by Sherri Bryan
“Why don’t you go and have a lie-down while Molly’s asleep?” said Ava. “I only popped in on my way back from collecting a prescription to see if there’d been any developments.” She nodded at Charlotte’s stomach and picked up her handbag with a sigh. “I’m sorry to be such a nuisance and keep dropping in, but I’m at such a loose end at the moment, what with Derek always at rehearsals. And the girls have gone on another awayday. Bet’s still limping a bit, but her ankle’s much better.”
“Where have they gone this time? Anywhere exciting?”
Ava raised a brow. “Charlotte, I don’t think anyone could say that I don’t like to enjoy myself. I’m always the first one on the dance floor at a party, and the last one to leave it, and you know how much I love to lead a conga. But who in their right mind wants to spend an entire day at a factory that makes wooden spoons, even if lunch is included?” She rolled her eyes as she hunted in her bag for her lip balm. “A wooden spoon factory… I ask you.”
Charlotte giggled. “Look, I don’t need to lie down. And you don’t have to go. You can stay as long as you like. I was just going to sort through some old clothes for the charity shop. Not a very exciting way to spend a Saturday afternoon but it needs to be done and I’ve been putting it off for ages. You can help me if you like?”
Ava gave her a beaming smile and put down her handbag. “Are you sure? I could make a pot of tea and bring it upstairs? And shall I make us something to eat?
____________
As Charlotte sorted clothes into piles, Ava sat on the bed, flicking through magazines and eating toast and marmalade. “I meant to tell you I saw Roy in the pharmacy when I went to pick up my prescription. I was surprised to see him; I thought he’d gone home. He’s been here for absolutely ages, hasn’t he?”
“I saw him, too, but not in the pharmacy,” said Charlotte, holding up a pair of Nathan’s old jeans and studying them closely.
“Don’t spend so long analysing everything, dearie, or you won’t get rid of anything,” said Ava. “‘If in doubt, throw it out’, that’s my motto.” She picked up her handbag and started to rummage through it and, while she was distracted, Charlotte slipped the jeans into the ‘Keep’ pile and continued the conversation.
“I saw him when I was walking the dogs. He said he’s staying for a while longer. I wondered if he’d met someone. I can’t imagine why he’d be hanging around here on his own otherwise. I mean, I know we love it here, but there’s not much for visitors out of season, is there?”
“Where would he have met someone in St. Eves?” asked Ava, her forehead crinkling as she smeared peppermint flavoured balm onto her lips.
Charlotte shrugged. “The St. Eves’ Tavern, The Bottle of Beer, the supermarket, the library; the cinema; the beach, there are loads of places he could have met someone. I’m just guessing, though. I could be completely wrong, but he’s so pleasant, it strikes me as strange that he’d be spending Saturday night on his own.”
Ava’s eyebrow shot up and she snapped her fingers. “That’s what he was doing in the pharmacy. Thank goodness I didn’t go and speak to him. If he is seeing someone later on, I bet I know what he was buying.” She threw Charlotte a knowing look and gave her lips another vigorous application of peppermint balm. “Harriett and I thought Roy and Izzy might get together. They were both divorced, around the same age, they seemed to get on so well… they would have made a lovely couple.”
“Roy said now they’ve got back in touch, they’re going to keep in contact with each other,” said Charlotte. “In fact, he said he was going to give her a call tonight. He said he was missing her.”
“Well, she couldn’t hang around here forever, could she?” said Ava. “Unlike Roy, she’s probably got a life to lead, so once Larissa had refunded her the money for the course, she had no reason to stay, did she? I think she went home the day after she went to Betty’s. I can’t imagine what sort of care home Roy works for that lets him take off as much time as he likes. I thought he was only staying for an extra few days, not weeks.”
Charlotte started rummaging through a pile of shoes. “I think he might be around for a while—he’s handed his notice in. Said he wanted to have a bit of fun.”
