Small Town Suspicions (Some Very English Murders Book 3) (19 page)

“It’s a strange way to do
it. He wouldn’t have known that Mandy had been given flowers, would he?”

“Unless he sent them.”

“Do Barry and Mandy know one
another?”

Cath shook her head. “They
don’t seem to, and we haven’t found any links.”

“Mandy has admitted staying
in touch with Carl, and we know that Carl had more knowledge of Alec’s current
lifestyle than he admits to,” Penny said. “Did Mandy ever visit Alec’s house?
She could have met Barry.”

Cath smiled. “Well, that
brings you on to my information. We’ve examined all the mobile phone and
landline logs for all these suspects. Alec called Mandy at nine on Saturday
morning. Yes, the Saturday that he was killed.”

“So he had got her number
from Carl?” Penny said.

“Yes. Therefore it confirms
that Carl and Mandy were still in touch, just as she said. And it also shows
that Alec and Mandy had, indeed, lost touch.”

“And Carl and Alec…?” Penny
said, trying to get the triangle laid out in her head.

“We think they must have had
some contact, at least recently,” Cath said. “However, Carl is denying it and
we can’t ask Alec.”

Penny rubbed her face and
sighed. “Right. So, Alec called Mandy. She denied it, didn’t she?”

“We put that information to
her when we called her in, and faced with the evidence, she admitted that he
had called her. And she said she’d been surprised. But then, there’s more. They
met up on Saturday afternoon.”

“Oh my goodness! Alec and
Mandy met? Where? She could have poisoned him, then.”

Cath nodded. “She’s shot
right up the suspect list, yes. Not least for all her lies and omissions. They
met in a public beer garden of a quiet country pub that afternoon, and talked.”

“What about?”

“She was still being evasive.
It’s like prying a winkle out of a shell. She said that she forgave him. We
pressed her on that, and she finally told us about her stint in prison.”

“Ah!” Penny said. “So, was
her sentence something to do with Alec?”

“Yes,” Cath said. “In fact, Alec’s
evidence was crucial in convicting her.”

All three were silent while
the implications of that revelation sunk in.

“Hang on,” Francine said
after a short while. She ticked things off on her fingers as she spoke. “Let me
get this straight. Mandy was part of a gang that robbed a jewellery shop twenty
years ago. Mandy was married to Carl. Carl and Alec were best friends. And then
Alec gave evidence which convicted Mandy for her part in the robbery.”

Cath nodded.

“I’m not as bright as you
two,” Francine said. “How on earth did Alec have any evidence that Mandy was
involved?”

“Because he was a court
artist with a photographic memory,” Cath explained. “And he was sitting in the
trial for the jewellery heist, and when they described the female accomplice,
he realised it was Mandy.”

“Oh.” Penny sat back. “That
must have been so painful for both Alec and Carl. He couldn’t keep quiet, could
he, Alec? And yet doing the right thing would destroy his friend and his
friend’s marriage. Wow.”

“Poor Alec, and poor Carl,”
Francine added.

“It’s a bad business, all
round,” said Cath. “Of course, it could all be co-incidence that Mandy met Alec
that day.”

“She has reason to have a
massive grudge against him!” Penny said. “My goodness. If I had done ten years
in prison because of my ex-husband’s best mate, I’d be very annoyed.”

“Ahh,” said Cath, wagging
her finger. “She didn’t do ten years because of Alec. She did ten years because
she committed a crime.”

Penny blew out her cheeks.
“True, true. And she seemed to harbour no malice when we met her.”

“To be honest,” Cath said,
“she gives the impression of being at peace with her past, now. She’s done her
time and paid her debt to society and now all she wants to do is to live
quietly.”

“But she can’t, can she?”
Penny said. “Because she lied on her job application and Alec must have known!”

“Again, we can’t be
certain…”

“It’s a pretty good
assumption.”

“We do not convict on
assumptions,” Cath said warningly.

“She was a criminal,” Penny
said. She could almost feel herself pouting.

“
Was
,” Cath said.

Francine butted in. “People
can change, Penny. In fact, people must change. I believe that utterly.
Otherwise, what’s the point? If we can’t try to be a little bit better every
day that we wake up, we might as well give up.”

“You’re one sentence away
from saying that the universe responds to goodness, aren’t you?”

“You took the words right
out of my mouth,” Francine said happily.

Penny narrowed her eyes and
stared at Francine, searching for a hint of sarcasm. There was none. She turned
back to Cath. “Any more revelations?”

“No, sorry. But I thought
you’d like to know this.”

“Yes. Thanks.”

“Are you all right?”

“Oh, Kali, and I’m tired,
and … everything.”

“Of course, I’m so sorry.
How is she?” Cath asked.

“We’re on our way to collect
her. She is going to be okay,” Penny said. “But I won’t be letting her out of
my sight again.”

“Off you go.”

Within an hour, they had
collected the weak but happy dog, and were back on their way to Upper
Glenfield.

By the next morning, Kali
was bouncing around as if nothing had ever happened. Penny and Francine spent
the morning in the garden, talking over and over and over about the murder
case.

Penny felt as if she were no
nearer an answer, and it was making her grumpy. The worry about Kali, and
Francine’s constant apologising didn’t help, either. Finally Francine excused
herself in the early afternoon, and disappeared on a walk, leaving Penny and
Kali alone. Penny tried to do some craft work. She had the stencilled fabric to
make up into bags, but Kali was keen to go out again, and Penny felt so bad
about the dog’s recent experiences that she was inclined to put her work down
and take some more time out.

