Page 22 of Murder in the Winter Woods (Julia Bird Mysteries #8)

Whoever said ‘home is where the heart is’ must have had a Labrador.

Julia’s return to her house after a two-day absence (days in which Jake had been showered in pats and snacks and walks and love and Leo’s company) was greeted with yelps and yowls of delight.

It was lovely to be enthusiastically welcomed, although it could be perilous, too.

She held on to the door frame for balance while Jake jumped up and down, and then watched as he set off in a manic zoom around the garden. She felt well and truly loved.

‘As you can see, we kept him locked in the shed without food or water,’ Jono said, solemnly.

‘We didn’t give him a walk or a pat the whole three months you were away,’ said Laine.

‘I’m sure he had a wonderful weekend with you two,’ Julia said, patting the chocolate blur as it whizzed by. ‘Yes, I’m happy to see you, too. Good boy. Settle down now, Jakey.’

‘Bit rude, actually, if you ask me,’ Jono said, sadly. ‘I was his best friend until ten minutes ago. Hey Jake? Even after the late-night sausage snacks? The cuddles in bed…Oops, sorry Julia.’

Leo greeted Sean with a happy whine and a frantic wagging of his tail, but didn’t feel the need to knock over bits of furniture or bruise shins. Sean patted him and played with his silky ears, and opened the car door for him to jump in.

‘I’m going to go straight off. I need to be getting home,’ he said. ‘Thank you for a lovely weekend.’

Julia gave him a quick hug and a peck of a kiss. ‘And thank you .’

Sean turned to the young folks. ‘And thanks for looking after all the animals.’

‘No problem, it was fun,’ said Laine, putting her arm through Jono’s. ‘Shall we get going too?’

Much as she loved them all, Julia was pleased to see everyone go. ‘I’ve become such a homebody,’ she said to Jake. ‘I’m all peopled out. I am so looking forward to a quiet afternoon all to myself. And with you, of course. You and the other animals, but no humans. No talking.’

Having tossed some dirty clothes into the washing machine, she went out into the garden to let the chickens out for a scratch, and to see how the plants were doing.

There was always something new to see, even after a couple of days, and even in winter.

That was one of the lovely things about gardens.

Chaplin followed her, trying to look as if he happened to be going for a walk which happened to be in the same direction as hers.

‘Funny boy, come here, ksksks… ’ Julia sat on the low stone bench in the kitchen garden, watching the chickens peck about.

The cat jumped up next to her, sitting close enough that she could feel the rumble in his ribs against her thigh.

Much as she resisted it, her mind couldn’t help but turn towards London.

More specifically, to what David had said about Ken, the bitter, out-of-control band member.

Two people were dead, both killed in the same way.

And both had been members of a band in their youth – the local band that had almost made it big time.

And one of the surviving members was bitter.

He would have been on the list of suspects, if the deaths had occurred forty years ago.

Maybe even more recently, if he didn’t live hundreds of miles away.

But she was being silly – the fact of the matter was that the band had dissolved forty years ago, and angry Ken lived in Scotland, not down the road in Edgeley or the likes.

She closed her eyes, listening to the chickens’ contented clucking and the cat’s purring, and enjoying the peace.

‘Oh, you’re home!’

Julia opened her eyes to see Hester peering over the wall that separated the two gardens.

‘Thank goodness. I want to talk to you about something. Can I come over?’ asked Hester.

‘Yes, of course, please do.’ Julia sighed quietly to herself.

She didn’t feel like having a visitor, not at all.

But Hester was a neighbour, and a new widow, and of course she could come over if she felt like some company.

Hester’s head disappeared from the wall, and reappeared – along with the rest of her – coming down the garden path towards Julia’s house.

Julia shifted up, and patted the bench beside her. Hester sat down with a groan. ‘How are you, Hester?’ Julia asked, with genuine concern. Hester looked tired and pale, and about ten years older than the enthusiastic honey seller Julia remembered from the Christmas market just a few weeks earlier.

