by Rebecca Tope
She pointed some of this out to Den, before indicating their way, straight across the field towards the church tower in the distance. ‘It’s really no distance at all,’ she said. ‘That’s the lower end of Chipping Campden.’ The children and dog went ahead, familiar with the route. Den waited until they were out of earshot and then said, ‘I’m not sure Maggs really understands what the consequences will be for Drew – her giving up the business.’
‘I’m not sure anybody does, including Drew himself. It’s a big shock. I can see her point of view, I suppose. I mean – I wouldn’t do it. But she’s not me. She’s always seemed so right for the work.’
‘She is. But people don’t stay in the same job for life any more. Look at me. I was so mad keen on the police when I was a kid. Fifteen, sixteen – it was all I could think about. And then one day it just turned to ashes. I can’t describe it, but I knew I didn’t want to keep on doing it. I doubt if I’ll carry on doing what I’m doing now, either. And look at Drew. He was a nurse, for heaven’s sake.’
‘And I’ve never really been anything. We’re all just floating through life, aren’t we? My sister’s boy, Noel, says he’s going to be a lawyer for twenty years, then retire and open his own museum. That sounds rather splendid, don’t you think?’
‘It does,’ he agreed. Then, with a slight clearing of his throat, he went on, ‘So – what exactly is your involvement in this murder? What happened this morning, and why did that DS woman come here yesterday? We saw all the vehicles gathered at Drew’s field this morning as we went past.’
‘Didn’t you itch to join them? Isn’t it a case of once a policeman always a policeman?’
‘Not in my case. I was perfectly happy to let them get on with it. I was never a very good detective, really. It always felt much too personal. I let my emotions get tangled up in them, every time.’
‘Hmm. Maybe that’s the difference between us, then. I mean – I do have feelings for the victims, and I get very angry at the way some people behave, but it doesn’t often get under my skin. Only a few times …’ Her voice faltered as she recalled Hampnett, Snowshill and a shocking episode more recently, just a short way from her present home. ‘Well, there have been some nasty moments,’ she concluded.
‘But you love the quest, the drama of it all. You enjoy being asked to help, and the element of danger. Don’t you?’
‘I do seem to, I suppose. I like meeting new people, learning about them and working out what they want. It is a quest, in a way, you’re right. You start from a casual meeting, knowing nothing at all about them, and a week later you’ve got their family background, past career, who they hold a grudge against. It’s often very satisfying.’
‘So,’ he said again, ‘tell me about the body down the road.’
‘Juliet Wilson. A very sweet young woman with some mental health issues. Or learning difficulties. She was just a bit simple, as they used to say. I have no idea what the current label for her would be, other than “vulnerable”, which was obviously horribly accurate. I met her a year or two ago in Stanton. The Christmas before last. She was living with her mother at that point, but then moved to a shared house in Blockley. She was actually holding down a job, apparently. She was really good with animals. But rather nervous around men. Something traumatic happened to her, I think. I never quite got to the bottom of that. It does upset me that she’s dead. I don’t think I really believe it yet. How anybody could kill such an innocent person is beyond understanding.’
‘I still don’t entirely grasp why the DS came to you about it.’
‘She’s called Gladwin. Sonia Gladwin. She knew that I’d met Juliet, and came to tell me she’d gone missing.’
He paused in his slow walk and looked at her. ‘That’s not it, though, is it? She’s the senior investigating officer, I presume. She’s not going to drive round the Cotswolds interviewing everybody who ever knew the missing woman. So why you?’
‘We’re friends. She likes to chew things over with me. Blockley’s only a couple of miles from here. Last night, nobody knew Juliet was dead at that point, so it wasn’t hugely urgent. I guess she just used it as an excuse to come for a chat.’
‘Still not convinced. She sees you as a kind of unpaid consultant, it seems to me. Rather like I was myself, for a bit. When Drew’s Karen was hurt, I was involved in the investigation on an ad hoc sort of basis, because I knew the people and the place. If I were you, I’d get put on a more official footing. They might pay you some expenses.’
