by Agatha Frost
“You’re right,” Julia said. “It doesn’t make any sense. If she wanted to get rid of the gun, she could have just thrown it into a river. Putting the gun in Peridale just makes it more likely that the real murderer will be found. Nobody in their right mind would be that stupid.”
“Donna didn’t strike me as being the height of intelligence,” Barker muttered under his breath. “Maybe she didn’t realise that it could easily be linked back to her?”
“Maybe,” Julia said as she leaned back in her chair. “But Donna has been trying to get money out of her daughters. She doesn’t need to stay in Peridale. If she really had murdered her mother, why come back here all these years later and stick around for so long?”
“Stranger things have happened,” Barker said. “It’s common for murderers to revisit the scene of their crime. They get a thrill from it because they can’t believe they got away with it. Maybe Donna came back to Peridale to test fate?”
“What about the other Crumps?” Alfie asked. “Donna can’t be the only one who would have wanted to kill her mother?”
Julia pulled her pad out and looked at the family tree. The only other person she could think of who would want to kill Mabel was currently hooked up to a life support machine, and unless the gun really was Neil’s, Peter had just excluded himself from the investigation.
“Forget the Crumps,” Jessie said with a shake of her head. “Why would Neil want to kill that old woman? Did he even have a motive?”
“Mabel fired Neil, and then she went missing,” Julia explained. “And we know that Mabel came back to the village and that’s when she was likely murdered. Neil was promoted to Mabel’s position, so it would make sense if he killed Mabel to stop her from taking his dream job away from him again.”
“But that makes no sense,” Jessie protested. “Neil would have had to know Mabel was back in the village, find a gun, shoot her, bury her, dig her up again, and then stuff her in the library where he would have to work every day. Who would do that? It’s dumb.”
Nobody objected to Jessie’s words, no matter how blunt they were. She had a unique perspective on things, but it was a perspective Julia trusted.
“So, we’re back to the gun being planted theory,” Barker said with a heavy sigh. “Who would know all of that about Neil and think they could get away with framing him? How did you find out about Neil’s firing?”
Julia thought about it for a moment until an obvious thought crossed her mind. She jumped up as her mind forced the pieces together.
“Library books!” Julia cried. “Nobody in their right mind would expose a murder weapon like that, but what if they weren’t in their right mind?”
Julia opened the door and ran to the shoe rack. She forced her feet into her shoes as she stared at herself in the mirror, an adrenaline-fuelled grin tickling her lips.
“Julia?” a soft voice called from the sitting room. “Are you there?”
Julia walked into the sitting room, where Sue was staring into the dark, the blanket still up to her neck. Julia switched on the lamp on the side table next to the couch. Sue squinted, her eyes puffy and red from hours of crying.
“Please tell me it was all a dream,” Sue whispered, her hoarse voice desperate.
“It wasn’t,” Julia whispered back, brushing her little sister’s caramel hair from her forehead. “But don’t worry. I don’t think Neil was lying when he said he’d never seen that gun in his life. He didn’t kill Mabel, but I’m starting to think I know who did. Go back to sleep, and it’ll all be fixed by morning.”
Sue nodded in her dreamy state, her eyelids fluttering as though she had not even known she had woken up. Leaving her sister under the soft glow of the light, Julia crept back into the hallway where Barker, Jessie, and Alfie were waiting for her.
“Are you going to tell us where you’re going?” Barker asked.
“Or are you going to dive into danger as always?” Jessie added.
“I might be wrong,” Julia said, her smile returning. “But I don’t think I am, nor do I think I’m diving into danger. I’m going to have a chat with someone, and I’ll be home before you know it.”
“We’re coming with you!” Barker insisted with a shake of his head. “Or I’m at least calling the police. You’re not doing this again, Julia.”
“Yeah, cake lady,” Jessie echoed, nodding at Barker. “Author man is right. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
Julia considered explaining to them everything she thought she knew, but it would cause too many questions for answers she had not had time to think about yet. Instead, she looked at Alfie, an idea springing to mind.
“I’ll take Alfie,” Julia said, grabbing him and pushing him toward the front door. “He’ll protect me.”
“Why him?” Jessie cried as she stared down her nose. “Why’s he so special?”
“Thanks, sis,” Alfie replied.
Julia grabbed her coat from the hat stand and put it on. She reached out for her car keys but stopped.
“We’ll take your bike,” Julia said as she opened the door. “It seems befitting of the situation.”
Leaving Jessie and Barker behind, Julia and Alfie hurried to the bike. After securing their helmets, Julia told him where to go, and without question, they set off into the night.
All the lights were off at Keith and Sandra’s cottage, but they climbed off the bike anyway. The broken gate was already open, so Julia walked up to the front door. She was going to knock until she saw that the cardboard covered window was completely bare. She looked down the dark corridor and into the kitchen where dust was dancing in the moonlight bleeding through the back window.
“Did you hear that?” Alfie whispered, whipping around in the dark. “I thought I heard something inside.”
“I don’t think they’re home,” Julia said with a sigh as she turned around and looked at the countryside that stretched out for miles in every direction. “Has Kylie mentioned where Keith and Sandra would be if they weren’t at home?”
