Page 19 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)
It felt strange to be driving on the motorway, with a stream of other cars, all travelling at speed into London on a Saturday morning.
Julia had once been used to whizzing along the motorways and around the city streets, dashing about to meetings and clients and courts all over town, but she’d become rather out of practice after her years tootling slowly around Berrywick and the neighbouring villages.
They had debated taking the train, but both liked the freedom of having a car with them, and the ability to pack as much luggage as one wished.
Julia concentrated hard and held the wheel firmly.
She flicked her eyes between the road and the rear-view mirror.
She kept a good following distance and indicated well in advance of any movement.
Sean, in the seat next to her, did most of the talking. ‘The last time I was on this road, it was to fetch Jono when he was chucked out of his London flat,’ he said, staring pensively out of the window. ‘It feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened since.’
‘That it has. He was a very troubled chap when you brought him to Berrywick, but his time here, and being with you and Leo – and then with Laine – has really settled him.’
‘You’ve played a part too,’ Sean said. ‘He likes you and looks up to you. And you’re the one who suggested him for the job at the vet, which has been brilliant for him.’
‘You know what they say, it takes a village to raise a troubled young adult,’ Julia said, lightly. ‘And look, it’s paid off handsomely – we’ve got someone to look after all the animals this weekend while we’re in London for the party.’
Christopher, Julia’s ex-husband’s current husband, was turning fifty.
Christopher had dithered about a celebration, torn between his horror at the clocking up of another decade, and his deep and abiding love of a party.
The indecision had gone on for quite some time, driving poor Peter completely mad, but Christopher’s party-loving side had won out and an event had been hastily planned.
(‘As if there was ever going to be any other outcome,’ Peter had said, in loving exasperation.)
As a result, on quite short notice, Julia and Sean had booked a night in the city, and Jono and Leo had agreed to move into Julia’s house with Jake, Chaplin and the chickens.
Julia was used to managing the animals’ various schedules, diets and foibles, but when she wrote out the list of who did what, and ate what, when, and where they slept and played, and so on, she realised what a complex arrangement it all was.
Jono had seemed completely unfazed and assured her it would all be fine.
The road got busier, and the countryside more built-up as they neared the outskirts of the city. ‘You’d better ask The Lady for directions now,’ Julia said to Sean. ‘We are getting close to the off-ramp.’
‘The Lady’ was the voice inside the map app. Sean had put in the address of their B&B earlier, and now he turned it on
‘In one mile, take the next exit,’ The Lady said, in the cool, plummy voice that inspired confidence and calm in Julia.
The Lady deftly directed them, but failed to warn them of a double-decker bus stuck across the road, where traffic officers were directing them around a detour, much to The Lady’s distress.
She similarly failed to mention a closed road, and she certainly knew nothing of the many cyclists who came weaving in and out of the traffic.
Julia was sure that the cycling population of London had increased exponentially since she had left – soon it would be like Amsterdam, but without the convenience of cycle lanes.
Somewhat late, and somewhat stressed, they arrived at the B&B, which was in walking distance of the hotel where Christopher was hosting his ‘little get-together’ that evening.
Knowing Christopher, and having seen his event planning in action at his Cotswolds wedding to Peter, Julia fully anticipated a stylish affair, not so ‘little’, with good eats and the champagne flowing.
She wasn’t wrong. The space, simply called Eye, was on the fifteenth floor of a building in the City, with dizzying views of some of London’s most famous landmarks.
The Gherkin glowed outside the window, and Christopher’s friends glowed inside.
Julia was pleased that she had rather overdressed, and broken out her grandmother’s amethyst necklace. She was even wearing heels.
‘Quite a trendy crowd,’ she remarked to Sean.
‘And young,’ he said. Of course, most of Christopher’s friends were quite a bit younger than her and Sean.
And younger than Peter too, for that matter.
Julia noted that fifty seemed both terribly young (it had been a decade and then some since her own fiftieth) and, somehow, too old (how could the ever-youthful Christopher be half a hundred years old?).
‘They are. You look beautiful and elegant in that frock.’
‘Frock?’ she laughed.
‘Dress then, if you prefer. Either way, you look lovely.’
