Julia’s money. “That magazine has brought nothing but bad karma to our village. It wasn’t what Yolanda would have wanted.”
“Maybe all of this would have happened differently if Yolanda had still been here,” Julia suggested as she took her change. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“Emily certainly made sure all of this happened her way.” Shilpa loaded the bread into a plastic bag. “I visited her this morning. Took her some flowers. Claims she doesn’t remember a thing about what happened to her.”
“She’s awake?”
“Woke up in the early hours,” Shilpa said with a strained smile. “She looked so weak. It was easy to forget she was just a little old woman when she was bossing us around.”
“She’s going to be okay?” Julia asked.
“It seems like it,” Shilpa said with a nod as she handed over the bag. “I suppose that’s one blessing to come out of all of this.”
“I suppose it is,” Julia mumbled. “I’d better get back to the café.”
Julia walked to the door in a daze. She had almost accepted what Amy had said about Emily possibly never waking up, or never being the same again. Despite everything that had happened, Emily did not deserve to die.
Dread replaced Julia’s relief as she walked out into the bright sun again. With all the excitement in the air, it was almost easy to pretend everything was going to be fine, even if the murderer was still out there. Julia cast an eye in Amy’s direction, knowing she could very well be next.
“Julia!” Johnny cried as he ran towards her, a camera around his neck and a notepad in his hand. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Emily’s awake.”
“I heard,” Julia said, hooking her thumb over her shoulder at the post office. “Apparently she doesn’t remember a thing.”
“I’ve just been to see her. She’s still in a bad way, but she doesn’t remember who hit her. I was hoping she would at least give me something to put an end to all of this, but she claims the last thing she remembers is watering her roses and walking back into her cottage. Have you thought any more about going to the police about Chloe?”
Julia opened her mouth to speak, but she was distracted when she saw Mercy pushing Peter across the village, both of them avoiding looking in the direction of the white tent. Peter was holding a giant bouquet of white lilies in his lap, no doubt bought from Pretty Petals. Johnny turned around and followed Julia’s eye line to the father and daughter.
“Today must be hard for them,” Johnny said after he sucked the air through his teeth. “This whole event was Yolanda’s doing, and she’s not even here to enjoy it.”
“And she’s not the only one,” Julia whispered, thinking about Margaret, Elsie, and Edgar. “I need to get back to the café. It’s packed. I can’t leave Sue on her own.”
“I need to take some pictures for the paper anyway,” Johnny said with a pat on his camera. “Work comes first.”
“Did Josh find anything on the security footage?” Julia asked, suddenly remembering the newspaper office.
“Nobody that shouldn’t have been there,” he said with a defeated shrug. “Maybe they did scale the walls after all.”
“Maybe,” Julia said with a chuckle. “I’ll see you later.”
Julia set off back to her café, but she let out a yelp when a hand closed around her arm and dragged her into the shadowy alley between her café and the post office.
“Evelyn?” Julia cried out, her heart pounding. “What are you doing?”
Evelyn pulled Julia deep into the alley, only stopping when they were behind Julia’s car and hidden from view. Evelyn let go of Julia’s arm and adjusted her red turban as she chomped on her lips.
“I’m sorry,” Evelyn whispered. “I can’t risk anyone seeing.”
Evelyn reached into her pocket and pulled out a small blue crystal. She squeezed it between her hands before pressing her lips against it. She lifted it to the sky and whispered something to herself before passing the crystal to Julia and closing her fingers around it.
“For protection,” Evelyn explained. “We need to be safe.”
“Have you been on the Tibetan tea?” Julia asked as she looked awkwardly down at the glittering crystal. “Why don’t you come into my café? I’ll get Jessie to make you a nice sandwich, and you can have a scone. I know how much you like them.”
“I haven’t been drinking the tea,” Evelyn whispered, a devious smile flickering across her lips for a moment. “But Amy has.”
Julia frowned down at the little eccentric woman, wondering what on earth she was talking about. She decided to lean against the bonnet of her car and listen to what she had to say.
“Amy came to my B&B late last night,” Evelyn explained. “She was distraught, so I gave her a little Tibetan tea to relax her, and – well, she had a slight adverse reaction to it.”
“You mean your hallucinogenic tea didn’t relax her?” Julia asked sarcastically.
“Shocking, I know,” Evelyn replied seriously. “I think she must have been allergic. She started rocking in the corner of the room. She said she could see Yolanda! I sensed her spirit anyway, so I lit some candles and pulled out the Ouija board. We spoke to her for hours. She told me to tell you that she appreciates you trying to help.”
Julia forced herself to not roll her eyes. She exhaled heavily through her nostrils and pinched between her eyes with her free hand. Glancing to her café wall, she passed the crystal back to Evelyn.
“I appreciate you thinking I might want to hear this, but I’m really busy, and –”
“That’s not all,” Evelyn whispered, her excited smile growing. “The tea has a habit of loosening people’s tongues. When we finished the séance, Amy told me what they did to force Yolanda out of the group.”