“Handed his notice in? Have a bit of fun?” repeated Ava, in her most disapproving voice, her eyebrows and her little finger raised as she sipped her tea. “I thought he had more sense. When jobs are so hard to come by these days, I can’t believe he’d do something so foolish.”
Charlotte put a pair of Molly’s tiny ballet slippers into a black sack and then took them out again and put them to one side. “I don’t think I’m ready to get rid of those yet,” she said, when Ava gave her a look. “They were her first pair.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “Anyway, whatever Roy’s doing with his private life is no business of mine. You know I’m not one to gossip.”
Charlotte almost choked on her tea and dabbed her mouth on her sleeve.
“I’m just surprised he’s staying around here,” said Ava. “I mean, St. Eves is hardly the centre of the universe for a young man like him, is it?”
“He’s not that young,” said Charlotte. “He must be in his forties, surely?”
Ava gave a half-hearted shrug. “However old he is, anyone under the age of sixty is young to me, dear. I’m a few years ahead of you, remember.” She suddenly sat up straight against the pillow. “Not that I couldn’t give him a run for his money, of course. I might be getting on, but I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve… and I’d beat him hands down in a hokey cokey challenge any day.”
Charlotte chuckled and gave Ava’s hand a squeeze. “I don’t doubt that for a second.”
____________
The drizzle from earlier in the day had turned into persistent rain falling from low, grey clouds.
Charlotte clasped a mug of steaming hot chocolate as she settled herself on the window seat in her living room, the dogs at her feet.
“What d’you think of this weather, Pip?”
The old West Highland Terrier looked up at her, his head cocked to one side, then lay back down again when he realised Charlotte wasn’t about to give him a treat
“And what about you, Panda?”
Panda didn’t move, except to simply half-open an eye from his recumbent position, before closing it again.
As the rain poured down, thrashing against the bay window, the waves rolled, cresting bright white against the grey of the sea and the sky lit up in the distance with streaks of lightning, like giant silver cracks running across a vast black wall.
“I like it when it’s like this outside and we’re indoors, don’t you, Mummy?”
Having been asleep for six hours, Molly had woken up feeling much better. Dressed in her pyjamas and dressing gown, with a book in one hand and her diary in the other, she gave Charlotte a hug before curling up on the armchair closest to her.
“Yes, I love it. It’s cosy, isn’t it?”
Molly nodded and sipped from the cup Charlotte had left on the table beside her chair. “I like tea,” she said. “But I don’t like tea that smells of perfume. I just like ordinary tea.” She pulled a face. “That camisole tea you give Daddy smells like deodorant.”
Charlotte chuckled. “It’s camomile tea.” She pushed herself up from the seat. “That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to look at that stuff Betty gave me and take the lemon balm teabags out for daddy. He can have them when we run out of camisole tea.” She winked at Molly and ruffled her hair. She took the bag from the kitchen cupboard and settled back down on the window seat.
It was filled with a variety of tea-related goodies: the flavoured tea bags Betty had told her about; a novelty tea cosy; a miniature tea caddy containing loose leaf jasmine tea; a box of wild berry tea incense sticks; a pack of ginger-tea flavoured chewing gum; a small canister of lime tea and parsley room spray, and an Earl Grey scented candle.
She took out the candle, then put it back when her phone rang, taking her attention away from the
bag and its contents until another time.
____________
It was late when Carl walked into the incident room, his cheeks pink and pinched from the cold.
“Where have you been for so long?” said Fiona
“I’ve just got back from Shottingford. I’ve been checking up on Gordon Buckingham.”
“And?” said Nathan.
“I’m not sure, but I think I might have found something.”
Nathan nodded. “Good work. Come on then, let’s hear it.”
“Well, Gordon is squeaky clean—he hasn’t even had a parking ticket, from what I can see. We already know his connections to Olivia and Roman and, while he certainly has the motives to want both of them dead, we also know that he didn’t kill Roman, or throw that rock at Olivia.
