Small Town Christmas (Some Very English Murders Book 6) (3 page)

“What do you think, then?” he asked as he grabbed onto the
brass rail around the bar, and leaned in to her. She leaned away.

“Er – sorry, what do I think about what?” Penny began to
mentally urge Drew to come back.
Now.

“Do I let him win? Do I let that …” He stopped himself,
glanced around, and held his cursing. “Do I let him win? No!”

“Who?” she asked, curiosity winning over good sense.

“He’s not my boss anymore. He doesn’t even work anymore!
He’s retired.  And still he thinks he can ruin my life.” He narrowed his eyes
and looked at Penny, a fresh expression crawling onto his face. His anger was
replaced by a wolfish calculation. He glanced over her body and she shivered. “I
am sorry,” he said, slurring slightly. “I am afraid we have not been
introduced.” His drunken speech was now stilted and over-polite and she
recognised the signs of an inebriated man about to make an ill-judged attempt
at unwelcome flirting.

“I’m Penny,” she said. Through gritted teeth, she added,
“I’m here with my
boyfriend
Drew.” She disliked the word “boyfriend” but
couldn’t think of anything clearer to get her message across to Haydn.

It went straight over his head. Message not received and
certainly not understood. “I’m Haydn,” he oozed, and sidled closer to her. “Let
me buy you a drink.”

She waved at her three-quarters-full glass. “Thank you, but
no. My
date
will be back any minute now.”
Come on come on come on
Drew!

“I insist!” He beckoned to the bar maid. “Don’t be all
stand-offish. It’s Christmas, right? Hey, you, miss. Another of what she’s
having, please.”

The bar maid was young but had already seen it all before.
She looked at Penny, who shook her head. The bar maid nodded.

Haydn’s mood shifted back to anger. The bar maid was just
turning to call for her manager again when Drew reappeared. He smiled in a
friendly way at Haydn. “Hi, mate,” he said, and looked pointedly at the stool
next to Penny. Haydn was standing in front of it. “Can I grab my seat back,
please?”

Haydn looked at Drew for a long, slow moment. Then he
glanced sideways at Penny, and she could see the cogs turning in his sozzled
brain. Drew was tall, and wide, and as well-built as you’d hope an
ex-blacksmith would be.

Haydn muttered something and slid off to the side, out of
the way. He called for another drink, but this time the manager stepped in and
refused.

Penny held her breath, waiting for another fight, but Haydn
had hit that tired and deflated stage of being drunk too early in the day, and
he accepted defeat, and everyone relaxed when he finally left. The door
slammed, and smiles returned to the clientele.

“There is something in the air!” Drew said as he sat back
down. “That was the bloke from last night who was arguing with Clive, wasn’t
it?”

“Yup. Oh, and guess what! I met Linda again today. What a terrible
woman. And apparently she’s Clive’s sister. Did you know that?”

Drew mulled that information over. “Yes, now you say it, I
can see the awful resemblance.”

“What’s more, they don’t get on.”

“Does anyone get on with either of them?” Drew said.

“I don’t know much about Clive,” Penny said. “But I
wouldn’t imagine so.”

“I was up at the industrial estate this morning,” Drew
said. “I popped up to see a mate who is repairing some outdoor gear for me. You
know Jared works up there, doing the computers for one of the smaller units?
Anyway, I didn’t see Jared but I
did
see Clive, which was weird. And
Clive was having a right rant about Jared, so I think he might have been up
there to see him or something.”

“What was his issue with Jared? I can’t imagine Jared
offending anyone. He’d apologise if you bumped into him, even if it wasn’t his
fault.”

“I don’t know,” Drew said. “Clive stamped off. He has a big
posh car, a proper road hog. The sort of car you
know
is going to
tailgate you as soon as you see it appear in the rear view mirror.”

“Poor Jared,” Penny said. She had a real soft spot for the
geeky young man. “He seems quite lonely to me. He’s single, isn’t he?”

“I don’t know. But … probably.”

“He’s sweet, though,” Penny mused. She drained the remains
of her drink. “He sent me a text this morning to tell me he’d found a new thing
for my graphics editing software. I didn’t fully understand it but apparently
it’s some kind of automated process that will make my night-time shots look
amazing.”