Julia’s ears suddenly pricked up. She stood up straight and stared at Evelyn, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Okay?” Julia urged. “What did she say?”
Evelyn gulped as she glanced over Julia’s shoulder at the opening of the alley. The village buzzed as the crowds thickened, but they could not be seen from their position. Evelyn still dragged her deeper into the dark.
“Emily had always wanted to be president of the group,” Evelyn started in a low whisper. “I knew it, Yolanda knew it, and everyone else knew it, but we also knew it was never going to happen while Yolanda was alive. We all agreed it was her group and it would stay that way until she didn’t want it anymore.”
“The thing was, Emily knew that day was never going to come, so she organised a mutiny against Yolanda’s leadership. Amy claims that Emily spoke to each of the founding members and convinced them all to vote against Yolanda in the next meeting so they could elevate Emily.”
“How did she do that?” Julia asked.
“Blackmail,” Evelyn whispered with a swish of her arms from under her kaftan. “She used whatever she could find out about the members against them. According to Amy, Emily had been watching and listening for years, gathering as much information as she could. Margaret and Elsie were a little more than friends after their husbands died, if you know what I’m saying, and Edgar was using illegal chemicals to enhance his garden.”
“I thought that was Malcolm?”
“Emily knew she could never use anything against Malcolm. He loved Yolanda too much, but she knew she didn’t need him. With the rest of the group onside, she had a majority. She took Edgar’s chemicals and claimed she found them in Malcolm’s cottage.”
“What did she use against Amy?”
“Nothing,” Emily said. “What is there to use? We all know Amy spent decades in prison after being a bank robber. She’s an open book, and Emily knew that. She offered her something.”
“What?”
“Power,�
� Evelyn whispered, her eyes lighting up. “She said if Amy went along with it, she would make Amy her vice president and she would have influence in the group. Yolanda never bothered with that. It was supposed to be fun, but Emily always took it too seriously. She never stopped talking about her roses, and now look at them.”
“This is all really useful,” Julia whispered as she made mental notes of everything she had just heard.
“There’s more.”
“More?”
“The night Emily carried out her revolt was the night Yolanda crashed her car and died.” Evelyn paused to gulp as she adjusted her turban. “She was so distraught, she went to The Plough to drown her sorrows. She always liked her rum, but she must have been heartbroken to get that drunk. These people were her friends, and they turned on her to protect their secrets and gain power. They didn’t crash the car for her, but they as good as killed her.”
Julia’s hand drifted up to her mouth as she let the words soak in. She could not believe the lengths Emily had gone to for the sake of a pin and a title in a small village group.
“That explains why it’s only the founding members who are being targeted,” Julia thought aloud. “But how does the murderer know? Emily would have made sure that nobody ever told her little secret.”
“Maybe Amy told someone else?”
“Maybe,” Julia said, although she did not believe Amy would be as loose-lipped without Evelyn’s special tea to guide her. “I need to go.”
Julia did not give Evelyn the option of continuing her story. She turned on her heels and hurried down the alley. Instead of going to her café, she headed in the opposite direction to The Plough.
Every seat outside of the small pub was filled, and the inside was just as bad. Julia fought her way through the drinking crowd to the bar.
“Shelby!” she called across the bar to the landlady. “Shelby, I need to ask you something.”
“I’m a little busy right now, Julia,” Shelby cried back without looking up from the pint she was pulling. “My useless son is upstairs with the flu, and my even more useless husband decided it was a good time to go away on a fishing trip with the boys.”
She handed over a pint to the man she was serving and accepted his money before moving onto the next customer. Julia waited until she made her way down to her side of the bar.
“I need to ask you about Yolanda Turner,” Julia said in a low voice, not wanting to catch the attention of unwanted ears. “I need to know about the night she crashed her car.”
Shelby met Julia’s eyes for the first time, and it became obvious it was an uncomfortable situation for her.
“If I’d have known she was driving, I never would have let her leave,” Shelby mumbled as she handed over another pint. “She liked her rum, but she was knocking it back like it was her job that night. I just assumed she would get a taxi. I never thought she was that stupid.”
“Did you see anyone in here with her?” Julia asked.
“She was on her own for most of the night, but she was speaking to a young woman,” Shelby said as she moved onto the man next to Julia. “I’d never seen her before, and she didn’t stay long. She tried to get Yolanda to go with her, but she wouldn’t.”
“Do you know who she was?” Julia asked. “Did you recognise her?”
“I only know the faces of people who buy drinks in my pub,” Shelby said quickly, clearly becoming irritated by Julia’s questions and the growing rabble in her pub. “I asked her if she wanted a drink and she told me she didn’t drink alcohol, so I tossed her onto the useless pile in my brain. Sorry I can’t be more useful, but I need to get on.”
“You’ve been more than useful,” Julia whispered, almost to herself. “I think I know who it is. I know who is killing the Green Fingers.”