“I could text and ask her?” he suggested, already pulling his phone out of his pocket. “I think she’s doing a double shift tonight, but she sometimes texts back if she’s not busy.”
“No,” Julia said, putting her hand on his phone. “It might raise too many questions. At least this way we can say we were here to see Kylie.”
Julia turned back to the missing sheet of glass, sure the shadows in the kitchen were moving. Dismissing it as a trick of the light, she looked down the road, relieved when she spotted a familiar figure walking up the twisting lane towards them.
Sandra stumbled up to the gate with a plastic bag. She reached out to open it, but she fell forwards when her hand didn’t touch anything. Alfie caught her before gravity dragged her down. The white bag fell from her hand, and a four-pack of beer fell onto the path, one of the lids cracking open to spray foam onto the grass.
“Alfie,” Sandra said, looking up at him with a wonky smile and half-closed eyes. “My knight in shining armour. Are you here to see Kylie?”
“We’re actually here to see you,” Julia said before Alfie could reply. “Why don’t we go inside and put the kettle on?”
Sandra straightened up and brushed down her knitted cardigan, which was full of holes. She looked as though she was trying to appear less drunk than she was, but when she bent down to pick up her three surviving beer cans, she toppled over. If Julia had not already figured out she was an alcoholic, she might have put it down to the lack of balance due to her one arm. Alfie helped her up and took the cans from her, leaving her to pull her keys from her pocket. She staggered to the door, smiling politely at Julia as though believing her drunken state was not apparent to everyone. Sandra stabbed at the lock half a dozen times before the key found the slot. Instead of twisting the lock, the door simply opened.
“Must have forgotten to lock it,” Sandra said as she stared at the make-shift cardboard window, which was currently lying on her doormat. “That keeps happening.�
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She picked it up and slapped it over the hole with only yellowed tape to secure it. She swayed on the spot for a moment as she squinted down at a pile of letters on the doormat; Julia did not have to look too closely at them to know they were final demand letters. Sandra walked further down the hallway and attempted to turn on the hallway light, but the switch just rocked back and forth in its frame.
“Bulb must have gone,” Sandra said as she walked into the kitchen. “I’ll put the kettle on.”
Alfie looked cautiously at Julia, and then down at the cans of beer. She gave him a reassuring nod as they walked into the cottage. For the sake of letting a little light in from the street light on the lane, Julia left the front door open. As she passed the house telephone on the stack of magazines and newspapers, she noticed the dead LED screen.
“I think it’s a little more than a dead bulb,” Julia whispered to Alfie as they walked towards the kitchen.
Instead of filling the kettle, which Julia also suspected would not be working owing to the power being off, Sandra was filling a pot at the tap. She carried it over to the stove, the water shaking over the edge and splashing against the tiled floor. She placed it on the hob and lit the gas ring with a match, sending some light across the dark living room.
“No Keith tonight?” Julia asked as she looked around the cottage, the plates from their ill-fated meal still in the sink where Sandra had left them.
“He’s at the pub with some old friends,” Sandra slurred as she leaned against the counter, her one arm clinging to a drawer handle as though it was the only thing fully holding her up. “They were at the builder’s yard for the party, and they asked him out for a drink. Keith will probably be there as long as they’re buying drinks for him.”
“And you thought you’d spend the night here alone?” Julia said, taking the bag from Alfie and passing it to her. “Have you got any candles?”
Sandra took the bag from Julia and planted it on the cluttered counter. She walked past Julia, the stench of beer the strongest it had been, and to the same shelf from which she had retrieved the childhood picture of Shannon and Kylie. After blowing off a layer of dust, Sandra planted a block candle in the middle of the dining room table. Julia grabbed the used match and poked it into the flames under the pot before carefully carrying it over to the candle. The dust-covered wick took a second to catch, but after a spark and a crackle, the flame took over, washing the dining room in warm, yellow light.
Sandra returned to the pot of water before grabbing three cups from the cupboard. She turned her back fully to them, but the crack of a beer can lid told them what she was doing; Julia wondered if Sandra thought she was being secretive, or if she had simply stopped caring.
She dropped teabags into the cups as the water started to bubble. When it was finished, Sandra attempted to lift the pot, but Alfie swooped in and took over.
“Let me,” he said. “Why don’t you sit down?”
Sandra walked over to the dining room table without argument, her can concealed in the deep pockets of her cardigan. She sat in the same chair she had during the meal, so Julia took the seat across from her. The dancing candlelight cast deep shadows across Sandra’s face as she stared blankly at the table. She looked much older than Julia had first suspected.
“Three teas,” Alfie said as he put the cups on the table. “The milk was out of date, and I couldn’t find any sugar, so this will have to do.”
Sandra accepted the cup and lifted it straight to her lips. The hot tea burnt her mouth, causing her to drop the cup onto the table. The water spread out, reaching Julia and dripping boiling hot water onto her jeans. She moved back and let it trickle onto the floor. She waited for Sandra to grab something to wipe it up, but she simply stared at the water as though she did not remember dropping the cup.