‘Oh well, you know…Putting one foot in front of the other. I decided to make a start on some paperwork, try to get to grips with the dreaded admin. I thought it would make me feel better. I’ve been going through Matthew’s papers.’

‘Ah, well, that sounds like a good step forward. It can be hard, though, I’m sure.

A lot to think about, and decisions to be made.

And it’s all so personal, somehow. Seeing his handwriting, all the everyday things…

’ Julia sighed, remembering how hard it had been when her much beloved mother had died.

‘Yes, there’s that. But, there’s something more…Something…strange.’

Hester stopped. Just when Julia thought she’d changed her mind about speaking about whatever was bothering her, Hester continued: ‘I don’t know who to speak to about this.

I don’t want to make a drama, and lord knows I’ve got enough to worry about, but there’s something… Can we keep this between us?’

‘Of course.’ Hester looked worried, and Julia tried to use her most reassuring social worker voice.

‘There’s less money than I thought. Our retirement money…It wasn’t a fortune, but we’d saved up a bit here and there since we were young, and we didn’t touch the interest, so it added up over time. But half the money is gone.’

‘Gone? Did you check the transactions?’

‘Yes, it turns out Matthew took it out about two months ago. I don’t look at the account very often. We just leave it there, pop in what we can. The notifications go to Matthew’s phone, so I didn’t notice. But it’s gone.’ Hester looked like she might cry.

‘And he didn’t say anything?’ asked Julia,

‘No.’

‘Who did he transfer it to?’

‘The bank account is just letters. AAI. I have racked my brains as to who that might be, but I can’t think of anyone. A name, a company.’

Hester shrugged. ‘I have no idea.’

‘Did the two of you talk about money?’

‘We talked about everything! Well, I thought we did. If you’d asked me yesterday, I’d have said there were no secrets between us, but now…

I’m driving myself mad thinking about what could be going on.

Was he being blackmailed? Or was there another woman?

Or an illegitimate child who just turned up out of the blue?

It’s just not like Matthew, not Matthew at all.

’ She paused and sighed. ‘But I suppose everyone says that, don’t they?

When the terrible truth finally comes out. ’

‘Now, let’s not jump to conclusions. It might have been an investment, or something to do with the business. Let’s think about this logically and see what we can find out.’

‘That’s why I came to you, Julia. I know you’re good at this sort of thing. Should we go to the bank?’

‘We might have to do that, Hester. But we can likely find out for ourselves. Go and get his phone and laptop. Let’s do some digging.’

Julia had thought that a simple search of ‘AAI’ on Matthew’s email and phone might find her the solution, but this was not to be.

On Matthew’s phone, a search of AAI brought up his Dutch friend Willem Kraaij, who rather enjoyed sending Matthew articles about bees, but also wasps and mosquitos and spiders.

Hester did not think that Willem was the answer to the riddle.

Julia then looked at all the ‘A’ contacts on Matthew’s phone and emails, but who could tell?

Was AAI Anne Jones, or Anton Delaware, or perhaps George Adams?

The list was endless – it could be anyone.

It was only when Julia widened the search to related keywords – ‘money’, ‘invest’, ‘payment’ and so on – that she had success. On the laptop, the search turned up an email trail with someone by the name of Anthony Ardmore, of the company Ardmore Accelerated Investments.

‘AAI,’ said Julia, triumphantly. ‘Got ya!’

Julia opened the first email, with the subject line: Investment opportunity . ‘Here we go,’ she said, turning the laptop towards Hester. They had moved inside, as the afternoon temperature had plummeted, and they were now at the kitchen table. ‘Do you recognise the name Anthony Ardmore?’

‘No, I’ve never heard of him,’ Hester said weakly.

‘Well, let’s see what he’s got to say, shall we?’

The two women read on. The emails were enough to give Julia a headache.

It all sounded rather complicated. Anthony Ardmore – why did that name ring a bell?

– was offering Matthew some kind of investment opportunity that was somehow related to the farming of medicinal plants.

From what Julia could make out, Ardmore Accelerated Investments would invest in a number of different farming opportunities for medicinal plants such as turmeric, garlic and African potato.