Thea returned his look, with a thoughtful smile. ‘That’s clever of you. I think there is something like that going on, but we’ve never really put it into words. I’ve been useful quite a few times, but I’ve also got in the way, and put myself in danger and been generally annoying. I think she’s just got into the habit of including me when there’s something going on.’
‘And now there is something going on – again. And Maggs and I are the ones getting in the way. Drew’s got funerals to attend to, as well. It must be troublesome for him, having a murder so close to the field. Will they be gone before he needs to use it? When’s the next burial?’
‘Tuesday. And it’s a tricky one.’ She gave him a brief summary of the Biddulph complications. ‘That was the son of the second wife just now. He doesn’t know his father was married before, and he’s got two half-brothers. His mother wants to get the funeral out of the way before she tells him.’
‘But he’s a grown man! How’ve they kept the secret all this time?’
‘It’s not they, is it? Just his mother. Presumably he never asked, and it just went along like that, year after year. It must have been easier before the Internet, though. Everybody’s so easy to trace now. If he’d ever suspected, he’d have found out without much trouble.’
‘Maybe he did, but couldn’t bring himself to tell his mother he knew about it all along. He’s got a wife and child. She could have done some research. When people have kids, they generally want to know more about themselves.’
‘That’s true. But he probably thought he did know all about himself. Why would he even think there was a mystery?’
‘Because his father’s twenties – or whatever – must have been a blank, unless he made something up. He was married with two sons – for how long? That’s a pretty big secret to keep.’
Thea sighed, thinking of Clovis. ‘I met one of them. He certainly doesn’t seem easy to keep hidden.’
Den noticed the change of tone. ‘What? Is there something special about him?’
‘You could say that. He’s incredibly handsome, for a start. And nice. There’s a look about him – goes right into you, somehow. He came here this morning, just before we met you at the pub. I’m still shivering inside. Don’t tell Drew,’ she added girlishly.
‘Don’t tell him what?’ He seemed genuinely bewildered.
‘Oh, nothing. A moment of total madness. Hormones, I suppose. I don’t know what came over me.’
They had reached the far side of the second field on their walk, the path then taking them across two more, in a curve, before delivering them into Chipping Campden. The children knew the way, and had run ahead almost out of sight. ‘Will they wait for us?’ asked Den.
‘Oh yes. We’ve got them pretty well trained. We might have to let them go into one or two shops, though.’ She was glad of the abandonment of the tricky topic of Clovis Biddulph. Den wouldn’t understand, and it had been idiotic of her to mention it. He could not be relied on to refrain from saying something to Maggs, and she might well decide to inform Drew. Until the previous evening, nobody had doubted where Maggs’s strongest loyalties lay. Drew had taken a gamble on her, giving her responsibility far beyond her years, trusting her to conduct half of his business with minimal intervention from him.
But her relief was premature. ‘And then there’s Lawrence,’ he said slowly. ‘Who isn’t handsome or sexy or even very nice. And because of him, you and Drew were expected to tell outright lies. Is that right?’
‘Absolutely. Drew was in a state about it, so it was lucky in a way that I took the phone call from Clovis. But in the end, we had to own up. He knew, anyway, that we were doing the funeral. So it all fell apart, and Drew had to explain to Linda that it wasn’t easy to keep a funeral secret.’
‘How did Clovis find out?’
‘Good question. Somebody must have tweeted or Facebooked or something. And then Linda heard that the secret was out.’
‘Who told her? It sounds like quite a small, closed family.’
‘There must be sisters or cousins or neighbours. Linda lives quite locally. Stephen – the man who’s died – probably told people he’d decided to have a natural burial. It wasn’t a sudden death. He’d been to have a look at our field, a few months ago. He’s sure to have talked about it to people other than Linda and Lawrence.’
‘But he didn’t mention a first wife and two older sons?’
