Page 10 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)

Julia rang the intercom and Hayley buzzed the door open without even waiting to hear who was there, which didn’t seem like excellent security practice from a police person.

In the little foyer, Sean picked up a few scattered flyers and letters that had been pushed through the letterbox and put them on the table against the wall.

Julia walked to the front door of the flat on the left of the staircase, and knocked.

The door had recently been painted a bright peacock blue, she noted, and the gleaming brass knocker looked brand new.

She suspected this welcoming combination was Sylvia’s influence.

Hayley’s voice came from within: ‘It’s open, come in!’

Julia opened the door to see Hayley’s sister Rosie bustling towards her, wiping her hands on her apron, which was printed with silhouettes of birds, stamped in green.

‘Julia! Sean! How lovely to see you again,’ she said. ‘And under much happier circumstances.’

The circumstances under which Julia had first met Rosie a year or so ago, had indeed not been pleasant.

Rosie had come to stay with Hayley, who had been signed off work and confined to her home with a badly broken leg after a hit-and-run that had turned out to be an attempted murder.

Rosie – bless her – had had the unenviable task of tending to the grumpy, frustrated, housebound detective until she was able to hobble back to work.

Rosie hung up their coats. The weather had turned positively chilly, but Hayley’s flat was pleasantly warm, a fire glowing in the corner.

‘I can’t wait to meet Hayley’s Sylvia.’ Rosie rubbed her hands together and spoke in an eager stage whisper which was easily loud enough to carry into the kitchen, where Hayley could be heard clunking pots and pans around.

‘She’ll be here any moment, I expect. She’s on her way over, doing a few last bits of shopping on the way.

I am sure she’s lovely. She sounds lovely. Is she lovely?’

‘She certainly does seem so, and they seem happy together,’ said Julia.

Some months after they’d become ‘an item’, Hayley was finally ready to introduce her new girlfriend to her sister. Hence the early midweek supper. Sean and Julia were there for moral support, and to smooth over any awkward silences or tricky moments.

Rosie was such a cheery, pleasant creature, however, it seemed unlikely that any smoothing would be necessary. Her appearance matched her personality to a pleasing degree. She had a creamy complexion, and her face had a soft plumpness, as if she were made of clouds and sugar and cherubs.

Hayley came through from the kitchen, and Julia was once again struck by how different she was from her sister, not only physically – the detective inspector was darker, more angular – but in personality.

Rosie was a guileless, open-hearted sort, while Hayley Gibson had a more cynical view of the world, as you would expect from someone who investigated crimes for a living.

Julia gave Hayley a sort of hug and presented her with a bunch of dahlias which she’d picked up from Blooming Marvels on her way home from working at Second Chances. Sean gave her the bottle of wine that he had brought. ‘Shall I take the apple pie into the kitchen?’ Julia asked.

Hayley nodded. ‘Yes please. I hope you can find a spot for it.’

Indeed, it looked as if every item from every drawer and cupboard had been used in preparing the meal, and was now scattered about the countertops.

Julia piled a few plates on top of the dishwasher and put the pie down in the little space she’d created.

She looked at it with satisfaction, proud of the job she’d done on the lattice pastry.

Hayley came into the kitchen and filled a vase with water, dropping the bunch of dahlias in.

Rosie followed, in conversation with Sean.

‘…so I thought I’d come up and visit Hayley before I start my new job.

It’s going to be full-on, getting settled, and then I’ll be off to New York for a conference, so who knows when next I’ll get three or four days to myself. ’

‘A new job?’ asked Julia. ‘Congratulations. What is it you’ll be doing?’

‘Ah well, it’s a lovely job. I’ll be in charge of a team of data analysts for the security department of a big bank,’ Rosie said in her cheerful, lilting voice. ‘Can’t tell you which bank, I’d have to kill you…’ she added, and gave a tinkling laugh.

‘It’s a big job, very important and demanding.

Rosie is terribly clever,’ Hayley said proudly.

Julia felt guilty that she’d underestimated the younger sister, based entirely on her sweet manner and her pink-cheeked appearance.

She’d known only that Rosie did ‘something with computers’, a large and mysterious category of occupations that seemed to encompass everything from typing to launching space rockets.

She’d had no idea Rosie had such a high-powered career.

‘Ah well, so are you,’ said Rosie, taking the vase of flowers from Hayley. ‘Just clever in different ways, aren’t we? I could never do what you do.’