“What, by deleting them and replacing them with good
photos?” Drew joked, and was rewarded with a punch on the arm.

“Don’t you have work to do?” she said.

“I’ve got a whole day off, today!” he replied. “But I’ve got
more field craft work, which has surprised me, with the weather like it is, and
all. I’ve been offering gift vouchers and people have bought them as unusual
presents. And of course, it’s still going well at the school.”

“Sounds great! But you promised me badger-watching, months
ago.”

“I did,” Drew agreed. “It’s harder now because it gets dark
so quickly and they don’t move around as much in the cold. They don’t hibernate
though. I have found a sett which is currently active. We would always go out
there this week but I’m not guaranteeing that we’ll see anything.”

“I’d like that,” Penny said. “I have never seen a real live
badger. I’ve got some carol concert practise, and committee meeting stuff, so
I’m totally booked up this week. Are you free next Tuesday night?”

“I am,” he said.

“It’s a deal.”

“It’s a date,” he corrected her, and she smiled warmly.

Life was really good.

A week later, and it was finally December, and a cold, dark
Sunday night. Penny crossed her legs and folded her arms, and shifted to get
comfortable on the plastic chair. She was sitting in the town’s community
centre, at another interminable Christmas Planning Committee meeting, and she
was shaking her head in despair.

She was joined in her resigned derision by the other
members of the committee. They were all on chairs around a long folding table,
and everyone was staring up at the angry figure of Clive who stood in the
doorway. He was trying to look intimidating.

The local police woman, Cath, was there as a liaison
officer between the police and the community. She was in civilian clothing, but
she was sitting very upright and glaring at Clive. The chairperson was Ginni,
who ran the floristry shop and was active in most of the arts groups locally.
There was also Mary, the unpopular gossip. She was sitting next to the trim,
neat figure of Reg Harris who was in his usual old school blazer and county
cricket team tie. Francine, who was Penny’s friend, was excited to be on the
committee, and Shaun the local butcher was also present.

But most mortified of all was Linda, Clive’s sister.

Everyone else stayed seated, but Linda stood up, and
suddenly Penny felt awkward because it had started to feel like a family row.
They were both tall and broad people, and though their twin-ship was
non-identical, they shared the same mannerisms. They shook their fists and it
was like there was a mirror between them.

Clive’s main objection seemed to be the waste of money that
he perceived in the activities of the Christmas Planning Committee. Now it was
December, he wasn’t going on about the lights being too early any longer. He
had found a new focus.

“Who pays for all this, eh? Who pays?”

“You know that it’s a consortium of local businesses who
contribute, and there are also various fundraising events throughout the year,”
Linda snapped. “It is all above board.”

“Oh, yeah, but there are ancillary costs. I bet you haven’t
thought of that, have you? Have you? My taxes pay her wages,” he shouted, and
pointed at Cath. “Therefore, my taxes are being used to fund the policing for
this event! What if I don’t want to go, what about that?”

What a load of rubbish
, Penny thought. She bit her
tongue. This was not her fight.

But it quickly and unexpectedly became her fight, because
Clive was ignoring Linda’s protests, and looking around at the rest of the
committee. He was very obviously looking for someone else to pick on. Someone
who might present a new, fresh target.

“Oh, yes, it’s you, isn’t it!” he said. He pointed at
Penny.

Penny looked at Cath, and stayed silent.

She was feeling pretty pleased with her amazing display of
restraint. The man needed shaking, but she bit her tongue. What could he
possibly have against her, anyway? They had never even spoken together.

But then Clive said, “Yeah, you, I know that you’re that woman
who littered the whole town with these dreadful posters!” He pulled a crumpled
example from his pocket and waved it at the committee. “She’s fly-posted every
inch of wall in Glenfield, and beyond. I wouldn’t mind so much, but it’s an
appalling design. Who did it? A five-year-old kid? There are laws against this
sort of thing, you know.”

That was it. Penny leaped to her feet. “I did the design,
actually. And I think you know that. It was approved by the committee, and
you’re not a member of the committee, so you don’t get a say, and I don’t think
you even ought to be here. What do you hope to achieve by coming in here and
upsetting everyone?”

