Revenge in the Cotswolds (23 page)

‘Doesn’t really matter, does it?’ said Tiffany. Of the three, she was drinking the most. Her third large white wine was disappearing fast.

‘Why did Ricky hit Jack, then?’ Thea asked. ‘Tell me that.’

‘Jack provoked him. No big mystery. Ricky’s furious about the muck in the river, and Jack just played with him, getting away with it.’

‘So who were the girls with him? Not you or Sophie?’

‘We
told
you. I expect they were Sally and Emma and Leanne. Everybody was
sure
he’d killed Danny. It’s as simple as that.’

‘They’ll be more careful in future, then,’ said Thea irritably.

‘It all pointed to Jack Handy,’ Tiffany persisted.

‘You know,’ said Thea haltingly, ‘the police haven’t been very diligent in their investigations, as far as I can see. They just let you all believe it was Jack, without saying anything. Admittedly, I have missed a lot of it, but even so. If they’d done the full panoply of forensic analysis, wouldn’t they have caught on right away that it was Nella who killed Danny? I doubt if they even took that big car in for a proper look. It would have had Danny’s blood in it, I imagine.’

‘They probably thought they could sew the whole thing up quickly, because Handy was clearly the killer,’ said Steve bitterly. ‘If he’d died in hospital, that would have made it all very convenient.’

‘Handy,’ murmured Thea, hoping to raise a smile.

All she got was a groan. ‘Don’t you start,’ Steve begged.

‘Sorry.’

They had stumbled wearily away, Steve and Thea both hoping their beers wouldn’t render them illegal to drive. They’d had a pint and a half each. Tiffany almost had to be carried to Thea’s car, and bundled out at the Baunton house with very little ceremony. ‘I’m not going to speak to your parents,’ Thea announced. ‘I’m far too tired for that.’

And now it was Friday and Jessica no longer a cause of such painful anxiety. Drew had left no message or text, which was disappointing. Also, when she let it sink in, another reason to worry. There were too many things that could go wrong in his life.

But then, at ten-thirty, he phoned. ‘Where were you?’ he started without preliminaries. ‘I called four times last night.’

‘You never left a message.’

‘No.’

‘I was having an adventure,’ she said and took a deep breath.

Five minutes later, the whole story had been told.
Drew asked a few questions and made a few interested noises, and waited for her to finish. ‘Revenge,’ he said then. ‘What a complicated emotion it is.’

‘Is it?’

‘Don’t you think? You sound as if Danny had it coming, for what he did. And look at the consequences for the police! What’s the trial going to look like, if she pleads not guilty? The media will absolutely love it. The nation will back Nella, with petitions for clemency, the whole works.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘But if
Handy
had killed him because he was having such hassle with the protesting activities, how would that have looked? Which side would people be on, then?’

‘I don’t know.’ Drew’s habit of seeking for the philosophical meanings behind crimes such as this could be rather demanding.

‘They’d have stuck up for Danny. Dead just for defending animal rights, or highlighting pollution. The farmer would be vilified. Do you see?’

‘Yes, Drew, I see. So what?’

‘So morality’s a troublesome thing. Who was right and who was wrong here?’

‘Danny was wrong. He told lies and deceived Nella in particular. But she was wrong to kill him. And
she
must have told nearly as many lies afterwards, trying to get away with it. It’s all perfectly obvious, Drew. I don’t think we need get too analytical about it.’

‘The victim now is Carol, though. She didn’t do anything wrong at all. She sounds quite brave and sensible to me. And what about that poor baby, never knowing its father?’

‘He should have thought of that.’

‘They were probably paying him a huge bonus, danger money or something. He’d have used it to give his child a good start in life.’

The third pregnancy, Thea suddenly realised. So it was true that these things always went in threes. ‘How’s Maggs?’ she asked.

‘Maggs is in hospital with a threatened miscarriage. Den’s distraught.’

‘Oh, God! There really isn’t any justice, is there?’

‘We keep looking for it, though, don’t we. We can’t face the implications of a random universe, even if that’s the basic truth of it all.’