“Do you read a lot, Sandra?” Julia asked when she spotted a pile of dust covered microwave cookbooks in the corner. “You said you took books back to the library earlier today.”
“I did?” Sandra replied, her weary gaze meeting Julia’s. “Oh, yes. I did. Who doesn’t love reading?”
“What kinds of books do you like?”
“All kinds,” Sandra replied with a shrug. “Why do you ask?”
Julia looked around the dining room for something with writing on it before finding another stack of unopened letters. The top was coated in dust, so she picked up the second, which had ‘FINAL NOTICE’ printed on it in red letters.
“What does that say?” Julia asked, pointing at the words. “Can you read that out?”
Sandra squinted at the red words. Julia could tell that she was really trying to concentrate, but her eyes could barely focus.
“It’s a bill,” she said with fake confidence. “A bad one.”
“But what do those words say specifically?” Julia asked, running her finger under the stamped-on writing.
Sandra looked at them again, but she shrugged and looked up at Julia with a bitter expression.
“I can’t read, okay?” Sandra snapped, her hand slapping down in the spilt water. “Never learned. I wasn’t good at school. Are you trying to embarrass me?”
“Not at all,” Julia replied quickly. “I’m just trying to figure out why you would be taking books back to the library this morning, even though the library hasn’t reopened yet.”
Sandra narrowed her eyes at Julia, her lips turning into a snarl. Julia smiled, hoping it was written on her face that she knew what Sandra had done.
“So?” Sandra said with another shrug. “They could have been Keith’s books.”
“But you specifically said ‘I took the books back’ and ‘I didn’t want late fees’. Keith was standing right next to you. If they were his books, you naturally would have referenced him. I didn’t think twice about it this afternoon, and you probably didn’t even remember mentioning that you couldn’t read or write so you didn’t think anyone would catch you out in the white lie. Kylie had already left, and Keith wasn’t going to out you as illiterate if he didn’t know that we already knew.”
“It’s your word against mine,” Sandra said, her head rolling back on her shoulders.
“But it isn’t,” Alfie said, finally speaking up. “Because I was there for both conversations, and Julia is right. I didn’t put the two together, but you definitely told us you couldn’t read or write anything more than your own name.”
“Then they were picture books!” Sandra cried. “Why does it matter?”
“Why are you getting angry, Sandra?” Julia asked calmly as she looked into the drunk woman’s eyes. “Is it because you think we know about the gun?”
The mention of the firearm made Sandra’s hazy eyes suddenly focus on Julia. She gulped and looked as though she had stopped breathing.
“What gun?” Sandra asked finally, the lie obvious in her voice. “I didn’t plant that gun.”
“We didn’t mention anything about planting a gun,” Alfie said, as he looked from Julia to Sandra.
“Then I heard about it.”
“But you didn’t, did you?” Julia said with a sigh as she blinked slowly. “Despite Peridale being full of gossips, nobody saw Neil being arrested aside from my sister and me, and we didn’t tell anyone. Did you, Alfie?”
“Nope.”
“And the other people who knew are my family who wouldn’t breathe a word,” Julia continued. “And if the news had somehow got out, my phone would have been ringing off the hook all night from people wanting to know why my brother-in-law had been arrested.”
Sandra gulped, her brows dropping low over her eyes. She sat up in her chair before tucking her hair behind her ears on both sides. She looked into the sitting room, but the door was blocked off with clutter. She also looked at the kitchen door, but even she was not drunk enough to think she could flee without being instantly caught.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” Sandra said, her voice shaking. “I couldn’t stand it being in the house any longer. I wasn’t thinking
straight.”
“Is it because you’ve been drinking a lot recently?” Julia asked softly, leaning across the table. “Because you’re right, you probably weren’t thinking straight, but you were sat at this very dinner table when your husband told us all about Mabel firing Neil. He made it sound like quite a convincing motive, didn’t he? So, in your drunken haze, you put two and two together and thought it would be as simple as planting the gun on him.”
“I was walking past the library on my way to the opening,” Sandra said. “I had the gun in my bag. I was scared someone was going to find it, so I’d been carrying it around with me. Keith and Kylie had set off earlier. She said she wanted to talk to him about something serious, so I said I’d meet them there. I looked into the window of the library, and Neil was at the desk with his laptop. He closed it and stuffed it into a bag. He just left it on the counter and vanished into the storeroom. It was a moment of madness, but I remembered everything Keith had said about his firing, and it just seemed to make sense. I slipped in, put it in the bag, and walked out. I thought he’d find it and get rid of it himself. It felt good to unburden that thing after ten years, but then I started wondering if there were cameras. I went back to get it, but the police were there, so I left. I felt so bad. I sat on the street corner and sobbed, and some cheeky so-and-so dropped a five-pound note at my feet. They must have seen my arm and thought I was homeless, but a fiver is a fiver. I’ve been in the church grounds all day drinking, but I got cold, so I came home.”
“So, you killed Mabel?” Alfie asked, the disbelief in his voice. “Why would you do that?”
Sandra looked down at the puddle on the table. She traced her finger in the water in a figure of eight, her glassy eyes vanishing to another place.