‘Of course he didn’t. I imagine it was his own guilty feelings that forced Linda to keep it all quiet.’
‘Not necessarily. Some women, even now, feel there’s a bit of a stigma to being a second wife. It might have come as much from her – or more.’
‘I’m a second wife,’ Thea said, as if only just noticing. ‘And I don’t feel any stigma.’
‘It’s different when the first one dies. You didn’t steal him away, as Linda might have done.’
‘Oh.’ Privately, she thought he was oversimplifying the reality of how she met Drew while Karen was still alive, and how it could very possibly have turned out much messier than it did.
Stephanie and Timmy had stopped on the pavement at an opening to a small arcade, on the left. ‘Can we go to the bookshop?’ Stephanie called.
‘Go on, then.’ Thea waved her consent. ‘Ten minutes.’ She turned to Den. ‘At least half the stock is children’s books. It’s tucked away down there with no natural light, but the kids love it.’
‘Are they going to buy anything?’
‘I doubt it. I’ve got enough cash for one little paperback, if they insist. I left the card at home.’
Den laughed. ‘I can make a contribution, if necessary. Now, can we go back to dead people? I take it there’s no connection between the Biddulph funeral and the murder of Juliet Wilson?’
‘Hard to see what. The birdsong man’s more likely, and even that’s extremely tenuous.’
Den groaned. ‘Birdsong man?’
She explained, finishing by saying, ‘I mean – his funeral was on Friday, and Juliet was still alive then. Probably hanging about somewhere near the burial field. And his nephew found her body this morning. That connects them, if nothing else.’ She had another thought. ‘And it’s very likely that Juliet loved birdsong as well. She might have known the man. She knew a lot of people.’
‘And any one of them could have killed her.’
‘Presumably, yes.’
‘And DS Gladwin wants you to help her sift through who they all were, and what the motive might have been, and why Juliet was out in the open for three days. That makes sense,’ he nodded. ‘It makes perfect sense, actually.’
She looked up at him, standing a foot taller than her. ‘Does it?’
‘You’re an asset, Thea Slocombe. I didn’t realise before how useful you must be to the police. The way your mind works. Your lack of sentimentality. Your quick grasp of people you’ve only known for five minutes. You should hear yourself. Better than any computer can ever hope to be. You’ve got talent – don’t waste it.’
‘Oh shucks,’ she giggled. ‘That’s taking it much too far.’
‘It’s not, though,’ he said seriously. ‘And you should put it on a more formal footing. At least claim for expenses.’
‘I would, if there were any. To be honest, I think I should pay them. They’ve saved me from terminal boredom many a time.’
He laughed. ‘Come on. Those poor children will be wondering where we’ve got to.’
They went down the chilly little arcade to the shop at the end, where Stephanie and Tim were conducting a fierce but muted argument. ‘She won’t buy two books,’ Stephanie hissed. ‘We have to find one we both like.’
‘I want this one,’ the little boy insisted.
‘And I don’t.’
‘Hey, hey!’ admonished Thea. ‘Den says he’ll help if we haven’t got enough money. What is it, Tim?’
He held out a large volume about the development of tools in former times. ‘Good Lord, that must cost a fortune. We can’t buy that, darling. You’ll have to order it from the library. Remember the title, and we’ll do that on Tuesday after school. Choose something smaller, okay?’
Mutinously, Timmy replaced the book, and almost randomly took a small paperback from the shelf. ‘Never heard of it,’ said Thea, having given it a quick glance. ‘Looks okay, though. What about you, Steph?’
‘I’ve got the new Malorie Blackman.’ The smugness in her tone made Thea feel for Timmy. ‘Well, bully for you,’ she said, before pulling the younger child to her for a quick hug. ‘I promise we can go to the library. If not Tuesday, then one day next week.’ She had remembered, with a lurch, that life might be uncomfortably unpredictable, come Tuesday.
