Page 19

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Julia picked up her phone to do the Wordle while she waited for the tea to brew, and saw she had a missed call. A phone call from an unknown number was a rare occurrence, and it always gave her a funny anxious feeling. This particular mystery was quickly solved by the text message: Hello Mrs Bird. It’s Hannah here, Jane’s daughter. I tried to phone. It’s about my mum. Please give me a call as soon as you can. Thanks. Hannah

Hannah picked up the phone on the second ring. She must have been waiting with it in her hand.

‘Thank you for phoning back, Mrs Bird.’ She sounded relieved, as if she had been holding her breath and could now let it out. ‘I’m sorry to phone so early, but it’s about my mum. The police came yesterday afternoon and asked her to come in and answer some questions. They kept her overnight. I had to take her a bag. I’ve called her lawyer, but Mum told me to get hold of you for her.’

‘Me?’

‘Yes, you. Julia Bird. She said you’re a sensible woman and you understand the system. She said you would know what to do. ’

Julia was positively flummoxed at this turn of events. She did not, at all, know what to do. She didn’t even know what to say.

‘Will you help us, Mrs Bird? I wouldn’t ask, but I’m here with the baby and I don’t know who to speak to about anything. My husband’s gone to London for work. My dad is gone. And now my mum…I wouldn’t ask, but…will you help me?’

Julia sighed, inwardly. She knew that there was only ever one answer to that question, whether she liked it or not.

‘I’d like to help you, Hannah, and I’m sorry for your troubles, but I’m not sure what, if anything…’

‘Please. I don’t know who else to ask. Can we just meet for coffee? The Buttered Scone?’

Julia really, really wished she could just say no, but just saying no wasn’t in her nature. She thought of poor Hannah, alone with baby Tom. And poor Jane in jail overnight.

‘Just a coffee?’ Hannah said, her voice catching.

‘Of course. I’ll see you there at eleven. And please, call me Julia.’

The Buttered Scone was already humming with customers, many of them out-of-towners on a day trip or a weekend away, enjoying the pretty villages of the Cotswolds. Of which Berrywick was one of the prettiest, and somewhat less overrun than some of the others. Summer was the high season for visitors, but in Julia’s opinion, this early autumn was just as lovely, maybe more so, with the trees turning their golds and reds, the light bright and soft, and the villages not too busy.

Julia found a table in the window, where she could keep an eye out for Hannah, and sat down. She was, as usual, about three minutes early. ‘It’s a curse,’ she said to Jake, who had plonked his bottom down on the floor next to her chair, and was looking up at her expectantly. ‘I’ve tried to be late, but I can’t. ’

She really wished she hadn’t weakened and agreed to meet Hannah. It seemed like a meeting with a high chance of something going wrong. Julia didn’t know how much Hannah knew about her parents’ relationship, which seemed, increasingly, to have been more troubled than one might have imagined. Jane certainly seemed to be close to Oscar, her old friend, from what Julia had seen of the two of them together. Had that been the cause of the impending divorce? Was Jane involved with Oscar? If so, the police had good reason to be questioning Jane.

Or had Graham had his own reasons for wanting out of the marriage?

Julia thought back to the funeral, and the weeping woman who had worked for him, the mascara-smeared girl she’d seen in the ladies’. Bethany, that was her name. Her colleagues hadn’t had a kind word for her, that’s for sure. In fact, they had implied that she had a cheek being at the funeral at all. Was it perhaps Graham who had been having the affair – and with young Bethany, at that? Either way, speaking to Hannah would be a minefield.

Julia saw something that stopped her thoughts in their tracks. As if by some strange conjuring trick of the universe, Bethany herself had materialised next to Julia’s table. She looked down at Julia, first with a moment of confusion, as if trying to remember when they’d met, and then with a nod of recognition. She turned quickly away from her, as if avoiding any possible interaction, and walked towards the door, followed closely by none other than Superintendent Roger Grave.

He walked behind Bethany, carrying her wrap, which he laid tenderly over her shoulders as they stepped outside the Buttered Scone. He turned her to face him and pulled the shawl up, tucking it around her neck, as one might tuck a child into bed. With his hands on her shoulders, he looked deeply into her eyes, and pulled her quickly to him for a hug.

Well, this was a turn-up for the books.

Julia’s head was spinning, considering all the seemingly contradictory possibilities. Had Bethany been involved with Graham and with Roger? Did she have not one, but two older suitors? Had the two men known about each other? There was so much Julia couldn’t comprehend. Aside from anything else, the young just had so much energy .

‘That Bethany, who’d have thought?’ said Flo, who had appeared quietly, in her silent plimsolls, and was following Julia’s gaze. Julia looked at Flo expectantly, awaiting elaboration.

‘I’m not one to gossip.’

This could not be further from the truth, but Julia let it pass. She held her silence, waiting for Flo to crack.

‘It’s nice to see them so friendly together, her and the superintendent. So affectionate. I wouldn’t have thought it possible, things being so smooth now. Not after the way the relationship ended. Sparks flew, I can tell you. Not surprising. Too young, of course. That was the problem.’