So when Drew rang her,
around four in the afternoon, and offered her “an unusual culinary experience
in a unique setting, and you can bring the dog,” she jumped at the distraction.

She sent a text to Francine.
Drew had advised her to “dress warmly; I’ll collect you in an hour’s time.” She
knew instantly what he had in mind for her, but she resolved to act surprised
anyway. It was only polite.

But he guessed.

“You know, don’t you?” he
said. They had parked in a quiet lane and walked up along a bridleway that
became a footpath, following the edge of a small piece of woodland. He was
carrying a small knapsack.

“Know what?”

“That I’m treating you to a
meal out. Literally, a meal outside.”

“You gave it away when you
told me to dress warmly and bring Kali.”

“I suppose I did. But
hopefully I have some surprises left for you tonight.”

She felt a warm flutter in
her stomach, but quashed it. Drew had only ever been a friend to her. A good
friend, yes, but a friend. He had once made a slightly blue remark, totally off
the cuff, and had immediately apologised and taken it back. Penny wasn’t sure
if it had been indicative of some deeper feelings in him, or he had simply
spoken without thinking.

As he had never given her
any further signs that he might want to take the relationship to a new level,
she had to concede that he was simply a platonic friend.

She was sad about that. When
their friendship had begun, she’d seen it as the start of a potential courtship.
It had felt like that “getting to know you” phase between a new couple. But it
had never gone beyond that.

They were “just friends.”

Was it because he was so
busy? It was an argument she’d used in her head, excusing him, for a long time.
Now she had to put that aside.

They really
were
“just friends.”

And he was a good friend, so
she was going to enjoy this friendship, and not spoil it for wanting it to be
something that it was not.

“You’re lost in thought,”
Drew said.

“I’m sorry? What were you
saying?” Penny was embarrassed to have been caught out. Drew and Kali were both
standing still and staring at her.

“That this is a good spot
for us.”

There was a small, grassy
area, bordered by the trees, and then a hedge in front of them and the fields
beyond. It was like a hidden half-moon lawn between the woods and the
agriculture, the grass close-cropped by rabbits. Drew dropped his knapsack and
Penny walked around the perimeter of the small area, letting Kali sniff all the
details that they could not see.

When she turned back around,
Drew was on his knees, digging a hole.

“Are you doing what I think
you’re doing?” she asked, horrified.

He sat back, the small
trowel wedged upright in the soil. “I’m digging a fire pit.”

“Oh!”

He laughed uproariously.
“You thought I was digging some kind of wilderness latrine, didn’t you?”

“No,” she said. “Okay, yes.”

He pointed at the trees. “Go
in there if you need to. I can lend you my trowel.”

“Um. Thanks.”

Drew carefully peeled back
the grassy sods and laid them to one side. Then he got up and went in search of
twigs and sticks, assisted by Kali, while Penny set about unpacking the
knapsack.

Once the fire was lit, he
unfolded a small iron tripod that he had clearly made himself. “Can you pass me
that small box?” he asked, pointing at a plastic container with a clip-top lid.

“What’s in it?”

He flipped it open and
showed her. There were a few eggs, nestling around a knobbly black lump with
warty bits. “Dinner.”

“I can’t eat … coal? No,
what is it?”

“It’s a summer truffle. You
get them more to the south, and in Europe, but I stumbled on this yesterday –
actually there were a few but I left the rest. I’m going to do scrambled eggs.
Honestly, it will be lovely.”

“I’ve had truffles but they
weren’t quite like that.”

“You probably had the more
common Burgundy truffles. This isn’t as strong. You’ll like it!”

“Okay.” Penny grinned in
delight. “I love trying new food. It was one of the best bits about all the
travelling I used to do. Some members of the production team would only ever eat
stuff they knew about, like fish and chips, but what’s the point of that?”

“Do you know what hairy
bittercress looks like?” Drew asked.

“Nope. Why, do you want me
to go and find some?”

“I think I’d better come and
show you,” he said. “Just in case.”

Soon they were sitting on a
spread rug, and the wonderful smell of outdoor cooking was mingling with the
wood smoke.

“This reminds me of being a
kid,” Penny said, as Drew prodded the scrambling eggs, enriched by the truffles
and the small green leaves of bittercress.

“Is it just the one sister
that you’ve got?” he asked innocently. “Ariadne, that’s right, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” She thought she’d
told Drew that she did not get on with Ariadne. She assumed her flat tone would
give him the hint that she didn’t want to talk about her. She’d managed to push
her out of her mind since the unexpected phone call.

“And your parents, they
travel a lot, don’t they?”

“Yeah,” she said,
brightening up. “They are all over the place. I never know where they are until
I get a postcard, and by then, they are usually somewhere else.”

“That’s great. Um, you don’t
see much of Ariadne, do you? Oh, pass us that plate. Brilliant. Here you go,
eggs and truffle.”

“Thank you!” She ate with
gusto and it was fantastic. But she knew she was avoiding his question, and she
had to answer. “Well, I spoke to Ariadne on the phone, actually. She rang me,
out of the blue.”

“Oh. Is everything all
right?”

“I suppose so.”

“Suppose?”

Penny sighed deeply. “I
don’t know. I doubt it. I just don’t understand why she doesn’t leave that oaf,
you know? Her husband, Owen, he creeps me out.”

“How?”

“There’s something about him
that I didn’t like, right from the start.”

“Well,” Drew said, “if they
are in love, though, it makes it all okay.”

“No, he spoke to her in a
funny way. Not in a respectful way. I’m not old fashioned but … there was
something off about him. And the stupid thing is, I wouldn’t say he was
abusive, but he seemed to make her into a different person, just through words,
and I didn’t like it.”