“However, I did a bit of digging around to see what I could find out, and I came across some pretty interesting details about his sister, Lara. After Gordon’s wife left him, she became his primary carer. She gave up her job for five years so she could look after him and she’s been bad-mouthing Olivia and Roman ever since.”
“In what respect?”
“After Gordon had his accident, Lara wrote hundreds of letters to the newspaper he used to work at, not only criticising them for giving his job to Roman, but also to let off steam about Olivia. Not surprisingly, the paper didn’t publish any of her letters, so Lara took her protest to the streets. She marched up and down outside their offices every day, shouting at the top of her voice about how badly the paper had treated Gordon, and how Olivia should be locked up.”
“What’s the source of the information?”
“I tried to get in touch with the newspaper - it was called The Shottingford Gazette - but it closed down three years after Gordon was injured, so I went to have a look around the area to see if I could find someone who might remember anything that would be of use to the investigation.
“I found out that Lara used to be married to a guy called Billy Shelton. According to Enid Gaskin, who’s owned the village shop for over forty years, and has the memory recollection of an elephant, Lara’s husband was ready to take Olivia to task over what she’d done to Gordon, and give Roman a piece of his mind, but Lara persuaded him not to because Gordon didn’t want the aggro.
“Anyway, Lara continued to care for Gordon but it put a real strain on her marriage. According to Enid, after Lara moved in temporarily with Gordon, she became so consumed by what had happened to him, and so angry, it wasn’t long before her husband decided he’d had enough, so he cleared off, and Lara started using her maiden name again after the divorce.”
Nathan shook his head. “They didn’t have a lot of luck with relationships, did they? First Gordon’s wife did a runner, then Lara’s husband.”
Carl nodded. “Apparently, when Gordon started to recover enough to get out and about, he used to walk down to the shop on his frame, and he and Enid would put the world to rights. She remembers him saying he would always feel responsible for the break-up of Lara’s marriage, and that he’d always do his best to look out for Lara and her family.”
“She’s got children?”
“Yep. And this is where it gets interesting. When Lara’s husband left, one of the kids went with him; they’re an Entertainment’s Manager on a cruise ship now. The other one stayed with Lara, though, and helped to take care of Gordon every day after school, at weekends and during the holidays, and eventually became his part-time carer.
“According to Enid, the kid’s held a grudge against Olivia and Roman since the age of nine. We didn’t pick up on it before, because the surname is different to Gordon’s and Lara’s, and they’re registered at a different address to either of them.”
“And who is it?”
Carl shook his head. “You’re not going to believe this.”
Chapter 21
Roy Tanner turned up the collar on his coat and checked his watch. Fifteen minutes to midnight.
If he started off now, it would take him around twenty minutes. He didn’t want to get there too early and possibly have to hang around waiting; he just wanted to go in and do what he had to do.
He had no idea how his plan was going to work out, but he was banking on the element of surprise to work in his favour.
One thing was for sure, though; if everything went the way he was hoping, he wouldn’t be staying at The St. Eves’ Tavern for much longer.
He pulled the door of his room shut and set off.
The wind was bitingly cold against his freshly-shaved chin, and he pulled up his scarf, winding it around his neck to keep warm.
If he hadn’t been so busy adjusting his clothing, he might have seen the lime-green Fiat drive past, going in the same direction as him.
____________
Charlotte tossed and turned for almost an hour before throwing off the duvet and padding downstairs at ten to twelve to make a cup of tea.
Not only could she not get comfortable, but she couldn’t switch off her thoughts. Every time she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, a thought would pop into her mind and keep her awake, no matter how hard she tried to dismiss it.
She took her tea and sat in the dark, on the bay window seat that looked out onto the beach. She opened the curtains a little and stared out into the night. The dim glow of the streetlights along the seafront cast just enough light on the blackness to pick out the white crests of the waves when they broke against the shore.