14
Julia hurried out of The Plough, her heart pounding in her chest. The bright sun bounced off a passing car, blinding her as she looked ahead at the police station. Her thoughts toppled over each other, all the tiny details slotting together like a perfectly formed jigsaw. Despite what she had figured out, she knew it was not enough to run into the station with; they would think she was a babbling lunatic.
“Johnny!” Julia ran forward when she saw the journalist leaving the post office with a bottle of water. “Johnny, I’ve figured it out!”
“Figured what out?” he asked after taking a sip.
“I know who the murderer is,” she said, almost unable to contain her grin. “But just to be sure, does the newspaper hire Peridale Cleaning Company to clean the office?”
“They clean the whole building.” Johnny frowned at her, clearly not joining together the same dots Julia had. “How did you know?”
Julia opened her mouth to explain, but ear-piercing static crackled through the village.
“Thank you all for coming today,” Mary’s voice sizzled through giant speakers. “Cotswold Gardening Magazine has had an interesting experience during our time in Peridale. It’s certainly one we won’t forget in a hurry.”
The villagers and tourists crowded around Mary at the opening of the white tent. Brendan clutched a giant novelty cheque behind him, which caused more than a few excited smiles from the villagers. Julia and Johnny glanced at each other before joining the back of the crowd.
“You all know why we’re here today,” Mary boomed out, forced positivity loud in her voice. “We aren’t just here to take pictures and write about your charming village, we are also here to discover the best garden in Peridale. And of course, the recipient of the title will win a cool ten thousand pounds, which I suspect is what brought most of you here today!”
There was a small cheer for the money, mainly from the Green Fingers, who were gathered at the front of the crowd. Amy seemed to be the only one not excited about the prize. Julia wondered if that was because her garden had been destroyed before being judged, or because her mind was still firmly fixed on Emily.
“Are you going to tell me who did all of this?” Johnny whispered into Julia’s ear as Mary rattled off facts about the magazine. “Shouldn’t we be going to the police?”
Julia opened her mouth to speak, but Malcolm and Chloe Johnson caught her eye as they walked arm in arm towards the crowd. Malcolm chomped down on his nails, and it looked like Chloe was dragging him. Chloe whispered something to her father, and it seemed to ease him a little. He looked around the large crowd, his eyes landing on Julia. He gave her a small smile, which she returned uneasily.
“Julia?” Johnny whispered. “Are you even listening to me?”
“I’ll be back in a minute.”
Julia left Johnny and walked towards Chloe and Malcolm. She did not know what she was going to say to them, but she knew she needed to say something. Malcolm waved in her direction, and she almost waved back, until she realised he was looking past her. Julia turned around and watched as Mercy pushed Peter towards them. Julia stepped to the side and merged into the crowd again. She watched out of the corner of her eyes as Peter and Malcolm shook hands. Mercy and Chloe acknowledged each other, but they did not speak.
Julia separated from the crowd again and set off across the village green towards the group. She thought she had got to know each of them in some way since Johnny had brought the deaths to her attention. As she stared at the murderer, she realised she did not know them at all.
“We only came to see who got the prize,” Julia heard Chloe whisper as she got closer. “Since Emily croaked it, I’m more than a little intrigued to find out who has the best garden in Peridale if it isn’t my father.”
“Emily isn’t dead,” Peter whispered back. “At least, that’s what I heard.”
“She isn’t?” Malcolm replied, sounding a little stunned. “I thought she was hit pretty hard.”
“She was,” Mercy replied. “She’s tougher than she looks.”
Julia thought about what she was going to say to the group as she approached them. She knew outing the murderer would likely result in laughter and denia
l. If there was a way to get the murderer to confess and admit their crimes, she had to think of it and quickly.
A police car skidded to a halt right beside them. The people at the back of the crowd turned to stare at the sudden appearance of authority. Julia’s heart skipped a beat in her chest when she saw Barker jump out of the passenger side of the car.
“There she is, boss,” the uniformed officer cried, pointing at the group in front of Julia. “I knew it was her.”
The young officer pulled handcuffs from his belt as Barker jogged to catch up with him. Malcolm and Peter looked uneasily at each other, but the women didn’t react. It was almost as though neither of them thought the police could be there for them.
“Chloe Johnson?” the officer called out as he shielded the bright sun from his eyes with his free hand. “Can we have a word, please?”
“A word?” she snapped back with a small laugh. “What could I have possibly done that you need to speak to me? Are those handcuffs?”
Chloe’s cries caught the attention of most of the crowd, including Mary, whose voice suddenly trailed off over the speakers.
“What’s she done?” a man shouted from the crowd.
Barker caught Julia’s eyes and gave her a look that she knew meant ‘stay out of it’. She shook her head to let him know he was about to make a huge mistake, but he turned away and pressed on.
“Chloe Johnson, you’re under arrest for vandalising fifteen gardens.” Barker’s voice boomed as he nodded to the young officer to cuff her. “You’re also under arrest for the murders of Margaret Harwood, Elsie Davies, Edgar Partridge, and the attempted murder of Emily Burns.”