“I’m merely exercising my democratic right as a citizen.”

Linda waded in. She couldn’t bear to be left out of a good
argument. She was red in the face. “No, you’re bored and retired and can’t
stand the fact that anyone else can make decisions except you. Go on, she’s
right, you ought to not be here. You’re trespassing. Get out!”

Cath was now on her feet, and that triggered everyone else
to get up, too. As soon as everyone was standing up, the atmosphere changed
from tension to all-out aggression.

Cath went towards Clive and Penny could hear the police
officer using her firm-but-calm-but-don’t-mess voice, asking Clive to leave the
building. He replied far more loudly, apparently pleased that he had caused an
upset.

Linda turned to Penny, and half-smiled. “Don’t you mind
what he says about your posters. You can easily improve. Hard work goes a long
way to replace talent.” She turned away before Penny could rally and reply,
which was probably for the best, because the only reply that Penny could think
of was going to be a slap in the face.

Jared appeared at Penny’s side. “Your posters are
excellent,” he said quietly. “Ignore them both. They are both a pair of
bullies. You can tell they are twins.”

“Thanks, Jared.” They stood together and watched as Cath
tried to steer Clive towards the door. Halfway there, he turned and stabbed his
finger towards them all.

“I came here to engage in a reasonable conversation,” he
said, in blatant contradiction to his actual actions. He had done no such
thing. “I am disappointed to have been treated like this! You’re a clique, and
it’s toxic. No good will come of this!”

“For goodness’ sake, Clive!” Linda cried in exasperation.

“I’m telling it like it is. Telling it like it is! Someone
needs to. It strikes me that there ought to be a bit more transparency with
this sort of thing. Corrupt, that’s what it is. You give the jobs to people you
know, regardless of their competency. That’s what’s wrong with the government
today!” He waved the poster in evidence.

“We share the jobs amongst volunteers!” Penny shouted, but
Jared laid a hand on her arm and urged her to stay still.

“Ignore him,” he said. “Let Cath deal with it.”

“He winds me up,” Penny muttered.

Cath finally managed to get Clive to leave the hall. Penny
was still fuming, and as she looked around, she could see that everyone else
was angry and unsettled too.

She wanted to go and ask Linda what the problem was with
her brother, but one look at Linda’s face told Penny that it would be a foolish
question and likely to lead to more fighting.

Mary was not so perceptive, and said something to Linda
that made Linda frown, hiss and throw her hands in the air. She gathered up her
things, and announced, “That is it! I’ve had enough! That Clive … I am
done.
Once and for all, you mark my words.”

No one tried to stop her when she stamped out of the hall.
Hopefully, that meant she was resigning from the committee. Penny felt a little
bad for thinking that.

Penny turned to Jared and she was surprised to see that his
face was grey and angry, too. He had sounded so calm when talking to her. “Are
you okay?” she asked. She always tended to feel protective of him.

“Yes, yes,” he said. “He winds everyone up, not just you.
Men like that…” He tailed off, and bit his lip. He glared at the exit. “I’m
going to go. I can’t be doing with this. It’s not my scene. I’m supposed to
avoid stress. My blood pressure, you know.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” It made sense; he seemed
fragile.

“It’s okay. But I need to clear my head. Otherwise …”

“Take care,” she said.

“You too.
Especially
you,” he said, with a thin
smile.

As Jared left, the others began to pack up their things.
There was a feeling of stilted frustration in the air. Penny checked her phone
and walked to the exit, finding herself in step with Mary.

“I am so mad,” she told Mary. “I want to run after that man
and give him a real piece of my mind.”

“Don’t we all,” Mary said. “But it is best to leave it.”

“I know, I know.” Penny waved goodbye to everyone but found
it hard to smile. She walked briskly across town, but her simmering annoyance
was keeping her warm. She found herself brooding about Clive and the way he’d
ruined the festive feelings for everyone. They’d all been so keen to talk about
the Christmas markets, and to plan the events for the kids, and organise the
choir and the grotto and everything. Then one man’s petty grievances destroyed
it all for everyone.