‘Give her my love. Tell her about what’s happened here – she’ll appreciate the distraction, if they’re making her lie still for weeks on end.’

‘It won’t be weeks. They think if she’s still intact by this evening, it’ll all be okay. It happened to Karen with Timmy, and she carried on perfectly easily, once the panic died down.’

‘Hard on you, then.’

‘Mmm.’

Life in general was hard on Drew, she thought with a pang. Her role was to make it better, as much as she could.

‘Listen,’ she said. ‘You’re going to have a holiday. My Farmington job is on, after all. Three weeks in July with cats. You and the kids absolutely must come and join me for at least one week of it. That’s an order.’

‘Actually,’ he said slowly, ‘I’ve been having a proper think about the Broad Campden house. Whatever happens with Maggs, I’ve got to come to a decision. In fact, I think I already have.’

‘Oh?’ Thea noticed her hand had started to sweat onto her phone. Whatever Drew was about to say suddenly mattered enormously.

‘I think I’m going to move us all there. Me and the kids. I might sell this place as a going concern, and make a fresh start. I think it’s what we all need.’

‘Oh,’ said Thea weakly. ‘Gosh.’

He laughed. ‘Don’t panic. We can talk about it when I see you.’

‘Okay,’ she said and rang off. Her mood was euphoric. Already she was mentally putting her own little house on the market, and throwing in her lot with the Slocombes in Broad Campden. She could see the whole idyllic picture quite clearly. In a flash, all money worries would disappear, along with other difficulties. Then she caught up with herself, and forced her thoughts on to matters immediately in hand. There was the tortoise, for a start, needing lots of food to build up its strength after long months of starvation. There would be suggestions in the notes left by the Fosters, so she went to find them.

The list included items the animal was
not
to be given, such as cabbage. But dandelions and clover were okay. And, to her relief, there turned out to be a bag of special tortoise food in a small cupboard beneath the vivarium. She took considerable satisfaction from the enthusiastic reception of a small handful of this stuff.

Then she read the notes again, in their entirety, and found a line she had previously missed.

‘Feel free to do some needlepoint, if you like that sort of thing. There’s a big canvas in the box of craft stuff in the dining room. I’ll never finish it. You’d be doing me a favour!’

On investigation, she found the canvas. It was very big, and depicted a highly coloured village street, complete with hay cart, skipping children and animals. About a tenth of it had been done thus far.

‘That’s me catered for, then,’ she muttered, thinking of another week of empty evenings ahead. She looked at Gwennie, who was close to her feet, staring up with trust and affection. ‘That’s my girl,’ said Thea fondly. ‘What a nice dog you are.’

Hepzie approached jealously and nudged her hand. ‘And you,’ Thea assured her. ‘You’re a nice dog as well.’

She’d be all right for the remainder of her stay, she repeated to herself. She could visit Jim Tanner and see how he was, perhaps even offering some practical
help. She could do all the things a normal house-sitter was meant to do. And at the end of the week, she would go and see Drew and they would talk endlessly and deliciously about the future.

She patted the old corgi again and counted herself lucky.

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T
HE
C
OTSWOLD
M
YSTERIES

A Cotswold Killing

A Cotswold Ordeal

Death in the Cotswolds

A Cotswold Mystery

Blood in the Cotswolds

Slaughter in the Cotswolds

Fear in the Cotswolds

A Grave in the Cotswolds

Deception in the Cotswolds

Malice in the Cotswolds

Shadows in the Cotswolds

Trouble in the Cotswolds

Revenge in the Cotswolds

T
HE
W
EST
C
OUNTRY
M
YSTERIES

A Dirty Death

Dark Undertakings

Death of a Friend

Grave Concerns

A Death to Record

The Sting of Death

A Market for Murder

T
HE
L
AKE
D
ISTRICT
M
YSTERIES

The Windermere Witness

The Ambleside Alibi

The Coniston Case

The Troutbeck Testimony

If you enjoyed
Revenge in the Cotswolds,
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by Rebecca Tope…