She put her cup on the window ledge, closed her eyes and willed herself to feel tired, but sleep just wouldn’t come, so she switched on the table lamp and tried to concentrate on a magazine.
Ten minutes later, and even more awake than before, she gave up on reading and switched off the lamp. As she gazed out of the window, a figure striding along the seafront caught her eye. As it got closer to a streetlight she recognised who it was, as she had earlier in the day.
The tall man with a slight stoop was Roy.
Where on earth is he going at this time of night?
She watched him for a while, before switching on the lamp again and giving the magazine another try, flicking through the pages. As she looked over an article about who the next James Bond was going to be, her eyelids drooped and she gave in to the delicious feeling of falling asleep where she sat.
Twenty minutes later, a thought in her subconscious jolted her awake. Except this time, she didn’t want to dismiss it; this time it had her full attention.
Olivia was convinced that someone was trying to do her harm.
Roy Tanner had been there when Olivia had said she’d be at the hotel tonight. Had he overheard?
If someone had intended to kill Olivia with the rock that had hit her on the head, Roy was certainly strong enough to have thrown it that hard. The ease with which Charlotte had seen him pick up the heavy masonry blocks was proof of that.
He’d said he wanted to be famous for doing something that would make people sit up and take notice. Killing Olivia and Roman would definitely do that.
And, he’d mentioned that his ex-wife had left him for an old school friend who looked very similar to Roman Haley.
Charlotte thought quickly. On their own, none of those things would have caused her much concern but, together, they were enough to make her think that Roy might have been responsible for what had happened not just to Olivia, but maybe to Roman, too.
She called Nathan and explained her theory. “I’m probably overreacting but it’s odd, don’t you think, Roy going to The President at this time of night? I know he could just be meeting someone else, but if he’s involved in what happened to Olivia, I’m really worried for her. And she said she was going to be in the kitchens on her own, so can you get someone there quickly? What? You’ve got another lead? Oh, that’s great. Okay, I’ll leave you to it. See you later.”
She called Olivia’s mobile but the number rang out before switching to her answerphone message; “I’m doing something more important, so leave a message.”
“Oliv
ia, please pick up if you’re there.” Charlotte immediately redialled but, still, there was no answer.
She could hardly believe that Roy wanted to cause Olivia harm, or worse. But what other reason could there be for him hanging around in St. Eves for so long?
Her uneasy feeling increased, and she dialled the number again, only for it to revert to Olivia’s answerphone. As she continued to dial and redial, the bag she’d put to one side earlier caught her eye. As she waited for Olivia to answer, she rummaged distractedly through its contents.
She sniffed the Earl Grey scented candle and squirted a spritz of the lime tea and parsley room spray in front of her. Its fresh fragrance perfumed the air and her eyes popped as her senses immediately jogged her memory.
It was the same scent she’d smelled at Gordon Buckingham’s house.
____________
In the kitchen of the President Hotel’s rooftop restaurant, Olivia hummed quietly to herself as she made an inventory of the stock in the walk-in freezer.
Unable to keep herself away until midnight, she’d arrived at quarter-past eleven, had said goodnight to some of the kitchen staff, and was thrilled to be back on her own territory.
Her head was still sore, and still bruised, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so happy.
In her heart of hearts, she’d known Simon Clancy would come grovelling to her eventually. There was no one else who could manage the kitchens like she did, and make sure that every plate of food that left them, without exception, was perfect.
She’d been quite sure that at the first sign that restaurant standards were dropping in her absence, the management would overlook the fact that she was a suspect in Roman Haley’s murder and beg her to come back.
She couldn’t help but gloat a little that she’d been right.
She swore under her breath when her pen ran out of ink. Stepping out of the freezer to get another one, she gave a start when she saw a woman with ginger hair standing in front of the kitchen door, the phone Olivia had left on the counter in her hand. She looked familiar, but Olivia couldn’t remember where from.