‘Yes, very young.’ It was increasingly difficult to determine the age of young people, but Julia reckoned Bethany couldn’t have been more than thirty. Probably less. Roger could be twice her age.

‘Still, life surprises you, doesn’t it? Look at the two of them now.’

They watched through the window as the couple said their goodbyes with another hug, and went their separate ways. They walked a few steps away from each other, and both turned at exactly the same moment. They smiled and waved at each other, turned again and continued on their way.

‘Ah, will you look at that,’ said Flo, mistily. ‘Isn’t that nice?’ Julia was surprised that Flo was so in favour of this romantic pairing. In fact, she seemed quite moved by it, despite the age gap. And what about the fact that she said it had ended badly? Yet here they were together. It was all rather odd .

‘Coffee for you, is it, Julia?’

‘Yes please, Flo, and I’ll wait to order food.’

Minutes later, Hannah came in, pushing the baby in the pram. Julia stood up to help her navigate through the chairs.

‘Thanks,’ said Hannah, puffed. ‘It doesn’t exactly have great manoeuvrability. It’s like driving a ship.’

‘Through icebergs,’ said Julia, moving a chair out of the way.

Baby Tom sat propped up, like the ship’s very small commander, surveying the floes and bergs as he sailed past. He seemed content with the whole arrangement.

‘Thank you for meeting me. I know it’s a lot to ask.’

‘I’m sorry for the loss of your dad, Hannah, and now this difficulty with your mum. I’m just not sure what I can do to help. I suspect there’s a lot going on that I don’t know.’

Hannah was quiet for a minute, and then said, ‘I feel I can trust you. I’m going to tell you something I don’t want everyone to know. My father was having an extramarital relationship when he was killed. It was with a young woman at the supermarket. Actually, someone I was at school with. I feel awful. It was my fault. I recommended her for the job, and then she and Dad…’

Hannah looked down at Tom, and then leaned towards Julia and whispered, as if not wanting the baby to hear, ‘They were having an affair.’

‘Coffee for you, Julia. And there’s a little something for Jake,’ Flo put down the cup and, next to it, a separate saucer with three bone-shaped dog biscuits on it. Julia found it amusing that they shaped biscuits like bones. They could have been shaped like elephants or steam trains and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to Jake.

‘Now, what can I get for you, Hannah dear?’

‘Tea please, Flo.’

When Flo was out of earshot, Julia asked quietly, ‘Did Jane…did your mother know about the affair?’

‘She did. I’m not sure when she found out, exactly, but she didn’t tell me, or anyone, as far as I know. She didn’t want people to know. You know what my mum is like; she’s a proud woman, and sort of, like, proper. And Berrywick is a small village when it comes to gossip. I think she was hoping that before anyone got wind of it, the relationship would blow over and things would just go back to normal.’

That would be a highly unusual outcome, in Julia’s experience. And it certainly hadn’t worked out that way in this case.

‘Dad was hesitating, apparently. He said he wanted to try again, but then there was this young woman, and you know men…He went back and forth for a bit, and then just last week he made a decision. He wanted to split up. He wanted to be with Bethany. He had his lawyer draw something up to send to Mum, a preliminary sort of thing, I suppose. Mum got the letter the day he died.’

Julia knew this, of course, but she didn’t say so. Just nodded in a sympathetic sort of way.

‘Mum’s mistake was that she didn’t tell the police when they first questioned her. She thought, well, it doesn’t matter now that he’s…gone. The affair was not relevant, and the least she could do was protect his reputation, and our family’s. But when they found out, it made her look…shifty.’

Guilty, more like, thought Julia.

‘And now they’ve brought her in for questioning.’

‘Hannah, it doesn’t necessarily mean they think she was…responsible for Graham’s death. It’s more that they want to see if she has more information.’

‘But they questioned her and questioned her, and kept her there overnight. She’s with them as we speak. God knows what she’s going through.’

Hannah got tearful at this, as if imagining the gentle Berrywick police waterboarding a confession out of Jane.

A pot of tea appeared in front of Hannah, along with a cup and saucer and a small jug of milk. ‘And I thought you could use a muffin, dear; you are looking a bit peaky and you must keep your strength up for that baby, now,’ Flo said kindly, placing it next to her. ‘It’s on the house.’

‘Thank you, Flo, you are very kind.’

When they were alone again, Julia continued: ‘Hannah, your mum made a mistake withholding information. When the police find out a person is not being forthcoming, they tend to be a bit more suspicious, a little less friendly.’

‘Poor Mum, after all she’s been through. I know she made a mistake, but it’s so wrong.’

Julia pushed the little red teapot towards the young woman. ‘Have a bit of tea, now, dear. And put some sugar in it. She’ll be out any minute. They’ll realise she made a mistake and let her go. They’re not going to hold a grieving widow who’s done nothing wrong.’

As a statement, this was true. The police wouldn’t hold a newly widowed, innocent woman who had done nothing wrong. But had Jane done nothing wrong? Julia didn’t think Jane was a murderer, but neither could she say that she was a hundred per cent certain of it. Jane’s relationship with Oscar; Graham’s with Bethany. The divorce papers that were delivered on the same day as the murder.

And right then, Julia realised with a pounding heart that she had a piece of information that Hannah certainly did not know.