‘Thank you, kind sir. You look quite dashing yourself. In fact, I’d say we’ve scrubbed up okay for a couple of sixty-something villagers, up from the country.’
‘More than okay. Just wait till they see us dance!’
They both laughed heartily at that, because Sean – a man of many talents – was a truly terrible dancer.
‘Julia, darling! And Sean!’ Christopher cried, bustling towards them. ‘Thank you for coming all this way. What will you have? They do a mean cocktail. I’m drinking a Paloma – heaven knows what’s in it, but it’s delicious.’
Julia and Sean helped themselves to champagne flutes from a tray by the door. They were old enough and wise enough to know to avoid cocktails of mysterious ingredients. At least with wine and bubbles, you knew what you were getting.
A name tag at each place distributed guests across two long tables.
Julia had Sean on her one side and on the other, a slim older man with a shock of white hair and a narrow, angular face with trendy facial hair.
He wore a black polo neck and round, black-rimmed glasses.
He looked vaguely familiar, and she wondered if he was Someone Famous.
Christopher swooped down to introduce them.
‘Julia, this is David, my second cousin. Second cousin, but first favourite family member…’ he dropped his voice dramatically and put a finger to his lips.
‘Sssshhhh…Don’t tell the others. David, Julia is Peter’s first spouse, and a dear friend.
I think the two of you will get on swimmingly.
You’re both wonderful, and you have so much in common. ’
Christopher swanned off to continue his hosting duties, and David turned to Julia with a grin. A golden hoop glimmered in his ear. ‘Pleased to meet you, Julia. With a glowing introduction from Christopher.’
‘Likewise. I wonder what it is that we have in common.’
‘Do you like to cycle? I am a keen cyclist.’
‘I’m more of a walker. I have a chocolate Labrador who insists upon it, daily. Or twice a day, for preference. Do you like dogs?’
‘I’m more of a cat man. Do you have cats?’
‘One, who I adopted by mistake in a moment of weakness. He has an imperious nature and a peculiar moustache.’
‘I have three cats. And a peculiar moustache.’ He stroked it, with an exaggerated motion like a pantomime villain.
Julia liked a man who could laugh at himself. She laughed along with him. She saw Sean glance away from his conversation with a woman on his other side at the sound of her laughter. He gave her a smile.
Christopher, who was bustling past with a new arrival, nodded approvingly and mouthed, ‘You see?’ in their direction.
‘What could it be…?’ David mused, drumming his fingers theatrically on the table. ‘Are you in the music business?’
‘Social worker, retired.’
‘A noble calling. I don’t suppose you live in Marylebone? We might be neighbours?’
‘No, far from it, a little village called Berrywick.’
‘Berrywick, that name rings a bell…’
‘It’s a lovely village in the Cotswolds. Have you been there?’
‘No, but I recognise the name.’ His frowning face broke into a sudden smile: ‘Oh, I remember! I knew a band from there. Years ago. I was going to produce a record with them. Their name was the Red Berries, because they came from Berrywick. That takes me back!’
Julia could not believe her ears! What on earth were the chances of coming across one of the handful of people who knew about the Red Berries?
‘You’re not going to believe it,’ she said, unable to hide her excitement. ‘But I heard about the Red Berries just yesterday. I even saw a picture of them.’
‘Seriously? Heavens, it must be forty years since…How did you come across them?’
‘I was visiting a friend, my next-door neighbour, in fact. She had a photo album of her husband’s, he…’ Julia dug in her bag and pulled out her phone. ‘Hang on a minute, I’ll show you…’
The photograph Julia had taken at Hester’s house was the most recent on her camera roll. She pushed the phone across the table to David.
‘I can’t believe it. That’s them. And hang on, that’s me!
’ he said, pointing to a lanky fellow in the back right of the photo dressed in black, with black-rimmed glasses, sporting a preposterous moustache.
An enduring look, it seemed. He held the phone close to his face, pinched at the screen to enlarge the photo, and looked at it in disbelief.
‘That’s me. Goodness, what a long time ago this was.
This is bizarre! So it turns out Christopher was right about us having something in common, although he wouldn’t have known about this crazy coincidence. ’
‘It’s completely mad! What are the chances? So, David, speaking of the band, there’s something…’