Chapter Ten
They didn’t linger any longer in the small town, but quickly took a different path back to Broad Campden. It was straighter and shorter, and much less fun. Stephanie was mildly reproachful at being ignored throughout the walk. ‘I wanted to talk to Den,’ she complained.
‘So talk to him now,’ said Thea. She’d captured her dog and put it on a lead, what with a road running close by. ‘I’ll talk to Timmy.’
But she and Timmy could think of little to say to each other, so ambled along in an amiable silence, each content with his or her own thoughts.
The house was quiet when they got in. Maggs was in the garden with Meredith, and Drew was in his office. It was impossible to tell whether they’d said all they needed to and amicably gone separate ways, or whether things had become so fractious they had to get away from each other. Thea and Den sought out their respective spouses to learn which it was.
Listening first at the door, to ensure there was no unexpected visitor, Thea tapped and waited for a response. The office was treated as if it were a separate building, with none of the family allowed to simply walk in uninvited. ‘Yes?’ came Drew’s voice.
‘Is everything okay?’ she asked, once in the room.
‘Not really. No, not at all, actually. I can’t think what I should do.’
‘Surely there are plenty of options?’
‘Two or three at most, and none of them even remotely appealing. I’ll have to speak to Andrew,’ he sighed.
This was an ominous leap of logic. ‘Why? What are you going to say to him?’ She imagined Drew offering his assistant the North Staverton business to operate instead of Maggs. Or telling him they were closing down and he was out of a job. Or that he’d be running the Broad Campden end while Drew went back to Somerset. Anything seemed possible.
‘I don’t know. I want to keep him in the picture, that’s all. He’s a much better businessman than I’ll ever be. He’s been asking me about the footing he’s on here, and I haven’t known what to say. Now I can see how sloppy and amateurish I’ve been with Maggs. We’ve never put anything in writing, you know. I’ve never even had an accountant, which Andrew says is barely legal. I’ve never made enough profit for HMRC to take much notice of me. Now it’s all crashing down and I have no idea where to start to get it straight.’
‘Okay.’ Perversely, his despair came as something of a relief to Thea. Problems with tax and legalities seemed to her very much preferable to sudden drastic decisions about their way of life. Although, she reminded herself, the two probably went together in the long run. ‘Well, we can sit down and go through it all, like grown-ups. Andrew as well, of course. You haven’t broken any laws, surely?’
‘Not wittingly, no.’
‘And you’ve kept meticulous records o
f the graves, and everything to do with the burials. Including the money you’ve been paid. I can’t see there’s much to worry about.’
‘I hope you’re right.’ He reached for her hand. ‘Maggs says I should sell Peaceful Repose, but I’m not sure I can, if it’s not properly registered as a business.’
She had been standing since entering the room. Now she pulled a chair close to his and sat facing him, shaking the proffered hand in an effort to reassure. ‘That sounds like a technicality to me. You own the house and land outright. No mortgages on it. The burial ground can never be changed or disturbed, even if nobody wants to carry on with new burials there. Which is unlikely, given how people like the idea.’
‘I’d have to give Maggs half the proceeds.’
‘Would you?’ She paused. ‘I suppose that’s fair. I think.’ The justice of the suggestion felt fragile to her. If there had been sloppy practice, wasn’t Maggs as much to blame for that as Drew? And it was certainly his house, fair and square. A great-aunt had left it to him when he and Karen were first married. ‘What’s it worth, anyway?’
‘I haven’t a clue. There’s not much of a market for burial grounds.’
‘But the house, Drew. That could go as a separate entity. Detached country cottage, three bedrooms, big garden. It has to be three hundred thousand, surely?’
‘With hundreds of dead people right outside the window. That probably cuts the value by about half.’
‘They could put up a fence.’
Drew groaned. ‘I can’t bear to think of it. I had such dreams. Karen and I both did.’
Thea went cold. Jealousy of Karen had not troubled her very much at all, right from her first meeting with Drew. It would be ridiculous to start feeling it now. But who could ignore the passion behind his words, and the clear implication that his present life fell short of those dreams?