‘Likewise,’ said Hayley, watching as, with a couple of swift hand movements, her sister fluffed up the dahlias into an attractive shape. ‘That, for example. You’re a genius with flowers.’

‘Oh, go on, it’s nothing,’ Rosie handed the vase back. ‘Do you want to put those on the table?’

They all went through to the sitting room where the dining table had been set, and in the centre of which Hayley put the vase.

‘The table looks lovely,’ Julia said, noting the pretty plates, white with a blue trim, the elegant wine glasses, the heavy white cotton table napkins with a blue stripe.

‘It looks all right doesn’t it?,’ said Hayley. ‘I tossed out the non-matching stuff I’d had since whenever, and bought a few new things. A new set of crockery, new glasses.’

Julia remembered the sparsely equipped kitchen from her visits to Hayley-the-invalid. It had been the sad mish-mash belonging to someone who spent too much time at work and ate too many takeaways. She again suspected the hand of Sylvia in this new arrangement.

As Julia thought of her, so Sylvia appeared, opening the door and struggling through with a shopping bag in each hand.

‘Hello, hello, sorry I’m late.’

‘Not at all,’ Hayley said, taking the bags from her with a warm smile. ‘Thanks for getting these. I can’t believe I forgot to buy the drinks!’

Sylvia gave her a grin. ‘Well, you’re a busy woman with a lot on your mind! And we’ve got plenty now. Sparkling water, orange juice, some new kombucha sort of thing with apple…’

‘Sounds perfect. Please, everyone, help yourselves,’ said Hayley, putting the bottles on the sideboard. ‘The chicken needs about fifteen minutes more.’ They sat down, filling every chair in Hayley’s little sitting room.

Hayley did the introductions. Sylvia and Rosie were, in fact, cut from similar cloth.

Golden, pink-hued cloth. Sylvia was a little taller and slimmer and blonder, and had a direct and playful manner.

Rosie had curlier hair, a fuller face and figure, and was generally a little softer in her ways.

But if a stranger had to guess which two women at this little gathering were sisters, they would pick these two.

‘It’s mayhem on the roads,’ said Sylvia. ‘People have come from all over for the Wednesday Christmas market. I nearly got taken out on the pedestrian crossing by someone on a bicycle. Missed me by inches.’

‘That’s terrible,’ Hayley said. ‘Did you get a description? What sort of bike was he riding?’

Sylvia laughed. ‘Put away the handcuffs, Detective. It was just a kid. He made a mistake and, as you see, I lived to tell the tale. Much as I appreciate your concern, you don’t need to track him down and have him put away for life.

’ She gave her girlfriend a hug to show that the teasing was with no malice.

‘We’re all touchy about bad driving since Lewis Band got run over,’ Julia said to Sylvia, by way of explanation.

‘Of course you are. What a terrible thing.’

‘We drove past where the accident happened at the weekend,’ said Sean. ‘We stopped to look at the place again and, honestly, I don’t know how the driver managed to swerve like that right there. I reckon he must have been drunk and going much too fast.’

Julia was about to mention the St Christopher when Hayley said something that stopped her in her tracks.

‘Well, we’re not so sure it was a him. We think it might have been a woman, based on the very little evidence we’ve got from the footprints.

The only thing we can say for sure is that the person who got out of the car was small and light. ’

‘Nothing useful from the street cameras?’ Julia asked.

‘Not so far. We don’t have much information to go on – we don’t have good tyre tread impressions, so we don’t know the make of the vehicle involved. And the cameras aren’t everywhere, as you know.’

‘The road safety committee hopes to get more cameras,’ Julia said. ‘That, and to encourage people to be extra careful. I’m working on the communication side – signage, flyers, that sort of thing. Our aim is for everyone to feel committed to keeping our roads and our road users safe.’

‘I really think that’s where change has to start,’ said Sean. ‘With education, and with people deciding to change their behaviour. Whether it’s smoking or driving or anything else.’

‘I agree one hundred per cent. And you can’t start too young!’ said Sylvia. As a nursery school teacher, she was a great believer in the power of early influences.

A buzzer went off in the kitchen, and Hayley jumped to her feet. ‘Chicken’s ready. Fill up your glasses and get to the table!’

In all the excitement of dinner’s arrival, the little St Christopher drifted out of Julia’s mind once again. It stayed buried in her bag, keeping its secrets. For now.