What differentiates us from our competitors , read an early email, is that we have the inside track on cutting-edge drug development in the US.

A number of innovative and revolutionary dread disease drugs have recently been passed by the FDA, with our targeted ingredients as the primary active ingredients.

Big Pharm is keeping this silent – but now you are in on the opportunity!

Julia read the emails with a sinking heart.

In her life as a social worker, she had seen too many elderly people taken in by get-rich-quick schemes – some clearly daylight robbery, like the old lady who had been sending her Facebook friend, Harrison Ford, a thousand pounds a month to help him rescue squirrels.

Others were murkier, ideas that on the surface sounded slightly credible, but when you unpacked them, came to nothing.

She would never forget the desperate grandmother who had invested her small inheritance in a natural toothpaste.

She hoped that Matthew had not been taken in by something like that, but she didn’t know enough about developments in the world of medicine to say for sure.

‘He really pushed the deal, didn’t he?’ said Hester, reading one of the emails from Anthony Ardmore over Julia’s shoulder. You can see why my Matthew might have been taken in by it.’

Julia felt a deep sadness for the woman beside her, who loved her husband so much she was justifying his foolish choices even after his death.

But it was true that Anthony Ardmore was a hard-sell kind of guy.

Matthew was fortunate to be ‘getting in on the ground floor’, which would result in ‘first-move advantage’ and ‘maximum returns on investment’.

This was something Matthew seemed very excited about.

He had thanked Ardmore profusely for the great opportunity, and assured him that the money would be transferred before the end of the day.

A lamb to the slaughter, was the phrase that came to mind.

‘Have you finished reading this?’ Julia asked Hester, grimly.

Hester nodded. She looked shaken.

Julia was about the close the document outlining the convoluted workings of the investment proposition when she noticed another name. Someone else had been cc’d in on one of the emails. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw who it was.

Lewis Band.

‘Hester, you are going to have to take this to the police,’ Julia said firmly.

‘The police? Whyever…’

‘Look here.’ Julia pointed at the address field.

‘Lewis Band?’ said Hester, with a frown. ‘Isn’t that a strange coincidence? The police said that they think there could be a connection between their deaths, and now we find he was involved in the same investment. I wonder how that happened?’

‘Hester, it’s too much of a coincidence. Don’t you think there might be a connection between the investment and the deaths?’

‘How could this money thing be connected to the accidents?’ Hester asked, as if this was an absurd notion. She was still using that term, ‘accident’, as if her husband had tripped on a kerb or dropped a vase on his foot.

‘I don’t know. That’s why we need to speak to Hayley. This whole situation is…unusual.’

‘No,’ said Hester, shaking her head. ‘I’m not going to the police.

I don’t want all sorts of people knowing our business.

Poking around in our private affairs. Matthew wouldn’t like it, that’s for sure.

I’m going to find this Anthony Ardmore fellow – in fact, his address is right here on the email.

I’ll pop in tomorrow.’ She paused and then nodded to herself, approving her own plan.

‘I’ll tell him what happened to Matthew, find out what it was he invested in, and explain that I need the money back.

I’m sure he’ll understand. Who knows? The money might even have increased already in the time it’s been there. ’

Hester smiled in happy anticipation of this positive outcome.

Julia was no financial genius, but it was clear to her that Hester and Matthew were absolute babes in the wood.

Lewis, too, presumably. Julia did not have a good feeling about this.

Not good at all. She suspected that Mr Ardmore had seen them coming. Or lured them in.

She gave it one more try: ‘Hester, you asked me to help, so please listen to me. I really think this is something for the authorities.’

Hester seemed determined to ignore Julia’s advice. ‘Thank you, Julia. I really appreciate you helping me find out what happened to the money. It’s such a relief. I’m sure Mr Ardmore will do the right thing. I will go over there tomorrow.’

Julia gave a resigned sort of sigh. She knew herself. She knew there was only one way this was going to go. ‘All right, then…If you insist on visiting Mr Ardmore, then I’m coming with you.’